All of my sage green dreams have come true with our new ‘Bayleaf’ kitchen! This hard working space also doubles as our laundry. Here’s the full tour.
Photography Coastpark Creative / Joinery KitchenU
I just love my new kitchen, we had made some tweaks to the original plans, I had originally wanted a curved island, but when I got the quotes back my budget said otherwise. I stumbled upon KitchenU when googling for cabinetmakers and they were fantastic. Right from the get-go James from KitchenU called me back to discuss my plans and even made some very helpful suggestions in order to cut costs down after I explained my budget woes. It’s not every day you get someone going out of their way to help you with ideas to slash the price. He suggested not to do a curved island (because they’re expensive) and instead just have the demi round panelling on the front of a rectangle island. My original plans also had pocket doors on the appliance cupboard and European laundry. James said if we did bifold doors on the laundry and standard doors on the appliance cupboard we could cut a lot of cost there too.
James’ mum Kathie (who is a well-known kitchen designer in Brisbane) was assigned to me for the rest of the process, and she was just so lovely to deal with the whole way. If there were any hiccups along the way, Kathie would always be there to fix it. I can highly recommend them and in fact, my mum is using them on her own cottage renovation.
KITCHEN BEFORE
MATERIALS + COLOURS
In our last home’s kitchen (click here to view), we did a very white, neutral kitchen, and whilst there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, I did want to push myself out of my comfort zone in our new home and have fun with colour. Lately I’ve been a little green-obsessed and decided to go with Laminex ‘Bayleaf’ for our kitchen cabinetry. The colour is so good, I love how fresh it looks and how it changes depending on the light. It’s a really calming green and looks good used with splashes of white.
For the walls and ceiling we’ve used Tint ‘So Fresh and So Clean’ - it’s a true white white, and doesn’t throw any other colour undertones. The coverage is fantastic too - it’s a beautiful thick paint and low in odour too. I had our ceiling in the kitchen/living area clad in VJ panels and it looks so good painted in this white!
Another major material for our kitchen is the Silestone ‘Et Calacatta Gold’ from Cosentino on our benchtops and backsplash. I chose to do the backsplash in this product as it’s super easy to wipe down and clean. I also think the look is very contemporary with the large subtle veining in this particular style. And it has a beautiful gold fleck throughout it, which ties in with all of our brushed brass tapware and handles.
APPLIANCE CUPBOARD
I’ve always dreamt of having an appliance cupboard - somewhere to neatly tuck away an array of appliances and keep our benchtops clear. We’ve lined the interior of ours in Laminex ‘Elegant Oak’ and have included some open storage, along with a handy pullout drawer at the bottom. I also like to not have microwaves on display so when designing the space, made sure there was room for it in here. We also have our coffee machine and toaster regularly stored in here, both can easily be used whilst the doors are open and there is still enough space to walk around the doors when open. We have a 1.2m space between back row of cabinets and island so this creates a comfortable space in which to move around.
KITCHEN APPLIANCES
On to the most important thing in a kitchen – the appliances! To create consistency, all of our cooking appliances, along with refrigerator and washer and dryer are Westinghouse from Betta. I like to buy things that match colour-wise, and the dark stainless steel of the fridge, oven and integrated rangehood look sleek and modern.
If you’ve never cooked on an induction cooktop before, let me tell you - it’s fantastic! We have the Westinghouse 4 zone induction cooktop with BoilProtect, which detects rising bubbles and automatically reduces to a low simmer. It also has PowerBoost, where you can rapidly boil a pot of water or quickly heat up a frying pan (we use this feature regularly). There’s also another great feature - Hob2Hood which is compatible with our Westinghouse integrated rangehood, both work seamlessly together to clear your kitchen of cooking smells and steam. As you start cooking, the rangehood will automatically turn on then intuitively adjust the fan speed and airflow to match your cooking. How’s that for hands-free cooking!
Our Westinghouse Multifunction Pyrolytic oven is packed with features including PyroClean, Roast + Steam, and Dual AirFry. And best of all - it’s made right here in Australia.
My favourite appliance has to be the Westinghouse quad door fridge with plumbed in drinks dispenser. The water is filtered, it tastes great, and I use it all of the time. My partner loves that it has an automatic ice-maker for his afternoon drinks.
PRACTICAL FEATURES
Some of my favourite features are the things that make daily use of our kitchen a breeze - like our pullout bin drawer in the island. I don’t think I’ll go back to regular bins ever again! And our Yabby pullout sink mixer, which makes cleaning of our sink super easy. Once you have a pullout mixer, I swear you’ll never go back to a standard style.
Another fave feature is our white sink. I just love the look of white sinks, and chose a quality granite one from Seima. This is the ‘Oros’ 550 sink and is well proportioned to the size of our island. It’s also worth noting its not super white, it is more of an off white which actually works better for blending in with our Cosentino benchtop.
