Kitchen evolution

Principle 7: Design from patterns to details

While the kitchen design seemed simple enough in our plan, the construction and finessing has taken quite a bit of time. The basic plan was to have a long bench with sink facing the north window. Behind is the cool cupboard, pantry, bench and gas stove (more about that later).
I was originally thinking of building the kitchen units, but time was not on my side. With a baby due, and a homebirth planned, I decided to purchase a flat pack kitchen from Ikea. We liked the idea of having a wide bench with deep drawers to store things underneath. Drawers allow much easier access to items up the back, but are much more difficult to build than just cupboard doors.While frustrating to deal with instore, the Ikea kitchen drawers have turned out great.

Kitchen walls being oiled before varnishing, using Bio Paints

Kick board made on site, with flatpack kitchen units and draws fitted on top

  
Mark having a think about the next step

I had my own ideas for the kickboard, sink and benchtop - which complimented the drawers nicely. The kickboard was made up from the same pine that I used to make the skirting and architraves. The benchtop was one of the slabs from the Red Gum that was felled on site. I cut it down to 600mm wide so that it would fit through the thicknesser at Chris's Timber. Gaps were filled using resin and sawdust, and it was sanded back to a 200 grit finish. The slab was cut into two sections and a 50mm strip was added to the back to bring it up to 650mm wide, so that it overlapped the drawers. Two strips were cut from left over decking boards which fit either side of the second hand sink that was picked up from the tip. Left over tiles were used for the splash back, and a couple of boards with interesting edges were used for shelving. A slat blind (picked up at a garage sale for A$20) was added for character.

  
Red Gum slab taped up in preparation for resin / sawdust mix to fill large gap

  
Kitchen bench slab after gaps filled and oiled

  
Splash back using tiles with brackets fitted behind for Red Gum shelf

  
Peter fits the bench sections together using dowel joints

  
Finshed kitchen bench, with drawers underneath for easy access

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