The case of the vanishing kitchen

Designed by Damian Hannah, German Kitchens

From the kitchen designer:

Project brief

My homeowner was building their forever home on a rural lifestyle block that was surrounded by maize fields and were after their dream kitchen.

The home was to be very modern and the kitchen had to work with their contemporary interiors and integrate with their lifestyle.

As the kitchen was very much a part of their living area, they were concerned about the overall appearance and did not want too many appliances on display.

A scullery was also on their wish list but they had no idea how to integrate this into the kitchen without it looking like a scullery.

During the planning stage I offered many different design options and the scullery was proposed to be positioned at the back of the room through a sliding door so as to almost become invisible and look and appear as if it was another room and not an extension of the kitchen.

I then set about laying the island through the middle of the room to create plenty of space around the island for flow and ergonomics.

This left me with a large back wall that faced out to the maize fields and this is where I positioned all the tall cabinetry.

Taking on board my owners’ wishes, I designed a large quadruple pocket door system that can open completely up to expose the hidden ovens and cooktop.

When closed, this large pocket door system allowed the kitchen to seem like a large cabinet or piece of furniture, integrating all of the appliances as desired.

To achieve this door system we had to work on the finer details of the folding doors to allow them to bi-fold and then still return into the dedicated niche.

This mechanism required a lot of fine tuning and detail.

We worked on the large, full height doors to allow less joins and detail and the doors were made from rough sawn timber to keep with the country theme.

We also had to create enough ventilation for the appliances operating behind the pocket doors and allow the right ergonomics for operating the cooktop and ovens in an enclosed space.

The design allowed us to completely hide all of the appliances which is not normally achieved.

Most often, the ovens and cooktops are still left on display but with the large pocket door system we could find enough room for these appliances to be hidden when not in use.

The impression left for my owners is of the large piece of furniture that they desired with the complete integration of their appliances as well as a scullery that is very functional, yet when the door is closed does not look like it is part of the kitchen at all.

The removed scullery and hidden pocket door system have together given my homeowners their forever kitchen.

Designed by: Damian Hannah, German Kitchens

Story by: Trendsideas

Photography by: Paul McCredie