The kitchen — the design · Irvine Street Selections

05b

The kitchen — the design

The kitchen re-done on 29 September 2026 after John's inspiration image (section 05): pale straight-grain oak joinery framed by an oak border, deep grooves between every front, and the crazy-paved splashback from section 06. This is the current design.

The first nine pictures are AI-enhanced images, not photographs. They start from a 3D model built to the working drawings (rev H), with texture and lighting added by an image model. The styling is not part of the build, and the dining table is a placeholder: the image model turned it to stone, and the dining end waits for the living-room design. The last four pictures are straight from the model: the dining-end view and the three kickboard comparisons.

What is what (so we remember):

Floor: the main floor (product still open: the tendered engineered timber or the laminate); pictured as Solomons Elements Laminate Hydro, Cedar Mist DR6616, 1515 × 237 × 10, painted micro-bevel (alternative Blackbutt DR6601), on a quality acoustic underlay, not the standard one.
Tall joinery and overheads: Laminex Raw Bluegum (Harriett, 8 Oct; the joiner's brief for VO6).
White fronts and island panels: Laminex Alabaster; kickboards Laminex Black.
Benchtops, island and waterfall ends: the Taj Mahal look — tendered Lavistone LSU401 Taj Classico; alternatives Kaya Sienna, or natural Taj Mahal quartzite honed (AMS). 40 mm mitred edges.
Splashbacks: crazy-paved travertine mosaic (section 06); stone recommended behind the cooktop.
Hardware: matte black throughout, no chrome — slim bar pulls on the white drawers, short black inset pulls on the fridge and pantry doors.
Appliances: a Fisher & Paykel integrated fridge (John's brief; model not chosen — the RS80A1 was an example used only to check sizes) in the drawn 700-deep cabinet; the Fisher & Paykel package (not Euro); a 600 oven built under the induction cooktop; integrated rangehood at ~1550, ducted outside; integrated dishwasher in the butler's.
Lighting and power: black linear pendant over the island; LED strips under the overheads, the pantry shelves and the island overhang; a double power point with USB-C in the island's waterfall end.
Stools: tan leather saddle counter stools on thin black frames, as in the inspiration image.
Butler's: U-shaped 400-deep bench with drawers and 100 mm rounded corners at the walkway; two lit oak shelves; sink moved to the middle, dishwasher at the dead end.

Still open (asked below): 700 between the fridge and the island, and whether the fridge cabinet can be shallower.

Floorboards in this room (John, 8 Oct 2026). The pictures show the laminate we shortlisted, Solomons Elements Hydro in Cedar Mist DR6616, 1515 × 237 mm. Harriett has suggested the tendered engineered timber instead; that is not yet decided. Whichever is chosen, the boards here must be long (about 1.5 m or longer), in a similar colour, and must look like floorboards: a fine bevelled groove between planks. The question is asked once, under Flooring in 00a.

