Contemporary kitchen design in garden pavilion-style addition open to outdoors

Indoor-outdoor living is a prerequisite for most modern kitchens, but the designer of this renovation project took the concept one step further.

Architect Erik Rudolfsson's extension to the 1940s house created a contemporary garden pavilion, where glass walls peel back to open up the entire kitchen and living area to the outdoors.

To ensure the kitchen would be flooded with natural light, Rudolfsson also introduced polycarbonate glazing to the roof, and lined the ceiling beneath this with white-painted timber slats. The slats continue on the outside, forming a shade canopy while simultaneously blurring the boundary between inside and out. Matching basalt floor tiles also flow between the indoors and outdoors.

The connection is further reinforced by a long low window directly above the perimeter benchtop in the kitchen, which also functions as a glass splashback.

"The window framing is set down below the height of the cabinets to create a seamless appearance," Rudolfsson says.

The white base cabinets are teamed with American oak cabinetry stained in Japan black. A steel strip edge lightens the look and makes the units appear to float above the floor. A tabletop extension to the island is also in dark American oak.

"Because the kitchen doubles as a test kitchen for a newly established catering company, there are two long benchtops and two sinks for food preparation and serving," the architect says. "We essentially created two work triangles a preparation triangle between the full-height cabinets and the island, and a second triangle for cooking further along."

The dark cabinets create a service pod that conceals a full-height pantry, an integrated fridge-freezer and a laundry behind bifolding doors.

Story by: Colleen Hawkes