Centrally located kitchen has great looks and also achieves a feeling of intimacy, despite its open, light-filled surroundings

Let there be light, runs the design adage, but what if the space allocated for your kitchen is already awash with natural light? Well, as with this clean-lined kitchen by whole-house architect Wulf Borrmeister, a different emphasis may apply.

The home was created for a developer who Borrmeister Architects had worked with before. Because of this prior connection, Borrmeister was to a degree given free design range on both the home and to an extent the generous kitchen.

“Being an investment build, the house had to offer a broad appeal and be well-suited for both family and entertaining,” he says. 

“And the kitchen naturally plays a pivotal part in this, being centrally located at one end of the long, fully glazed, open-plan indoor-outdoor kitchen, living room and dining zone,” says Borrmeister.

“Essentially, we wanted the centrally located kitchen to have great looks and also achieve a feeling of intimacy, despite its open, light-filled surroundings. 

However, it was important also that the kitchen kept its own sense of identity.

”To achieve all this, the architect created both the kitchen and the scullery behind as a distinct modern black insertion within the light-filled volume, which includes a double-height void.

"And with so much natural light in the entertainment zone already, we could afford to finish the kitchen in dramatic black – both serving to downplay it within the large space and also giving it an intimate feel.”

The perimeter cabinetry and bulkhead are in black-stained American white oak, with a warm wood veneer used on the front of the island, including for the corner display shelving. The veneer’s timber tone connects with the adjacent wood dining table, as well as built-in wooden shelving at the far end of the room.

With minimalist touches like push-to-open cabinet handles and recessed pulls, along with black fittings, a black glass splashback and fully integrated fridge, the kitchen really does recede to the eye. Even the scullery door is disguised as a panel to the left of the perimeter benchtop.

In contrast to the kitchen’s demonstrably dark livery, the  same-size scullery is all in white.

Story by: Charles Moxham

Photography by: Sarah Rowlands