Light, white kitchen has adjacent underground wine cellar

While wine fridges have become commonplace kitchen appliances, what do you do when your wine collection is too large for your kitchen to accommodate it? Designer Jason Bonham's answer is a twist on an old one go underground.

For this project, the clients asked Bonham to create a modern entertainers' kitchen that would contrast, yet be respectful of and reference, the 1900s home.

The kitchen is set partly in an extension to the villa and partly in the rear add-on.

"To connect with the original architecture from the new build, we added large skylights, looking up at the classic facade," says Bonham.

The kitchen's white, minimalist cabinetry is combined with white marble benchtops and a white jade marble splashback for a serene feel. The understated tile pattern on the splashback adds texture to the design. Recessed pulls connect with the negative detailing on the island.

"As the couple are avid wine collectors and space was at a premium, we looked abroad and found this spiral cellar solution taking us below ground level for the perfect solution. The cellar has automatic glass doors and is internally lit, creating a dramatic practical feature."

However, this isn't the only instance where the under-floor space was brought into play. Achieving the kitchen's clean, minimalist look involved a lot of behind-the-scenes engineering, detailing and measuring. For example, the Wolf downdraft extractor involved exhausting beneath the floor and behind the walls.

"This project, like much of our work, was reliant on early involvement from the architectural and engineering standpoint. For example, to conceal the extensive services we built bulkheads that appear as part of the architecture the work was detailed but the effect seamless."

Story by: Charles Moxham

Photography by: Mark Scowen