daring the details

Initially the kitchen was going to be renovated within the existing structure – pushing through a walk in pantry and a large laundry – the sunniest room in the house and a complete waste of space! But with a growing family came the need for another bedroom, more living space, and a larger bathroom, so the best solution was to grow the house too, adding 60 square metres.

High on the wish list was a kitchen and living space where the whole family and friends could be together without being on top of each other. Storage, storage and more storage was also high on the priority list. Once scattered throughout the house, the new custom made bookcase brings together all books in one place and makes them a feature.

As the room is large with high ceilings, it had the potential to look like a big white box. Interest has been created by painting the bookcase a dark colour using Resene Double Tuna (deep grey). Wanting a slightly chalky look, rather than the semi-gloss of the kitchen joinery, the bookcase wall has been painted in Resene Lumbersider low sheen – the builders thought it was a mad request, but were won over by the finished wall.

The rest of the colour palette is soft with Resene Bianca (cream off-white) on walls (Resene SpaceCote Low Sheen), trims (Resene Lustacryl) and floor (Resene Walk-on) complemented by Resene Alabaster (blackened white) on the ceiling. The kitchen is handpainted, which gives the joinery a real finished look.

Window/door joinery and cornice/skirtings were carefully chosen to ensure that they looked like they had always been there. The floor needed to look the same as the original floor in the rest of the house, which meant asking the builders to ensure there were gaps between the new floorboards and not filling the nail holes, a very unique request! The builders spent hours using a credit card to keep all the gaps the same. The painter was then very careful not to fill the gaps with paint. The effort was worth it with the new seamlessly blending into the old.

Architectural specifier: Designed by Bridget Foley Design, drawn up for council by John Sutherland, Architectural Designer
Building contractor: Martin Goulden Builders
Joinery: Wainui Joinery
Painting contractor: Kevin Bellman
Project: Resene Total Colour Awards 2015
From the Resene News – issue 3/2016