There's a lot more to designing a kitchen than picking colours, especially in a project like this sleek and functional award-winning kitchen.

This project was fraught with challenges from the beginning. The homeowners' life savings were on the line, and their 2nd child was due to arrive months after renovations began! Meanwhile, the (pregnant) lady of the house wanted to be involved as much as possible in the design and implementation. A happy medium was struck between budget, schedule, the specific needs of the family and a quality finish. In the end, a beautiful renovation was completed that is a finalist in the 2012 Georgie Awards. 

Functionality in Kitchen Designs

The existing kitchen was too cramped for the growing family, and had inadequate storage. However, the 1970s interior had interesting features, such as a circular wall opening, which in the end, was preserved and integrated with the new kitchen design.

The design intent was to expand the kitchen into the living area, and connect the spaces with open counter-seating. Eco-friendly cabinet materials were to conform with the flooring & finishes in the rest of the house. The recycled glass backsplash was meant to mirror the colours and textures in the homeowners' own artwork and the open concept was to allow monitoring of their kids while cooking.

Structural Considerations in Design

Opening-up the space required (obviously) demolishing some walls. As such a structural post was required to "pick-up" the load that was previously carried by the dividing wall. No one really wants a post in the middle of their beautiful new kitchen, so often a primary challenge in kitchen designs like this, is how to integrate the post aesthetically and functionally with the rest of the space.

Lucila of Harmony Sense Interiors, part of HDL's interior design team, came up with a brilliant idea. To use a unique, stainless steel crown and stainless cabinet details to underscore the post, which would be wrapped in the same stainless finish! This way, the stainless material serves as a design element and the post becomes a feature! This is "design-judo" on a black-belt level!

Of course, to pull it off, HDL's Millwork division custom fabricated all the cabinetry and design details.

In the end, the homeowners' got the kitchen they wanted, at a price they could afford, and just in time for the new addition to their family! What more can you ask for from a renovation?