A black plywood kitchen reveals its grain

By Bates Surfaces

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A black plywood kitchen reveals its grain banner

With champagne tastes but only a $10k budget, this couple selected a luscious black plywood for their new kitchen. Prefinished in a satin UV-cured poly, PlyPlay creates a robust and beautiful surface. 

Bates Surfaces
Auckland

When planning their new family home in Mt Maunganui, Courtney Jones saved a Pinterest board of slick black kitchen photos. ‘When I looked closely at the images, I realised several had a timber finish,’ she says. ‘Having renovated before, I knew I could create the same look with plywood, but black plywood was hard to source until I found PlyPlay.’

Courtney chose a prefinished 19mm PlyPlay plywood for thick, stable doors and drawer fronts. The board was UV-coated in PlyPlay’s Penrose factory, and then sent to the Cut Shop in Hamilton to get it digitally cut for the exact drawer and cupboard sizes. Courtney and her husband Todd sanded and sealed the edges on site, built the units in the garage and installed them in one weekend.

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The couple had used plywood in their previous kitchen, where they had a long back bench for all the utilities – the sink, dishwasher and oven – giving them a clean island bench for serving. They enjoyed this layout, so replicated it in the new kitchen. At the last minute, they also decided to line the stair wall in black ply and use the space underneath for the pantry and fridge. The black PlyPlay has added a strong feature to the white living space, and it connects visually with the black-clad house exterior.

‘The most successful part of the kitchen is the ply,‘ says Courtney. ‘Despite being black, it has real character and depth. It’s not shiny or matt, making it great for sticky little fingers. I love it when the sun streams in and highlights the grain of the wood.’

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A black plywood kitchen reveals its grain

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A black plywood kitchen reveals its grain

About the
Professional

Bates Surfaces has been a leader in surface-coating building products since 1953, utilising the best UV-coatings technology in the world.

As New Zealand’s largest applicator of UV coatings, we have been a trusted supply partner to the local industry for over 25 years.

We transform products, such as raw fibre cement panels, into pre-finished, factory-coated products – working with manufacturers as they make them part of their product catalogue.

In addition to fulfilling OSM orders for customers such as James Hardie and Laminex, we market our own brands – PureCoat™ kitchen and bathroom panels, PlyPlay™ pre-finished plywood wall and ceiling panels, and hygienic Fenta™ Ceiling Tiles.

At ArchiPro we recognise and acknowledge the existing, original and ancient connection Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have to the lands and waterways across the Australian continent. We pay our respects to the elders past and present. We commit to working together to build a prosperous and inclusive Australia.