Long island key

A long, linear island and dramatic tones give this kitchen a centre-of-attention presence – with the odd existing negative turned into a positive

The designer set about mapping out the space

This long island design worked well in the

A lineal suspended LED pendant draws the attention

As the ceiling was opened completely up and

Two different smooth granites feature on the benchtops

The rear wall of cabinetry is handless except

Some space was borrowed from the existing laundry

The walk-in pantry was designed to hide all

A barn style door rolls across to conceal

Designed by Damian Hannah, German Kitchens

From the designer:

Design brief

The design brief was simple – just give me a kitchen that is functional and works within the space.

My homeowner was undergoing a large renovation of their home and part of this was opening up the small kitchen and connecting with the adjacent living room and formal dining.

The room was long and narrow and the previous kitchen had a U shape design literally in the middle of the room.

I set about mapping out the space and every other design concept did not have as much flow, space or useable worksurface as the large long lineal island.

This design worked well in the space and with all the floor to ceiling windows along the external wall made use of the space and natural light.

There was a little bit of space that we could steal from the laundry that backed onto the kitchen so we finished the tall cabinetry a little short and built in a walk-in pantry.

This allowed for the pantry to hide away all the small appliances and pantry items and we even managed to fit a second sink in this room thanks to the laundry plumbing.

As the island was the main feature, we hand-picked a brown silk granite as this had some exquisite movement through the material and added to the lineal aspect.

The island was so long we had to find a solution to book-match two slabs together and this was done around the structural post that we had tried in vain to remove.

Some small challenges to get across the line

As the ceiling was opened completely up and was angled, we had the issue of dealing with the extraction and this does not normally like angled ceilings.

We were also fearful of the rangehood being too dominant within the space.

I investigated the possibility of downdraft ventilation and the rear riser was the most logical solution.

This then caused quite a few meetings with the builder to make sure we had enough ground clearance below to fit the ducting in.

Due to the floor joists and piles being very low to the ground we had to run the ducting in one direction with the joists and this involved lifting most of the floor boards to achieve this.

The other challenge was the structural post that holds the roof up and we investigated removing this from the room, but unfortunately after getting the engineer’s report and the builder’s costings this proved cost prohibitive.

Therefore, rather than hide the post we made it a feature within the kitchen and built the island completely around the post.

The benchtop swallows the post up and the base cabinetry below is literally built around the post.

This allowed the post not to become a feature or an eye-sore within the design.

With the adroit positioning of the lineal suspended LED light that sits in front of the post, attention is further taken away from the structural element.

The tall wall of cabinetry was also designed to run all the way to the ceiling with ventilation grills positioned at the top and bottom to allow the required air circulation for all of the integrated appliances.

The dark metal effect matt lacquer was specified for all of the kitchen cabinetry and this has a unique Corten finish which makes the door fronts look like steel.

The entire tall wall of cabinetry was designed to be handless except for the integrated fridge and freezer which has handles perfectly matched with the handles from the Gaggenau appliances, creating a balanced but slight asymmetric design to this wall.

The walk-in pantry was designed to hide all the small appliances away, as with the large islands you still need somewhere for the appliances and as mentioned we were able to borrow some room from the adjacent laundry.

This involved some thinking around how much space we required within the pantry and how much space was required in the laundry.

The cabinetry and benchtop colours were changed from the kitchen to make it lighter and brighter and the electrical track was specified and mounted into the granite splashback to allow the small appliances to be plugged in any location and easily switched off or adjusted to a sensible height.

The illuminated sockets add another design feature.