Ideas and inspiration for creating your home 

Living in a world of constantly changing trends and styles, it can be difficult to keep up. 

At Balnei & Colina, we are constantly dealing with changing trends and practical solutions to design problems. Our advice is always the same; keep it simple, and keep it timeless. When creating your perfect kitchen, we want the end result to satisfy all your specific needs and be enduring and elegant. A kitchen design that will stand the test of time, so that your kitchen will look and function as good ten years from now as it does today.

Below we have selected four of the latest kitchen trends that are not only making a huge impact in Australian home design at the moment, they are also simple and classic enough to outlast the others. We want this to be a space you can relax, share and enjoy with family and friends for many years to come.

Douglas Moxon

Head of Design

 

Peakhurst Heights Kitchen Renovation, Sydney.

 

Matt black has made a comeback!

We’ve noticed a rise in all-black kitchen designs that will definitely be a theme going into 2018. Black accent cabinetry, a black island bench, or black fittings, tapware, sinks or even apppliances matched with a smart timbergrain (or classic white) can be a very striking feature!

A new product to the market is AbsoluteMatte by Laminex. Lending a touch of elegance and sophistication to any kitchen, this series delivers a velvet smooth and ultra-matte surface that will change the way you think about laminate.

AbsoluteMatte is perfect for a range of applications including cabinetry, doors, and panels. It also has advanced new patent-pending technology with superior fingerprint and scratch resistance, coupled with antibacterial protection and the ability to thermally heal burnishes. 

 

Matt black cabinetry by Alta Architecture.

Source: Laminex

 

Matt black kitchen cabinetry by James Woodford Design

Source: Southwood Style Journal

 

A fresh approach to furniture integration

More than ever nowadays, residences are leaning towards open plan living, meaning that the kitchen has become more of an extension of the living space. As a result, kitchens are beginning to incorporate more furniture elements to their design, with integrated appliances becoming much more prevalent.

Neff for instance have the fantastic ‘Slide&Hide’ ovens where the doors of the oven disappears into itself to free up space and allow for a truly flexible cooking experience. Smeg also have an excellent range of induction cooktops and ovens that blend seamlessly into kitchen benchtops and cabinets.

Fisher & Paykel seem to be the market leaders when it comes to dishdrawers, with these chic pull out appliances dominating smaller kitchens in apartments all over Australia. They also have the popular cooldrawer line, where you can change from a refrigerator to a freezer at the touch of a button. It’s often difficult to get past the bulkiness of a rangehood, but Gaggenau have managed to design their latest gas and induction cooktops which have an inclusive ventilation system. Problem solved!

 

Integrated appliances feature in this Balmain kitchen renovation in Sydney.

Source: Balnei & Colina

 

The Vario cooktops 400 series by Gaggenau.

Source: gaggenau.com.au

 

Let there be light!

The team here at Balnei & Colina often deal with clients who want something other than dimly-lit and dark pantries and cabinets to store their bread and jars of peanut butter. They’re sick of finding a head of garlic from a year ago, or expired pack of chocolate biscuits they bought at the supermarket 6 months before. One of our solutions is thanks to the cabinetry leaders Blum.

LEGRABOX by Blum is an example of practical, sleek, and innovative kitchen cabinet design. While there are a few variations of this technology, the specific LEGRABOX offering uses clear glass design elements brilliantly, allowing you to actually see inside the pull out drawer. This will avoid food going missing in the dark recesses of the traditional kitchen pantries and cabinets.

 

Trasnparent drawers and shelving, by Blum

Source: blum.com.au

 

Bookmatching with natural stone elegance

Bookmatching’ refers to the matching of two or more slabs of stone, so that the two adjoining surfaces mirror each other, like a book that has been opened.
How are book matches created you ask? Well, large blocks of natural stone are cut into large slabs. Instead of polishing the same side of each slab as is the traditional way, they alternate them so each slab is polished on opposite sides. The final result sees the bookmatched slabs placed next to each other to show a mirror image. The effect is pretty remarkable. 

In terms of kitchen design, bookmatching with stone is truly next level. And for those who yearn for a kitchen splashed with natural stone, or perhaps if you’re going after a Hamptons-style look, bookmatching is the way to go. 

 

This is an excellent example of bookmatching, designed by Arent & Pyke

Source: Arent & Pyke

 

Bookmatching has been used as the real feature in this kitchen renovation

Source: My Domain

 

Luxurious stone bookmatching has been used for this large benchtop and workspace

Source: Maxim Australia

 

For more information about our custom kitchen renovation services or to book a design consultation, call 1300 450 320.

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