Hint of retro

Making a kitchen more spacious sometimes has to come from the design detail, rather than from increasing the physical footprint.

Kitchen designer Natalie Du Bois was asked to design a new kitchen for the home featured here. The old kitchen was enclosed and too cramped, but there wasn't a lot of extra space to utilise. Instead, Du Bois opened up the kitchen into the dining area, painted the new cabinetry off-white, and kept the design clean and simple. Slim benchtops and sliding doors on side cabinetry help to make the kitchen seem more roomy, while mosaic tiles on the dining side of the peninsula add character and a touch of colour.

To give the kitchen the slightly quirky, individual look the owners wanted, Du Bois specified Smeg's 50s style Retro refrigerator/freezer in silver. The refrigerator has a capacity of 205 litres and automatic defrost, while the bottom-mount freezer with two drawers has a capacity of 103 litres.

"The Retro style refrigerator is the showpiece of the whole kitchen; it's the point of difference," says the designer.

A 60cm Smeg touch control ceramic cooktop teamed with a 90cm Smeg square box-style rangehood and a 60cm pyrolytic Smeg wall oven fit neatly into the benchtop on the back wall of the kitchen. The cooktop has four heat zones including two dual and nine power level adjustments. The Smeg multifunction oven offers a 68-litre cooking capacity, nine oven functions, and a safe-to-touch, quadruple-glazed glass door.

For more information on Smeg appliances, visit the website: www.applico.co.nz.

Story by: Trendsideas