Respected architects Kennedy Nolan have collaborated with Laminex to create this expansive family kitchen showcasing the beauty and design versatility of Laminex® laminate. Kennedy Nolan are no strangers to working with laminate, and they were given full creative licence here to push the boundaries and bring their most ambitious ideas to reality.
As Kennedy Nolan Principal Rachel Nolan explains, her team began the design process by carefully considering the nature of laminate as a surface material. “We started by really thinking about what that material can do. We talked about the idea that you can cut it, that you can put two colours together to make a pattern, that it can be formed into different shapes,” she says. “We wanted to be able to show the product in ways it’s not typically used. And then we came back to, what are the colours that look great together.”
“Often what you need in a good family kitchen is a beautiful central piece where everyone comes together.”
Sweeping organic curves are a feature of the design, in the drum-shaped legs of the large island bench, in the splashback that flows seamlessly into the rear benchtop, and in the twin cylindrical rangehoods over the stovetop. These curved surfaces – all made possible with Laminex laminate – bring a sense of luxury and tactility. And they create an enticing play of shadow and light over the predominantly neutral colour palette, which is built around green-grey Laminex Paper Bark, yellow-based Laminex French Cream and light woodgrain Laminex Whitewashed Oak.
The island bench is arguably the hero of the space. It’s visually stunning and, with its large square surface uninterrupted by a sink, also highly practical. “Often what you need in a good family kitchen is a beautiful central piece where everyone comes together. Something that’s really easy to work at, with people on all sides,” Rachel says. “You can really imagine three people preparing a meal together or having a glass of wine.” Or indeed, doing schoolwork, or working from home.
Sweeping organic curves are a feature of the design.
This flexibility of use is supported by tower cabinetry in Paper Bark and Whitewashed Oak. Its beautifully scalloped doors open up on 180º hinges to reveal additional work surfaces, as well as storage for food and small appliances. The doors have been pushed slightly out of plane with the lower portion of the cabinetry, so their edges become door pulls, and we’re left with this beautiful repeated pattern, emphasised slightly and given a sense of depth by the shadow it throws.
Design features like these elevate everyday tasks from mundane to magical, and Kennedy Nolan has blessed this kitchen with so many of them, all crafted from laminate. “People might aspire to have big marble benches in their dream kitchen,” says Nolan, “but this kitchen feels quite glamorous, it has a lovely scale about it, and it’s Laminex.”
Laminex
laminex.com.au
Kennedy Nolan
kennedynolan.com.au
Photography by Derek Swalwell
Dissections
Laminex French Cream and Laminex Paper Bark on island benchtop
Laminex Paper Bark and Laminex Whitewashed Oak for tower scallop cabinetry
Laminex French Cream for rear benchtop, curved splashback and rangehood
Laminex Paper Bark on rear cabinetry
Laminex French Cream, Laminex Paper Bark and Laminex Whitewashed Oak surfaces
Artedomus Inax Renga Border REB4 for rangehood splashback
Fibonacci Pavlova flooring
Miele KM 2334 GAS COOKTOP
Miele H 7860 BPX Graphite Grey
Sussex Voda Sink Mixer Square SS 316
Abey Sink Lago Inset Double Bowl LG200
In Good Company, Muuto Nerd Bar Stools
