Common to every option
What does not change, and what is still open
Already decided
- Bench at 920 with a 20mm top, on a 100mm kick. Tested on an
adjustable desk — 900 and 920 were indistinguishable, so it went up. 940 was ruled
out by the dishwasher, which cannot reach the stone above 920.
- Custom cabinetry, CNC cut to size in polytec board with matching edges, not
thermolaminate — the vinyl wrap lifts near heat. Only the routed doors on the
island's table side stay thermolaminated; they face the dining table, well away from the
ovens.
- Back-wall joinery closed to the ceiling. One door line across the wall, and
a slim fixed panel above it to the ceiling — no dust ledge, and it hides the
air-conditioning duct. The room's cornice stays on every exposed wall and stops square
against the tall units.
- The west bulkhead leg comes out, and the fridge wall is cut back to the
fridge's own depth. Both checked: nothing running in the ceiling, nothing structural at
the end of the wall.
- Oven below, microwave on top, its controls just under the line of the overheads, where they are today. A roast on the middle rack comes out at bench height.
- No handles anywhere. Push-to-open throughout. Wipe-clean was the number one
ask, and a routed finger-pull is a crumb trap.
- Drawers on the back run and the island's work side; cupboards only where
they have to be — the sink, the island's table side, the overheads and the tall
units.
- Concealed rangehood — which is why the splashback becomes the feature of
that wall.
- Induction, not gas. No gas fitter, no gas clearances.
- Floor held constant in every option, so you are comparing directions and
nothing else. The floor is a whole-ground-floor decision and has its own page.
Still to decide
- The feature light. Deliberately not drawn. Nothing is chosen yet, and putting
a generic fitting over the island would push you toward a shape by accident. What you see
is the recessed downlights you already have.
- Benchtop material class. Mineral versus sintered is a heat and chip-risk
decision, separate from colour. Mineral is resin-bound and heat-limited — trivets
forever. Sintered is heat-proof and full-body. Porcelain is the one to rule out on a dark
top, because a chip shows white.
- The island bulkhead. Leave it as it is and relight it, or rebuild it wider
— and only ever higher, never lower. Pending.
- Overhead doors: 600 tall so the hood cupboard keeps a single-flap lift, or the
~654 drawn; and whether W3 is a pair of doors or a lift-up. After the storage plan.
- Suppliers. Nothing can be priced until that list arrives and every product on
it is screened.
If none of these is quite right: the palette holds two finishes
none of these use — a muted olive-grey and a warm clay. Any of them can be swapped
into any direction, because all five are built from one model with only the finish layer
changed. Say which direction is closest and what is wrong with it, and the next version
takes minutes rather than a redesign.
On cost: the notes under each direction are relative — which
is dearer than which, and why. They are not quotes and not estimates. No supplier list has
been screened yet, so any dollar figure here would be invented.
On the renders: every dimension comes from the measured drawing and laser
checks, and every appliance is drawn at its manufacturer’s real size. Materials are
photographed from the actual products. Colours on a screen are not colours on a sample
— get chips in the room before anything is ordered.
