The result of a collaboration between Cantilever Interiors and DesignOffice, this new kitchen (titled the Tableau) was part of a recent whole home renovation in Melbourne’s Albert Park. Home to developers Ross and Pauline Troon of Milieu, the stylish space features a dark, slick palette that is complemented by a gorgeous self-watering green wall that forms the room’s stunning view.
“It’s all about extending the space out from the inside but bringing the outside in too. I love how the wall’s colour changes from season to season. Ultimately, I think it’s a nice detail – bringing nature into the space,” says Travis Dean, co-founder of Cantilever Interiors who explains that the original 1980’s-era kitchen had great potential but needed a major refresh in both aesthetics and function.
Green wall aside, it’s the lovely curved details that really elevate this kitchen and are unique to its design. “The Tableau is our latest kitchen system and it was designed in collaboration with DesignOffice. It’s based on free-standing pieces of furniture that once grouped together form a complete kitchen,” says Travis. Lovely furniture details feature in the space – the curved edges and bespoke ‘loop’ style handles really do give it a unique feel.
The kitchen features lovely curved, furniture-like, edgesThe bespoke ‘loop’ handles
The kitchen also features an enviable array of Gaggenau appliances including two ovens, a coffee machine, induction cooktop, grill, rangehood, fridge/freezer and deep fryer. The bespoke sink is paired with a Phoenix tap, Zip mixer and Insinkerator.
This tall block, painted in two-pack Dulux Black Caviar, was once the site of a walk-in pantry that was removed during the renovation process
Another standout area, and something of a Cantilever Interiors design signature, is the kitchen’s open shelving that provides a wonderful spot for personalisation. “We always try and bring in open shelving. It’s nice to have a space in which the client can add their own individual touches,” says Travis.
The gorgeous open shelving provides a personal touchThe kitchen features an Aggregato Saliscendi pendant light from Artemide
Given the significant cost of a new kitchen, whether you’re renovating or in the process of building, it’s an important space to get right. And with Jen’s recent move, it’s something she is currently pondering which got us thinking – how do you create a timeless kitchen that is still unique?
Timber While we admit that it’s on-trend at the minute, timber is a timeless material that never goes out of style and it’s a fabulous way of injecting some warmth into what can often be a clinical space. “Introducing a balanced element of timber into the kitchen will help to connect it to the whole home, keying in with other timber elements often found in windows, floors and furniture,” says the director of Cantilever Interiors, Travis Dean.
Island benchtop Increasingly considered highly valuable real estate within the home, the kitchen island benchtop serves myriad functions in modern, open-plan homes. From a space to read or prepare food, complete homework or even eat a meal, the kitchen island is a true multi-tasker. “The island benchtop has become an increasingly valuable element of a kitchen’s design, with the cooktop and sink positioned to the perimeter walls instead. This relieves the island benchtop to accommodate the variety of activities that takes place in an open plan kitchen these days,” says Travis.
Integrated appliances “It is becoming increasingly popular to integrate appliances and workstations into the design of a kitchen to create a sense of flow and cohesion. It’s important to ensure that appliances such as fridges and microwaves don’t dominate the aesthetic of your kitchen and make your kitchen look cluttered and busy,” says Travis. Be wary of aftermarket ‘integration kits’ though, as while they are a cheaper alternative they can cost you in the long run. “When selecting appliances remember to choose ones that are specifically designed for integration – aftermarket options don’t last as long and put stress on the joinery hinges and may damage your kitchen,” says Travis.
Go green In what is no surprise to us, given our penchant for indoor plants, Travis is a big fan of greenery in the kitchen. “Beautiful floral arrangements, large leafy greens and plants will bring life to your kitchen space and is a great way to bring the outdoors inside and add an organic touch to your kitchen,” says Travis.
This kitchen is brimming with greenery and we love it!
Open display shelves Something of a Cantilever Interiors hallmark, we’re big fans of open display shelves too as they really allow your personality to shine in what can be a bland, utilitarian space. “Shadow boxes, open display shelves, are a simple design element that allow you to express your own personal style. They can also add a touch of warmth and contrast to a kitchen through placement of interchangeable potted herbs, utensils, ornaments, crockery or cookbooks for a pop of colour,” says Travis.
Open shelving – the perfect place to let your personality shine
Light and airflow Light and airflow obviously never go out of favour and making sure your kitchen ticks these two boxes will ensure its longevity. “Light and airflow are design elements that increase the liveability of a kitchen. If your kitchen shares a perimeter wall of your home, it’s a good idea to take advantage of this position and try to incorporate windows into your design. Louvre windows increase airflow, and can be incorporated into window splashback designs to great effect,” says Travis.
The perimeter wall glass window really opens up this kitchen
What’s inside counts “Sometimes the wow factor with a kitchen comes when you open the cupboard door! Integrated hardware options increase the functionality of cabinetry by pulling shelving toward you, so your things don’t get lost in the back of a cupboard, or providing storage solutions for specific functions, like storing cleaning products and equipment,” says Travis. In addition, a user-friendly, considered kitchen will never date.
