The high raked ceilings, exposed beams and a mahogany timber interior made this home a fabulous example of late 70’s architecture.

Unfortunately the house also reflected 1970’s ideas of how the kitchen, dining and living areas should function and interact, with the spaces closed off from each other save for an existing opening between the dining and living.

Our client loves to entertain and cook, and interact with guests while doing so, therefore the existing set-up was a problem. We were engaged to sympathetically update the spaces for contemporary living without losing the overall architectural essence of the house, a challenge we enthusiastically embraced.

Walls were removed and the spaces opened up resulting in greatly improved circulation and interaction between all three spaces, topped off with installation of a bespoke new kitchen, sleek in design while referencing the stained timbers of the original architecture.

However, in the spirit of 1970’s, rather than a completely open plan design we opted to retain some separation between the kitchen-dining and the living in the form of a part wall, so that the ritual of transitioning into the living room after dinner was maintained.