From Cluttered to Contemporary Kitchen Design

Lyn Wong’s kitchen is the heart of her home. It’s where she spends hours cooking and where she entertains family and friends. But it was missing three key things; space, storage and practicality.

“In its day the kitchen we had would have been amazing and really eye catching but there were a lot of things in the kitchen that were purely decorative and just not practical,” she says. “I knew that there was a better way to use the available space and make the kitchen more functional.”

Jag Kitchens design consultant Hannah Brown had no trouble bringing Lyn and her husband Darrell’s vision to life. The new kitchen is simple, modern and well-designed. Blue and timber accents as well as dated cabinets were replaced with warm, earthy tones and textures.

A crisp white was chosen as the base colour, and was brought to life with a seamless combination of dark, warm grey cabinets and light brown timber wall cabinets and bar-back. The 30mm Angola Black granite bench top and sleek stainless steel appliances gave the kitchen its stylish and modern edge.

“A lot of the furniture in our home is heavy looking and with my husband’s love of hunting a lot of our decor is quite rugged so we wanted the kitchen to compliment that,” Lyn explains.

Kitchen designer Hannah mentions the kitchen had not been re-decorated since the house was built in the 90’s. “The original kitchen had every design feature possible thrown in together with open shelves, wine racks, exposed drawers and blue wooden handles,” she says.

The original kitchen’s footprint was used and the layout stayed relatively the same. “The main focus was that the cooktop was on the angle of the benchtop and we wanted to move this to a straight wall for ease of cooking and also to add a powerful range-hood which is very important with Chinese cooking,” says Hannah.

While the layout stayed relatively the same, the fridge was moved to the end of the kitchen so that people could access quickly and easily. The pantry was made larger and a pull-out pantry was also added to maximise space and make reaching for ingredients easy. The sleek new cabinetry goes up to the ceiling, making good use of the storage space and giving the kitchen a seamless look.

The kitchen features lots of drawers with Blum Orgaline Utensil and Cutlery inserts so everything has its own place. “We have a corner bi-fold pantry where the benchtop runs through the cabinet so she can have appliances plugged in and close the doors to hide any mess,” says Hannah.

A Hafele Cooking Agent Pullout for oils and spices, which are used frequently in Chinese cooking, was put in near the cooktop for easy access. Lyn says working with Hannah and the Jag Kitchens team was effortless and the kitchen design came together just as she had hoped.

“They had lots of ideas and advice and made sure they took into account everything we wanted for our kitchen,” Lyn says. “They were happy for us to use our own tradesmen as well, which was great at helping us keep the costs down.

“The new kitchen is everything I imagined and I definitely have a lot more storage,” she smiles.

Jag Kitchens specialise in custom-designed kitchens and have their own manufacturing plant. The staff also use a state-of- the-art 3D computer design programme to show clients beforehand exactly how their new kitchen will look.

Jag Kitchens has an excellent reputation for designing and building for all budgets and for providing an outstanding design service with sound advice. Their professional design quotes are free of charge.

Visit the Jag Kitchens Showroom, located inside the Danske Mobler building at the Botany Town Centre, for more information on a wide range of materials and design options or to see more kitchen examples.