To confirm or price

Joinery details, as drawn here: a 50 mm oak border round the face of each tall unit; 10 mm grooves between fronts; one 25 mm horizontal groove at ~2140 across the fridge, oven tower, overheads and the cupboards over the cooktop; a 15 mm shadow line under the stone; 40 mm mitred waterfall ends. Achievable in laminate, and within the joinery allowance?
Oak laminate: the inspiration's pale, long, straight-grained oak. Our own shortlist was Austral Oak TrueScale, then Calm Oak and Seasoned Oak. Harriett has since chosen Raw Bluegum TrueScale 2623 (8 Oct, see the Laminex colours question). The two are very close: both are pale, warm, straight-grained timbers from the same Laminex range, so her choice keeps the look of this design and is not a change of direction. The earlier pictures on this page show a stand-in pale oak drawn in the model, not either product; the two pictures in Harriett's colours use Laminex's own Raw Bluegum.
Stool side of the island: three fixed white panels with the same grooves (no doors), a recessed kick, and an LED strip under the overhang.
Crazy-paved splashback (section 06): the extra over the tendered tile, grout (epoxy?) and sealing. We lean towards stone behind the cooktop and crazy pave elsewhere, for cleaning in a rental.
Appliances: Fisher & Paykel, as in the contract (item 35, "Fisher Paykel 90cm Package"; John, 2 Nov 2026). Il Bagno's list of 7 Sep has Euro appliances (cooktop, oven, rangehood, dishwasher); please replace them with the Fisher & Paykel package, and send us its schedule (the model numbers).
Oven under the cooktop (John, 29 Sep): a 600 built-under oven centred under the induction cooktop, with ~500 drawer banks either side; the old oven tower becomes a tall pantry cupboard. Please confirm an approved oven/cooktop pair for stacking, and a cool-touch door (children at door height).
Kickboards: black throughout, as designed (John, 8 Oct). Harriett suggested making each kickboard the colour of the fronts above it (timber under the tall units, white under the drawers); the two are pictured side by side here, and John prefers the black. Recessed, in Laminex Black 460. Please confirm.
Laminex colours from Harriett (meeting of 8 Oct, to be confirmed with samples): Raw Bluegum TrueScale 2623 for the timber fronts, Alabaster 203 for the white fronts and Black 460, all in Natural finish. Harriett recommends the AbsoluteGrain finish instead, at about 20% more by her estimate. Laminex lists Raw Bluegum TrueScale and Black in AbsoluteGrain, but not Alabaster (the white in that finish is Chalk White). Please price the joinery both ways, Natural and AbsoluteGrain, say which white goes with AbsoluteGrain, and supply a sample of each to hold against a Cedar Mist floorboard and the benchtop stone. Two pictures on this page show the kitchen in these colours; a picture cannot show the difference between the two finishes. So we are all on the same page: Raw Bluegum is almost identical in tone to the Austral Oak we had shortlisted ourselves, so this is the same kitchen, not a new look.
Handleless fronts were drawn on the drawers under the tower oven; with the oven moved, the tower is one tall door with the fridge's short black inset pull. Everything else has slim matte black bar pulls.
Butler's pantry fit-out (the drawings show the U-shaped 400-deep bench but not what's in it). We'd like: drawers under the U; open oak shelves (2 rows, ~280 deep, the lower one level with the underside of the overhead cupboards, concealed brackets, matching the joinery) across the end wall and along the storage wall above the U, each with a warm LED strip underneath; matte black double power points above the U for the kettle, toaster and microwave; an integrated dishwasher beside the sink; a matte black tea-towel rail on the end of the U. Please price.
Butler's sink and dishwasher: we'd like the sink moved from near the pantry's entry (as drawn) to the middle of the bench, with the integrated dishwasher at the dead end beside it and drawers plus a pull-out bin nearest the entry, so the open dishwasher door never blocks the pantry. The sink sits on a cupboard with doors. Please price moving the plumbing ~500 mm.
Fridge: the brief is a Fisher & Paykel integrated fridge; no model has been chosen. For sizing only, we looked at an 80 cm integrated French-door example (RS80A1: 796 W × 606 D before its panel, with a bottom freezer drawer). Which F&P integrated models suit the drawn 700-deep cabinet, and what hinge-side clearance do they need against the nib wall? We've allowed a 50 oak border there.
Rangehood: integrated in the cupboards over the cooktop, their underside at ~1550 (650 over the cooktop), ducted outside, not recirculating. What's the duct route?
Island extras: a double power point with USB-C in the waterfall end, and a soft LED strip under the overhang on the stool side.
Rounded corners on the U: a 100 mm radius on the two exposed corners at the walkway, stone top and end panel together, in a walkway only ~800 wide. Is a radiused end panel and stone corner a standard detail for your joiner and stonemason, and what does it add?
Clearance at the fridge: the drawings show only 700 mm between the tall fridge unit and the island (1000 is the usual minimum — an open fridge and a drawer can't pass). Narrow the island from 1200, or is 700 intended?
Fisher & Paykel integrated fridge confirmed, plus pricing for the matching F&P suite.
Timber laminate to the cooktop recess — achievable, and what heat clearance is needed behind a cooktop?

AI-enhanced · 1 of 6From the dining end: the framed oak tall units with one horizontal groove across them, crazy-pave splashbacks, the waterfall island, the plastered nib wall at the fridge end, the hall to the stair on the left; the round oak dining table in front (4 Nov 2026: oven under the cooktop, the tall unit a pantry)

AI-enhanced · 2 of 6Past the island to the cooktop: the oak-framed recess, its cupboards lowered to the rangehood height with the same groove, the 600 oven directly under the cooktop, crazy pave behind

AI-enhanced · 3 of 6The fridge wall: integrated fridge with short black inset pulls, the tall pantry cupboard (the oven is under the cooktop), the 50 mm oak border round each unit

Option · AI-enhancedThe design (John, 29 Sep): oven under the cooktop. The same wall with a 600 built-under oven centred under the cooktop and drawers either side; the old oven tower becomes a tall pantry cupboard with the fridge's black inset pull. Nothing hot now opens into the lane to the butler's

AI-enhanced · 4 of 6The stool side: three tall white fixed panels under the stone overhang (nothing opens), an LED strip under the overhang, leather saddle stools

AI-enhanced · 5 of 6Into the butler's pantry: drawers, then the sink cupboard, then the integrated dishwasher at the dead end; two lit oak shelves, the lower one level with the cupboards; matte black sink and tap; crazy pave behind the sink only, the back wall and the microwave corner plain white (John, 4 Nov 2026)

AI-enhanced · 6 of 6The pantry from the sink corner: the U-shaped bench with its rounded corner, kettle and microwave off the main kitchen; plain white wall here, no crazy pave (John, 4 Nov 2026)

Harriett's colours · AI-enhanced · 1 of 2In Harriett's Laminex colours (8 Oct): Raw Bluegum TrueScale 2623 on the tall units, Alabaster 203 on the drawers and island, black kickboards, shown with the gloss charcoal splashback, an earlier option: the splashbacks are now crazy pave. The cooktop wall

Harriett's colours · AI-enhanced · 2 of 2The same colours along the tall wall: the oven tower, the bench run and the integrated fridge (an earlier layout: the oven is now under the cooktop)

3D model · to scaleThe dining-end view straight from the 3D model, before the AI finishing pass (4 Nov 2026, oven under the cooktop). Trust this one for proportions

Comparison · 3D modelDesign choice: kickboards. Left, black as designed; right, Harriett's suggestion (8 Oct), each kickboard the colour of the fronts above it. Along the tall wall. **John prefers the black**