A GREAT ENTERTAINER

A generous kitchen in a renovated villa serves a family and their friends with ease.

Designer . . . . . . . Morgan Cronin Text ............ Penny Lewis Photography . . Kallan Macleod Location . . . . . . . Auckland Brief . . . . . . . . . . . . New kitchen for a villa renovation.

According to designer Morgan Cronin, this kitchen – in a two-storey villa renovation – incorporates many of the current directions in contemporary kitchen design. “Black, black and lots of black,” he says. “And steel, incorporated with planked-grain, wire-brushed oak to soften the intensity.” The extractor and handles are black-on-steel. The ovens, sinks, taps and scullery shelving are also black. To keep the palette neutral, white cabinetry is matched to the Corian benchtop and the walls. Cronin’s clients requested seating at the island for at least four people, preferably five. They also wanted a single oven and steam oven (preferably wall-mounted), a large dishwasher in the kitchen and for existing Fisher & Paykel Dish Drawers to be reused in the scullery. Nib walls and bulkheads frame the cabinetry and allow the traditional scotia to continue from the living and dining room into the kitchen. The black 2.4m-wide custom-designed extractor canopy is a strong feature, designed to suit the proportions of the large kitchen window. The canopy needed to make a strong statement to ensure it wouldn’t be lost in the mass of windows, but it also needed to be fine enough to not impede morning sun flowing into the kitchen, or inhibit the view to the kids playing in the backyard and pool.

Cabinets Planked, wire-brushed American white oak veneer from Prime Panels, stained and polished by Wallace Furniture Finishers; two-pot satin Mirotone polyurethane lacquer to match Resene ‘Sea Fog’, painted by Wallace Furniture Finishers. Drawer/cupboard carcasses Black melamine carcass interiors from Prime Panels. Drawer/ cupboard hardware Legrabox in ‘Terra Black’ by Blum; Hafele rubbish bins and chrome vegetable basket drawer. Benchtops Honed ‘Alarti’ marble from Marmotech in kitchen; ‘Glacier White’ in Corian by Designer Benchtops in scullery. Tapware ‘Elio’ by Dornbracht in black from Metrix in kitchen; Meir MK02 in black from The Kitchen Hub in scullery. Ovens Miele 600mm oven, 600mm warmer drawer and 600mm combi-steam oven from Kouzina Appliances. Cooktop Miele induction. Extractor ‘Powerpack’ by Miele. Kitchen dishwasher Miele fully integrated XL dishwasher. Scullery dishwasher Fisher & Paykel Dish Drawers. Fridge/freezer Two Miele integrated fridge-freezers. Lighting ‘Hex 750’ pendant by Resident, warm-white LED strip lights and Hafele LED spots. Kitchen stools ‘Lem’ by Shin & Tomoko Azumi for Lapalma from ECC.