It was over 20 years ago whilst living in America when the client used to gaze in at her dream kitchen on display in a showroom on her way to work each day. She had fallen in love with the kitchen in the window, and on the day she noticed it was being torn out, she stopped in for a chat. Needless to say, years later it was being stored in a container in Nelson, when the client contacted us during a renovation of their 100+-year-old home. Always up for a challenge, and curious to discover what kind of kitchen warrants a trip from America, we opened the container to find a pale pistachio kitchen in pieces, filled with holes from a reckless demolition, with no idea of the originally intended floor plan. The client was adamant it would fit in their home, so the jigsaw puzzle (or wasgij) began. Once the possible individual modules were determined and in the hands of our in-house designer to problem solve, the entire kitchen was entirely dismantled and the restoration commenced. Once the design had bounced around all our own staff and then drawn by a consultant in Australia, we began to show the client her options.  With little spatial awareness, we had to draw it on the floor and create templates to help her envisage the final product (which was required to be double the size of her original ‘find’ to fit their homes extension).   

With a client determined to utilize the original kitchen and prevent wastage, and a house full of character and charm, we began to investigate sourcing the intricate detailing required to bring the same character to the ‘new’ parts of the kitchen. We were adamant to match the profiles of the original within 90%-100%. This required hours of handcrafting half rope barley twists in-house, importing what Corbels we could from America and outsourcing a few pieces a local craftsman who had the tooling required. It was with bated breath, that we delicately removed the scroll detailing from the bulkhead to reduce its height from the traditional high stud of American homes, to fit the New Zealand cottage, then carefully restored and re-applied. It also required sourcing and purchasing a huge variety of spindle molder cutters and tooling we’d never needed before, to match the unique drawer and cupboard profiles required.  It also transpired that the majority of construction would need to be out of plywood or birch plywood to ensure consistency throughout.

Due to the poor state of the original paintwork, and the high volume of restoration, it was determined the original kitchen would need to be repainted. This was an opportunity to lose the outdated ‘pale pistachio’ and choose a more neutral colour that would stand the test of time and capture the essence of the American country home which suited the feel of not only the original kitchen but the rest of the house restoration. Thus a more traditional cream was chosen and developed for the entire kitchen, and as the client wanted to maintain its ‘antique’ look, this required 10 coats of OBCE 2 pack polyurethane to ensure it.

With a character home overdue for re-piling, it goes without saying that it was a challenging installation. With over 6 site measures and some walls out by 55mm, we really had to think on our feet, communicate thoroughly with our client, and be adaptable to ensure a quality fit.  

With the kitchen originally being built in Canada, installed in an American showroom, shipped to NZ, drawn in Australia and designed, stripped, built, added to & installed in Nelson, it really has had quite the journey.