Kitchen Design- Latest Project- The White House

Minimalist Kitchen Design with Gold Features

The Brief

As with all of our personal design projects I’m always keen to try and create spaces that are different to the last and include unique design details that aren’t too common… which is great in the brainstorming phase but a total pain in the arse come sourcing time. But, it’s these details that make me happy and I secretly enjoy the hustle! Here’s the thinking behind our latest kitchen design.

For this kitchen I wanted an open feel, a very open feel. Because the kitchen is the centre of this house I didn’t really want it to feel “kitcheny” (this is why I love designing for ourselves.. professional terms, meh) and my style I explained to Glenn was “A soft/warm hug”. Yep.

The Kitchen Design

To create this non kitcheny, warm hug design I really needed a clear back wall, including a butlers pantry off to the side was key to allowing me to push forward with no overhead cupboards.

Now I had my plain wall I needed to decide upon what material to use as the splashback. I wanted a seemless look so tiles were off the cards, I wanted a matte finish so anything glass/mirror related was scrapped. I finally came across the product OF MY DREAMS. Rockcote Marakesh Render- matte YES, textured YES, minimal YES, appropriate for a splashback YES.

Once I’d locked in the Marakesh render the rest of the design was kept minimal with a simple island bench and back bench. Although I do love me some feature pendant lights, the space really needed an open feeling and choosing to add a bulkhead or hanging pendant lights would really refine the space which wouldn’t have worked in this layout, some simple ceiling mounted lights and I was done.

The Details

I’m not the only one that gets excited over details, this is my thing. So when it came to choosing a stone for the benchtops I was like a little girl in a candy shop. I’d narrowed my choices down to 3 favourites from the Caesarstone collection all of which could have looked amazing. It wasn’t until our local Caesarstone rep dropped by and told me that there were NEW stones coming out the following month (you know I love a new look), I was sold before I even got to see the samples! Once the samples arrived I FELL IN LOVE, not a little lust crush, it was TRUE LOVE.

Tuscan Dawn was the initial sample that took my breath away, it was a totally different colour to what I had planned for the house but once I saw it I knew I had to hustle to make everything revolve around this stone. My whites and greys were now creams and beiges- it was a fair bit of work in re-designing but it was totally worth it. Once we’d changed around all the colours we selected Nordic Loft as a complementing stone for the back bench. Although I do love the look of matching stone on both island and back benches the Nordic Loft was a perfect complementing stone as it had small flakes of beige tones and a creamy base which allowed the island bench to really steal the show.

The Results

After having now spent a few months living in the home I’m still loving the layout of the kitchen design. Having a butlers pantry is amazing and the minimalist look makes our living area feel very soft (like a warm hug- surely someone out there knows the look/feel I’m talking about).