Two fully functional kitchens sit back-to-back in this expansive lakeside home

It's not unusual these days for a home to have two kitchen areas, with the main kitchen out front plus a pantry or scullery out back for storage or some of the messier aspects of cooking or clean-up. Most often, the back kitchen is very much a secondary space, tucked away in an enclosed room with little or no natural light.

The large lakeside home featured here has two kitchens but they are a far cry from that typical arrangement.

Created by designer Mick De Giulio, the two substantial kitchens sit back to back, both fully equipped and functioning, and both spacious and light-filled.

De Giulio says he was fortunate that the home's architect, Michael Abraham, came to him about the kitchen early in the design process.

"He sketched out the footprint of the house and indicated an approximate position for the kitchen, and let me decide what I wanted to do," says De Giulio.

He describes his resulting design as a layered kitchen, with one layer used for everyday living and another layer for entertaining the owners own a thriving chocolate business, so often have a chef in the house to entertain clients.

"My intention was to make the back kitchen every bit as good as the front kitchen," he says

"We had the great advantage of having light streaming in both sides, and I didn't want to take away from that. So I developed the idea of putting the back kitchen in a conservatory-style framework of glass so there was no cut down of light at all."

While both kitchens are fully equipped and have designated functions, there is in fact a great deal of flexibility in usage between them. The back kitchen can be used by caterers for a party, but it also accommodates the coffee machine and small countertop appliances to keep these out of the living space.

Flexibility was also built into the way the two kitchens connect.

The glass transom around the top of both kitchens means there is always a visual connection between them, as do the glass doors on both sides. But these doors can also pocket into the wall to give a greater physical connection.

Similarly, stone splashback panels next to the doors can slide back to give even more openness between the two spaces.

There's also a continuity in the materials used in the two kitchens. The dark wood cabinetry in the living kitchen is matt eucalyptus, while in the entertaining kitchen lightly textured Siematic Truffle Brown woodgrain laminate was used.

"They don't match exactly, but they do look really good together," says De Giulio.

Story by: Paul Taylor

Photography by: Dave Burk