Dulwich Hill House

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Sandra' experience

"Many thanks to Danny for delivering my perfect renovation. From first contacting him until the completion of building there was meticulous planning, collaboration and revision resulting in quality technical drawings. The remit to transition the combined kitchen, dining and living area seamlessly to the garden was achieved with the inspiration to refurbish the original doors while finishing the kitchen bench with a curve reminiscent of the art deco period which has become an admired highlight. Overall, there is a feeling of minimalist simplicity while oozing warmth.

Even during the challenging time of CoVid, Danny was able to connect me with top class, professional tradesmen who approached my small project with the same care and respect they would more substantial jobs. The minimal disruption during the building stage enabled me to live comfortably on site in a warm, friendly atmosphere. I now not only have a superb home but many fond memories of its transformation."

CLIENT BRIEF

Sandra moved from Hong Kong and bought a house in Dulwich Hill. She liked the house but but it was cold and poorly planned in some areas, the kitchen was pretty basic and the bathroom a bad layout. We carefully re-designed the kitchen and bathroom and did strategic small but important tweaks throughout the house to make it a comfortable place to live. The kitchen is now a warm and relaxed wholistically designed space that is both refined, minimalist but also warm and it celebrates Sandras two favourite art works. One of her daughter and one is a painted asian house scene which is reminiscent of the movie “In the mood for love”. We also made the beautiful dining table Sandra already had a centrepiece.

DESIGN SOLUTION

Not a kitchen but a complete room to cook and eat in - We had an aim from the start that were weren't designing a typical kitchen but more a complete room that happens to have a kitchen in it. When you're in the room you almost cant see the kitchen. It's more like a minimalist living room with a beautiful table and artwork. We integrated all of the appliances including the dishwasher and fridge and choose an off white colour “Vintage Linen” to give warmth but subtlety.
State of the art appliances - Sandra carefully choose the state of the art appliances. For example the dishwasher opens when you lean on it, the oven door slides back into the underside of the oven to make it easier to get hot things out and the fridge is “Amazing” according to Sandra (said with a big smile).
No upper cupboards on the long side - By avoiding upper cupboards the kitchen has a relaxed non techy feeling about it. Instead we painted the windows and doors black to emphasise the garden space beyond.
Storage creatively dotted around - instead of concentrating all of the storage on the kitchen side we avoided this bulky look. Veronica designed a storage wall with stepped shelves that frame the painting and the couch. They have led lights which make them glow and lovely hand blown glass wall lights from Italy.
Lighting - Lighting is always important and in this project we used a combination of LED recessed strips, cool retro pendants and hand blown glass wall lights. We minimised the downlights.
Curved feature - We liked the existing timber sliding glass back doors and wanted to keep them but one of them was only 300mm from the kitchen wall so we curved the 600mm kitchen bench around into a 300mm shelving feature. Sometimes the challenging spaces, when looked at in a creative way, become the best parts.
New bathroom - As is often the case in the Inner west, the bathroom was small but ALSO a bad layout. But by putting the bath at the end of the room we transformed this space.
The bedrooms - were a good size but the door swing directions and wardrobe positions just needed changing and suddenly they are cosy rooms with good storage.