| 69 JOINERY Mastercraft Kitchens - Kapiti T T Kelly Deeks Designer strikes gold at awards The large L-shaped island (above) is a standout in the award winning kitchen. Mastercraft Kitchens Kapiti designer Amber Downie has struck gold at the 2023 Master Joiners Excellence Awards, with her first ever entry into the competition winning the Best Regional - Wellington award for a stunning open plan kitchen and scullery she designed for a major renovation project in Paekakariki Hill. Amber’s happy clients are owners of an established building company which has used Mastercraft Kitchens in its spec builds. When the time came to do a major renovation on their own home, they chose Amber at Mastercraft Kitchens Kapiti. “My clients and I had a vision, and we brought it to life,” Amber says. “They wanted an open and social kitchen to suit a family of six, with a modern, edgy, and functional bespoke design featuring wood tones and materials with texture and depth. Large countertop spaces facing the dining, lounge, and outdoor spaces, a large scullery where the children could prepare food and isolate the mess, ample storage for this semi-rural location, and a bar area which wasn’t hidden from the main kitchen.” The clients’ existing furniture also played a role in materials and colour selections for this kitchen. A black dining suite and a set of bar stools in mottled black set the tone for the standout feature of this kitchen, its large, L-shaped island which balances the central point of the home. The island is made from 12mm Dekton sintered stone in black with warm-veined marbling, mitred to 20mm for the sink and scullery countertops and mitred at 50mm for the island and its waterfall legs. This stunning centrepiece brings together the harmony of matte grey cabinetry down the long length of the kitchen and in the scullery, with the warm woodgrain cabinets across the top length of the room. Amber’s challenges included creating balance in the room while allowing for flowthrough the kitchen to the media room, as well as into the dining and lounge spaces off the central kitchen hub. She managed to get plenty of natural light into the room and helped to bring the outdoors in by including a floor to ceiling window between the kitchen and scullery, a long rectangular window between the countertop and upper cabinetry, and two kitchen skylights above the island. The island had to be precisely placed to allow for a ceiling cassette rangehood to be installed above the gas hob and between the trusses and skylights, and for the hob to be offset from the kitchen sink behind it. “That’s just good design,” Amber says. “It creates the space for two people to be in the kitchen at the same time, working on different tasks.” Builders as clients helped this project to move along smoothly. Changes were made throughout the project and decisions were made quickly. Amber has been designing kitchens for nearly 10 years and in keeping with Mastercraft Kitchens Kapiti’s remit, her work goes above and beyond to provide clients with cabinetry that exceeds expectations. She places an emphasis on creating functional, durable spaces which bring satisfaction to her clients for years to come. This award is a well-deserved recognition of a job well done and a validation of her high-quality work. Amber has also been awarded a National Kitchen Bathroom Association scholarship this year which she plans to use to further her professional development and study the latest design trends. Proudly supporting Mastercraft Kitchens Kapiti
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