Underneath the arches

Designed by Carmen Hansberry-Kennedy, Carmen Hansberry Design

From the designer:

Owner brief

This kitchen forms part of a comprehensive rear extension and interior reconfiguration to an existing residence in Mount Pleasant. 

The brief centred on transforming a fragmented layout into a cohesive, high-end entertaining home, capable of supporting both everyday family life and large gatherings of up to 25 guests.

At its core, the project sought to reimagine the rear of the home as a unified living domain, integrating kitchen, dining, bar, and alfresco into a seamless spatial experience. 

The homeowners envisioned a space that would feel open, warm, and connected, while maintaining a refined and timeless aesthetic.

A key requirement was the delivery of a highly functional kitchen and scullery arrangement, where the primary kitchen would remain visually calm and uncluttered, supported by a secondary workspace capable of accommodating the intensity of food preparation and clean-up during entertaining.

The brief further called for:

• A resolved open-plan environment with strong connection to adjacent living spaces
• A generous island to support both preparation and social interaction
• Efficient appliance planning to enable high-volume use
• Integration of a cohesive bar and large-scale dining zone
• A restrained, modern material palette that would endure over time

Design rationale

The design response is grounded in the principle of clarity through separation, allowing the kitchen to operate at a high functional capacity while maintaining a composed and refined presence within the home.

The rear extension provided the opportunity to reconfigure the plan into a more resolved geometry, establishing a clear and efficient spatial arrangement. 

The kitchen is positioned within a unified composition alongside the dining, bar, and alfresco zones, reinforcing its role as the central organising element of the home.

A key planning move was the establishment of a front-of-house and back-of-house relationship between the kitchen and scullery. 

The primary kitchen is expressed as a clean, open volume within the living space, while the scullery accommodates more intensive preparation, secondary cooking, and cleaning functions. 

This allows the main kitchen to remain visually controlled, even during peak use.

The island is conceived as both a functional workstation and social anchor, proportioned to support preparation, seating, and circulation simultaneously. 

Its central placement reinforces visual and physical connections across the open-plan environment, ensuring the kitchen remains fully integrated with adjacent spaces.

Joinery is resolved as a series of integrated architectural volumes, with tall elements consolidated to minimise visual disruption. 

Appliances are fully integrated wherever possible, allowing materiality and proportion to define the space. 

Internal storage is meticulously planned to support the owners’ lifestyle while maintaining overall clarity.

The material palette is restrained, relying on tonal variation and subtle contrast to create depth. 

Soft, light-reflective finishes are balanced with deeper elements, establishing a sense of permanence and cohesion with the broader interior scheme.

Lighting is layered and integrated, supporting both task-based functionality and ambient atmosphere. 

This ensures the kitchen performs equally well as a workspace and as part of the home’s entertaining environment.

Key design moves

A defining move within the project is the separation of functional intensity from visual experience. 

By positioning a fully equipped scullery directly behind the kitchen, the design enables high-performance use without compromising the clarity of the primary space.

This is further reinforced through the introduction of dual entry points flanking the main cooktop elevation, allowing multiple users to circulate efficiently and work concurrently. 

This planning move also establishes a direct connection to the outdoor alfresco kitchen, minimising bottlenecks and supporting seamless indoor-outdoor entertaining.

The entry openings are resolved as arched forms, using the same radius as the primary kitchen feature arch, creating a subtle continuity of geometry. 

This repetition establishes a cohesive architectural language across the space, an understated move that reinforces balance and visual harmony.

The over-scaled island operates as both infrastructure and interface, supporting multiple simultaneous uses while anchoring the spatial composition and reinforcing the kitchen’s role as a social hub.

A further move is the treatment of joinery as architectural form, with appliances and storage fully integrated to minimise visual noise and create a cohesive, enduring outcome.

Outcome

The kitchen achieves a considered balance between performance and restraint, delivering a space that is highly functional yet architecturally composed.

Through disciplined planning, spatial clarity, and refined detailing, the design resolves the competing demands of scale, usability, and aesthetics. 

Functional intensity is carefully absorbed within the scullery, allowing the primary kitchen to maintain a calm and ordered presence, even during large-scale entertaining.

The result is a kitchen that operates effortlessly across both everyday use and high-volume hosting, elevating it beyond functional necessity to a refined architectural centrepiece within the home.

Story by: Trendsideas