Mr Blush: Apartment kitchen ‘on a shoestring’ wows
Stuff Kitchen of the Week projects are often award-winning kitchens with large budgets. But this week, it’s a new kitchen in a tiny one-bedroom apartment that has us hooked - the owner says it has changed her life.
This beauty came in well under $25,000, which included all the “bells and whistles”, and all the work involved moving the kitchen and services from the back of the unit to the front.
Designer Katie Scott of Sticks + Stones Design says the apartment is one of five in a single-storey, shotgun-style infill development in St Marys Bay, Auckland, built in the 1970s.
“Typical of that style, it is fronted by a full-height, full-width ranchslider, which opens straight out onto a shared driveway. It had a simple, square, four-room configuration, with the bedroom and living at the front and the kitchen and bathroom at the rear. Being concrete block on a concrete floor, it was very limited to what could and could not be done.”
Scott says the owner wasn’t happy with the layout: “Because her bedroom was at the front, she couldn’t sleep for the noise from the street, so we decided to move the bedroom to the back where it was more private, quieter and darker.
“This meant we could bring the kitchen to the front of the apartment to create an open-plan living space - essentially we flipped the layout to create a more functional living environment, with lots of natural light.”
‘Virtually zero budget’
Scott says her client lives alone and is a colourful character. “She didn’t want a plain kitchen. Other than that, I was given free rein, except for the budget, which was very tight – virtually zero budget, actually.
“This plan came with challenges – primarily because of the concrete construction and the restrictions with plumbing. There was also the body corp to deal with.
“To connect the kitchen plumbing (and get the correct fall), we had to pack out a wall in the new bedroom. This determined the position of the sink and dishwasher in the new kitchen - that was the starting point. Also, for extraction, the cooking area needed to be placed next to the outside wall.”
Addressing the tight budget, the designer lined the new wall between the kitchen and the bedroom with cost-effective, grooved plywood, which was then stained in a blush pink.
The cabinetry is Melteca Porcelain Blush, which, as the name suggests, is a peachy-pink colour. This is teamed with Melteca birch ply for contrast. Scott says the design of the cabinetry was kept basic, so it would be cost-effective to fabricate.
‘We made things work with what we had’
“The quartzite benchtop was a reject cut-off, which I acquired for the fabrication cost. And the hard-wearing black granite in the cooking area was also a reject we found by rummaging through the off-cut bin at the stone yard. We made things work with what we had.”
Curve details in the waterfall end of the peninsula and the splashback give the kitchen a little point of difference.
“Because it’s very much on show, the curved end is the first thing you see when you walk into the apartment. It didn’t cost much more, but it made the space feel more unique.”
The kitchen is finished with black accents – tap, sink, handles, wall light, and an aluminium LED channel on the ceiling, which the electrician made. The black Bellini oven is secondhand.
“We also ripped up the original terracotta floors to reveal the raw concrete, which we then polished.”
With stools pulled up, the peninsula doubles as an informal dining area.
“This is not simply a kitchen upgrade; it has completely changed how my client lives.”