Plywood Kitchen with concrete bench top

Brief:

The brief for this kitchen was very specific. Our clients had put a lot of thought into what they wanted, their brief included:

Design and build a sustainable kitchen to complement their impending custom built sustainable house.
Create a 1960’s retro style look and feel with a display area for a collection of glasses and bowls
Incorporate the normal kitchen appliances and functions with allowances for a built-in meat slicer as well as a study area and
Access to doors and drawers with finger pulls rather than handles and
The use of a specific shaped element – which resulted in the feature handles.

Result:

The end design has achieved a contemporary kitchen with a retro twist. The kitchen has several zones to it:

The immediate kitchen/bench top zone.

The study and cooking zone and the

Double sided angular shelves and display shelves on the other side of the kitchen.

The immediate kitchen area includes the breakfast bar/island bench with plywood cabinetry and a 75mm custom made white concrete bench top. The bench top has been poured in one piece at a length of 3.3m to – a challenge to achieve – but well worth the result.

Simple rectangular cut-outs create finger pulls for opening drawers and cupboards, except for the feature handles using sparingly in the kitchen. The feature handles are sculptured recycled timber handles – our clients had wanted the shape included and were open to its interpretation in the kitchen.

The meat slicer fits into a top drawer for ease of use and the kitchen also has a 5L hot water system located in the island bench to allow instant hot water for the bench. The hot water system is easily accessed by removing the drawers in front of the system.

The study area is at the far side of the cooking zone, at a reduced height.

A line of high cupboards above the study/cooking zone, allows room for storage and display shelving on either side.

In the lounge room, lower display shelving complements the higher angled shelving.

Materials: