Outside the box

The winner of this year’s Best Kitchen Award (sponsored by Blum) & Best Kitchen Design Award (sponsored by NZ Panels Group) comes from Bays Joinery Ltd. The kitchen was designed by their senior designer, Colin Hayes and built in their Nelson based manufacturing plant.

The brief from the owners of this architecturally designed home was for something in black with clean lines – not over the top yet still a little outside the box.

Three key aspects emerged from this request: a largely black look kitchen with brass accents to tie in with other brass accents used throughout the home, a symmetric but visually uncluttered look i.e. no obvious drawers and handles and with cathedral ceilings to both the dining and lounge rooms, a simple angle to the kitchen island to denote a point of difference.

“This kitchen presented us with some interesting challenges. To keep the clean visual lines we designed a single pull detail the length of the kitchen with doors to cabinet fronts, all in the black, while maximising the storage capability using internal drawers placed to all the cupboards. Space was at a premium with multiple appliances required, two pantries & Fridges within the design and space allocated for the kitchen.”

An interesting feature was the use of brass as a feature, not as full polished brass but as ‘aged brass’.

This you can see in the inlay of the island. The brass was chemically treated to soften the polished brass look. “This allows the feature panels to continually change as the oxidising process advances. The whole kitchen has warmth added from the wide planked timber floor.

George Molnar, owner & founder of Bays Joinery is extremely proud of these two national awards. “This is further recognition of the experience and expertise of our entire team from front of house design through to manufacture and installation. Our ethos at Bays is to take a collaborative approach to all projects which creates the best outcome. Special congratulations to Colin on another outstanding design and to our clients who enabled us to do this project.”

Credits

Kitchen Design: Colin Hayes

Cabinetry: Prime Melamine, Prime Acrylic Matt Black from NZ Panels Group

Benchtop: 12mm Dekton ‘Sirius

Solid Collection’ from Cosentino & Granite Designworks

Splashback & Brass work: O’Brien Group

Hardware: Drawer system

Blum Antaro Grey with Orgaline drawer inserts

Led Lights: FIT

Sink: Acero

Photographer: Dominique White

Judge’s Comment

Bays Joinery Ltd

This year’s Best Kitchen Winner was established back in 1992. With design studios and design teams in both Nelson and Blenheim, its main manufacturing facility is in Nelson, where this kitchen was manufactured.

The firm design, manufacture and install kitchens, bathrooms, bespoke furniture, timber windows, doors and staircases along with wardrobes and various storage solutions. They make to architectural plans and custom design solutions for residential & commercial projects. The firm has grown from just three staff back in 1992 to some forty six staff including thirteen designers and a large team of contractors. Today, one of the largest in the South Island.