Timber Kitchen

Here is a recently completed family kitchen that I enjoyed working on earlier this year. At our initial meeting, my client stated that she was not after a white kitchen with minimal lines for her villa home - she said this was not her or character of the house. She later explained what she was after was 'Rock'n'Roll Nana' - a great description, right? She is an artist who wanted a kitchen that looked great, wasn't too precious for her creative family and to have her collection of teacups and objects on display.
This is the result - a dark stained timber kitchen with touches of white and vintage style cabinet handles. In contrast we used unstained timber for the two display shelves to highlight the collections. The bench top is stainless steel around the working area and the island is completed with a white high pressure laminate. It was great to visit the kitchen today and see the 'life' that it possesses.

Vintage style pull handles

Industrial bar stools for the island

Square white gloss tiles for the splash back

Contrast between the dark stained and unstained timber.

Photographs by Charlotte Minty.

New Work - Residential Furnishings

Here I am finally getting around to taking some photos of recent work! This residence has been an on-going collaboration with Minty Architecture and Design, ie. my architect sister. We have worked with these clients over several years through different design and building stages - it has been great seeing how this home has progressed. Earlier this year, I worked with the clients on their furnishings for the dining and living areas - here are the results.

Photographs by Charlotte Minty.

Kitchen Under Stairs

Here's a kitchen that I designed and had installed earlier this year.
Part of this kitchen is located under the stairs and the previous layout had the fridge and storage here - it was awkward and not well utilised. To solve this, we took the existing stair wall (around the corner) to full height and placed the fridge here, then located the cupboards above right along the back wall. This created more bench top space as well as making it feel  more spacious and streamlined.
A granite bench top was chosen (one half of the client is a geologist so very appropriate) - this one is called Kashmir White and it has dappled garnets throughout. It works beautifully with the white cabinetry.

Photographs by Charlotte Minty.

Completed Work - New Kitchen

If there is one thing that I been doing a bad job of this year, that would be not taking photos of my work after it has been completed. It is so easy to finish a job and move on to the next one without reflecting on the whole process and enjoying the results. Also, interiors can be difficult to photograph! Excuses aside, I have been calling up a few clients and I'll be slowly going around and recording some of the work done this year.
This hardwearing family kitchen is located in a traditional house in Wellington - the client wanted clean lines, lots of storage and to use traditional materials like timber and stone to give texture.

Upstand detail on kitchen island



Vertical subway tiles

New Emeco bar stools with red leather seats at the breakfast bar 

Photographs by Charlotte Minty.

Flos Outdoor Romeo C1 Light

Here is a sneak peek of an interior job that I have been working on.
My clients have recently had their new lights installed, including this cool Flos Outdoor Romeo C1 light. The shade is constructed with woven PVC threads on a stainless steel frame, while the light bulb is covered by a injection moulded opal coloured diffuser, which gives a lovely glow when turned on.
I think the light looks great and add a modern touch to their porch area. The front door also has been recently painted with a coat of glossy black. Looks smart.

Photographs by Charlotte Minty.

Colour on Doors

Here's a peek image from a job that I worked on last year - a fully refurbished traditional villa. The clients and I worked on a pared back scheme while highlighting certain traditional details. We used muted colours, rich rugs and crystal chandeliers throughout the main living areas.
I'm looking forward to next Friday as we will have an Inspiration Profile from Urbis magazine editor, Kirsten Matthew. Til then, have a great weekend all.
Photograph by Charlotte Minty.

Stripes on Sofas

 A dear friend of mine was keen to reupholster her sofas last year - they had come with the house when she and her husband moved in several years ago. The sofas were previously in an off white fabric and had hard wear over the years - including, at present, a big dog that likes to sleep on them. So we found this great striped fabric from Westbury Textiles and they turned out beautifully. So cool to see classic stripes looking so good on sofas.
Photographs by Charlotte Minty.

Home Office

I got a call from these clients last year - they were expecting baby number two and their study was going to become the nursery, so where to put their home office? They cleverly thought about the large dead space at the end of their hallway. So we designed this desk with storage and shelving above to tie in with the existing interior features, re. panelled cupboard door and end panel to match the internal doors, and a chunky heading on the shelves to match the skirting. It turned out beautifully and clients are really happy.
Photography by Charlotte Minty.

Exterior Colours

The building before the work.

Not so shabby now in it new exterior colours.

Looking up to the house from the bay below - before.

After - it ties in well with the front houses, don't you think?

From the street - before.

After.

The stunning views from the house

Here is a job that I worked on recently - 

My clients have has this building for over 10 years and last year decided to renovate it in preparation to move from their large lifestyle property to one of the apartments here. The previous five apartments was reduced to four and as you can see above, the house has the best views in Wellington. 

One of the first things I did for them was the exterior colour scheme - we went for a much softer tones than the existing and we think it ties it beautifully with the surrounding timber houses. 

Photographs by Charlotte Minty.

An Office Lunch Room

We made sure that New Zealand was centred to the wall and very visible!

Contrasting timbers looks effective - American Ash leaner and dark oak stained bar stools

One resolution I plan to take up next year is photographing my interior design work and keeping it up to date! It is just so easy to let it slide as I have many projects this year that I haven't recorded. So it's high time I catch up on this.
To start on the good habit, here is the lunch room for a real estate office that I worked on several months ago. It is yet to be completed, however it is looking great so far.
The staff members are loving the Dairy bar leaner paired with Thonet BST 75 bar stools - creating a great interaction space for several departments to share. The cool wall map completes the picture.
Photographs by Charlotte Minty.

Christmas Tree Decorating

Here's a fun job I did yesterday...
I got an email on Friday afternoon from a branding company asking me if I could decorate a Christmas tree for their government client - and if so, quickly. Once I saw the photo of the sad looking tree, I had to say yes. I visited the office that day - saw the aqua and blue colours behind the reception desk therefore had the jumping off point for the decorations. Shopped in the weekend and on Monday afternoon, I decorated the tree. This is how it went...

The tree - before.

Moved the tree onto the carpet (closer to the waiting area) and the branches got some loving treatment.

Add fairy lights (x 3 sets of 200) and covered the stand with turquoise tulle.

And covered the tree in decorations - all 296 of them and pop the star on top.

Mission accomplished.

Photographs by Charlotte Minty.