Attractive and Practical Kitchen for a Growing Young Family

New Home! New Kitchen! New Baby! 

Henry leads Fit's Customer Happiness team and, with the very recent arrival of their first child, you can see why he and his lovely wife Raewyn, were especially happy to be settled into their new home with a beautiful kitchen and laundry. Shout out to Peter Dainty and the awesome team at Guyco Joinery in Whangarei, who made Henry's kitchen, and to Henry's brother, Fraser Don at Archer Concepts, who cut out and clashed the laundry cabinets in a morning and helped Henry install the laundry in an afternoon. (Good kiwi DIY skills there ... not bad for a Saturday's work!)  

Why did Henry choose Tanova Designer Series kitchen bins? 

"Research shows that the pull-out bin is often the most used item in the kitchen. Tanova Designer Series operates on quiet, smooth, soft close runners, that handle a heavy load of up to 60kg. The frame is made here in NZ and has been designed to be easy to clean.

I went for the Umbra Grey and Charcoal option as it suits our overall décor choices, plus it’s great for hiding any little drips or nicks and scrapes that happen over time.

We chose two models; in the scullery, a 400mm cabinet model with two 24L buckets as it gives my family both rubbish and recycling space.

At the bar, we went for a 450mm cabinet model with 2 of our new 20L buckets that are made right here in New Zealand. One other excellent feature with the Designer Series is that these bins extend right out past the bench edge so that it’s really easy to remove the rear bucket.” 

Henry On Optimised Drawer Based Storage 

“Drawers are the mainstay of kitchen storage now and the most important thing for us was that the drawers are soft close for gentle movement, quiet operation and safe for little fingers. We went for Harn Ritma's modern looking square rail option as it suits our contemporary styled kitchen.

We also chose drawer based storage for our pantry area, using a Harn Ritma pantry kit, which makes it really easy to sort groceries into logical groups."  

Henry Installed Not 1, Not 2, But 3 Cornerstone MAXX Units!  

"If you've got a corner cabinet with one door and one fixed panel, you know how tricky blind corners can be. I've recommended the Vauth Sagel Cornerstone MAXX unit to so many customers and was finally able to spec it in my own kitchen.

We installed two in the scullery in opposing corners and one in the kitchen next to the fridge. These are awesome!

Each unit has 2 wide and stable shelves, which swing out beyond the cabinet so you can easily retrieve what you are after. They have a Power Assisted Movement (PAM) which not only soft closes the shelf but assists in opening too. The shelves are adjustable, so you can move them to suit your contents, and each holds 25kg.

The design is clever, with a hidden fastening mechanism to make it aesthetically good-looking. There are two styles available; we went for ‘Planero’, which features powder coated steel shelves in a modern colour called Lava Grey.” 

An Organised Laundry

“In addition to choosing the Tanova Designer Series for our kitchen bins, we also chose a model from this range for our pull-out laundry baskets. Just like the kitchen bins, this laundry pull-out is built on quiet, smooth, soft close runners for easy operation. Like the kitchen bin, the runners extend out past the bench front, so the rear basket is very easy to remove.

These units are NZ Made licenced. Baskets are ventilated for air flow to minimise musty smells, and the handles are ergonomic and comfy to hold. Having baskets in two different colours makes pre-sorting of washing a breeze, helping to make washing day a little easier.”

A Stroke of Absolute Genius  

“For those of us with gear that gets grubby from sport, work around the home or just from having kids, having a handy option for soaking washing is critical. But it’s a real hassle when you go to use the tub and find there’s already clothes soaking in it. So, we installed one of our Tanova drawer insert kitchen bin models, with two buckets, into the laundry as a soak station. The drawer is wider than the bin, but this gives us extra storage down the side.”

Shedding A Little Light On Work Areas 

“Overhead cabinets make a convenient point for LED strip lights. Over the bar area, we wanted a mix of spotlights and strips to give a good level of light for when we're at work. We used DOMUS Line™ 12Vdc LED options as they are quick and easy to install and very cost effective to run. The spotlights are the Smally style, recessed into the cabinet top, and the strip is the super flexible SE H4 which is pressed into a pre-cut groove under the cabinet. Both models feature very modern LEDs that don’t have the visible dots that older LED types have. We also used the SE H4 side emission LED strip under all the overhead cabinets in the kitchen and scullery. This is a perfect way of creating more direct light onto the bench space and reducing shadowed areas.”