The starting point for the look and feel of a new kitchen often revolves around the choice of benchtop material.
Starting with Stone
There are seemingly endless options available these days, making it a bewildering task, not only in terms of which material will suit your needs but also in finding the perfect blend of pattern and colour for your tastes.
For the kitchen illustrated on these pages, Phil and Jolanda, who live in a large modern home on Auckland's North Shore, engaged the experience of multi-award-winning Kitchens By Design to help them with the journey to their new kitchen. The brief was to open the new kitchen to the sea views and provide a bar area for entertaining, along with spacious benchtops and plenty of storage. But what about the colour and material palette?
For inspiration, Richard Cripps from Kitchens By Design reached out to his stone supplier and asked them for something special for Jolanda and Phil. And they certainly delivered, he says. “We managed to secure the last two slabs of Patagonia Quartzite — a stunning and unique stone from Brazil. It’s hard, strong, and incredibly resistant to scratches and stains, making it a good choice for a kitchen benchtop.”
“Phil and Jolanda immediately fell in love with it — and what’s not to love?” says Richard. “We wanted the stone to be the hero, so we complemented its earthy, natural tones and patterns with subtle fluted battens made from American white oak. These battens follow the soft curves at the end of the island. The rest of the kitchen was kept white — not to compete with the island but to highlight it.”
Richard says Phil and Jolanda's new kitchen gets good airtime with their friends and visitors. “The highlight for us is hearing how pleased they are with their new kitchen — and that it is the topic of conversation at social occasions.”