One thing I didn’t like about our last kitchen was the shark nose finger pulls on the cabinets, whilst it did look sleek, it was hard to open drawers, especially if they were filled with heavy items. For this kitchen I wanted handles as I see them as being much more practical and user-friendly. I chose to do a combination of Lo & Co’s ‘Ascot’ knobs (large in white) and ‘Isla’ handles in the XL size (we used both white and brass finishes). The quality of Lo & Co, is always something I rave on about - each piece is super heavy and made to last.
EUROPEAN LAUNDRY
Our laundry was formerly located on the back of our house as a tacked on addition. We used this space as a make-shift kitchen while we waited for the rest of the home to be renovated - not ideal, but better than nothing. When we renovated we removed this space to make room for our new deck and improve the home’s overall aesthetic from the back.
However this did mean we needed to find a new home for our laundry so I decided to incorporate a European style laundry in our kitchen. It runs the full length of one side of our kitchen and is concealed behind bifold doors. We have a laundry sink (ADP ‘Bellevue’ white granite sink), cupboards, a stacked washer and dryer and a linen cupboard in the blind corner to make use of what would have been dead space. Whilst it’s compact, I actually think it’s plenty of space for our needs. I also don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything if I had a whole room dedicated to the laundry. I use the kitchen island to fold towels and washing – this really is the hardest working room in our house.
I wanted to keep this zone looking different to our kitchen zone by using Laminex ‘Polar White’ in ultra matte finish on the door fronts. I’ve chosen the same ‘Isla’ handles as the kitchen but switched it out for the brass option – it ties in with the kitchen whilst still feeling like the laundry zone has its own identity.
Inside I’ve chosen to do our cabinetry in Laminex ‘Elegant Oak’ - I love that when you open the doors it’s almost like this little surprise. The colour is gorgeous - it’s a nice warm timber look and it looks amazing against the Silestone ‘Et Calacatta Gold’ splashback and benchtop.
LAUNDRY APPLIANCES
I love our new Westinghouse heat pump dryer. I have lived without a dryer for over 4 years now, and whilst I normally line dry my washing, it really comes in handy on rainy days. As our dryer is located within the kitchen/living space it was a must that we have a heat pump dryer. I have heard a lot of people rave on about them, so decided to give it a try. It definitely doesn’t disappoint. It’s a much more gentle way to dry your washing, and it doesn’t produce a lot of heat either, so the room doesn’t fog up like it would with a condenser dryer. It has SensorDry technology which means it detects when your load is dry enough and ends the cycle instead of just running on a set time.
Our Westinghouse Easycare front load washing machine is also great and easy to use. It has a lot of great features - notably the Fast 15 option which cleans any urgent items you need in a hurry. If you’re headed out for the day, but need to use the washing machine, you have the ability to set an exact time to when you know you will be back, to ensure your clothes don’t sit wet and wrinkled for too long.
On the front of the island we have used Laminex profiled cabinetry sheet in
Demi Round profile finished in a 2-pac finish to match our Bayleaf cabinetry
FLOORING
Our new flooring was probably the most transformative thing in this space. Previously we had red hardwood floors – now I will say this, I was never a huge fan, they scratch easily when you vacuum and not only that in order to move plumbing around and due to our home not being up at legal height (it’s a 1960s house afterall), we had to cut up parts of the flooring so the whole thing was pretty much unsalvageable anyways. We had the holes patched and our flooring installers then poured a thin layer of self levelling concrete over some areas that were uneven, before gluing the new flooring down over the top.
We selected an engineered timber floorboard from Carpet Court, this one is Refined Oak in ‘Hamptons’ colour. I’m so happy with the colour, it’s so soft and has that white-washed look. I felt like if I was going to cover real hardwood I had better cover up with something good quality. Engineered timber is essentially a thin layer of real timber glued to ply. The beauty of this type of flooring is that every board is unique, because it’s made from real timber, and there’s no repetition of boards like you get with hybrid or vinyl planks (which are fake timber-look). Also you could actually sand and re-stain engineered timber 1-2 times in the future if you want.
THE FINISHING TOUCHES
And last, but certainly not least - our final finishing touches are what make this kitchen my favourite room in the house. Our ‘Capri’ bar stools upholstered in boucle fabric and featuring a rattan back, are just gorgeous and provide that perfect finishing touch to the kitchen. I love the arched backs, it provides something a little bit different to your typical bar stool.
Our ‘Orb Max’ pendant lights (large size) from Lighterior just set the tone for the whole room. Our home is a mid-century modern one, so adding the Orb style pendants pays homage to that era. Plus when turned on, they add a lovely soft glow. I’m so in love with these lights.