The splashback Given it’s such prominent part of a kitchen’s design, it pays to really consider your kitchen splashback choice. From concrete encaustic tiles to classic subways or stone, there are plenty of options that won’t look tired in two years’ time. “Splashbacks are an integral part of a kitchen design and due to their volume and visibility, can really shift the overall impact. There are a huge variety of options for splashbacks including tiles, glass, and stone and they are a great way to introduce colour and texture,” says Travis.
Colour “If you are keen to introduce colour into your kitchen cabinetry, we recommend doing so in blocks of colour. Similar to the balance found when combining a timber veneer block with a white cabinetry block, 2-pack paint finishes (which can match most interior paint colours) work well with timber veneer when in a block-grouping of cabinetry. Alternately, painting the walls of your kitchen a colour you love will capture the mood of the space you are trying to create, and can be easily changed in years to come,” says Travis.
Colour-blocked cabinetry is a great way of making your kitchen truly unique
Photography: Martina Gemmola | Styling: Ruth Welsby
When preparing a home for sale, the right kitchen renovation can add enormous appeal and significant value. Potential home buyers form emotional connections to a property if they can visualise themselves living there – so how can you create a kitchen to capture their imagination?
A new report from the Housing Industry Association estimates that around 213,000 kitchens were installed in Australian homes in the last financial year.
While over-capitalisation is a risk for all home renovations, undercapitalisation can also compromise re-sale value. “When people walk into a house, they’re doing their sums,” explains Travis Dean, a director of Melbourne kitchen design, manufacturing and installation company, Cantilever Interiors. “If it needs a new kitchen or bathroom, they’re adding $20-to-$30,000 to the purchase price.”
Cantilever Interiors believes a kitchen should have the craftsmanship and visual appeal to take it through the decades – no matter the budget – yet the company is often asked to replace kitchens that are a mere five-to-ten years old.
So you can avoid making the same mistake, Cantilever Interiors has put together five tips to ensure maximum home buyer appeal.
1. Classic palette
A pared-back colour palette ensures timeless appeal. White, for example, gives a kitchen a minimalist and clean-lined look and can also makes a space look bigger. In short, it helps a kitchen to feel inviting, fresh, light and bright.
2. Materials matter
The choice of materials is essential to the quality and appeal of a kitchen. While materials should always reflect the value of the property, they don’t always require significant investment. Re-constituted stone benchtops or quality white laminate with ply edging are durable, stylish options for different budgets.
3. Craftsmanship is key
Homebuyers have an eye for quality. Cabinets must be millimetre perfect and refined design detailing, such as shadow lines, make a big impression on how well a kitchen does or doesn’t sit in a space. The design process is also important – off-the-shelf products don’t allow the customisation required to fit a kitchen perfectly into a space.
4. Clever components
Clever, space-saving kitchen components, such a swing-out pantry, corner cupboard storage systems and other organisation inserts, show the increasingly design-savvy buyer the thought and quality that’s been invested.
5. Open spaces
Shadow boxes (open display shelves) are a simple design element that allows the new homebuyer to express their own personal style. They can add a touch of warmth and contrast to a kitchen through placement of interchangeable potted herbs, utensils, ornaments, crockery or cook books for a pop of colour.
When the owners of this mid-century Melbourne abode were looking to upgrade their kitchen, rather than installing a generic, modern design they decided to complement the origins of their home instead. Combining timber, marble, stone and beautiful mid-century details, this kitchen is a show-stopper in our view. What a stunner!
The warm timber and beautiful marble is a winning combination
“The kitchen is a wonderful example of Cantilever’s intelligent K2 kitchen system and features clean, minimalist lines that perfectly complement a mid-century home while bringing the addition of modern comforts,” says Travis Dean of Cantilever Interiors.
The design features a beautiful combination of materials including Blackbutt timber veneer, white two-pack cabinetry, a stone benchtop and a stunning marble splash back. Perhaps the standout feature though is the beautiful custom-made solid timber handles that are very much in keeping with the mid-century origins of the home.
Custom-made, solid timber handles
Not just extremely good-looking, the kitchen is highly functional too. “Just like a classic piece of mid- century furniture, the kitchen is designed with ergonomics in mind and functionality is another hero of the design. Every element of the high-quality joinery has a purpose – from the Cantilever Interiors appliance cupboard to the pull-out tandem pantry and the elegant integrated open shelving,” says Travis.
The servery connects through to the dining room
“We reconfigured the kitchen to create a better connection to the adjacent dining area through the addition of a window in the wall between the two spaces. This open area acts as a servery which is another nod to mid-century design.”
“Cantilever’s clever K2 Kitchen System provides the flexibility and design sensitivity required to modernise the home of these mid-century devotees. Timeless and sustainable, it’s the perfect fit,” says Travis.
While the peg board has been trending for a while now, the new Wanda shelving system from Melbourne’s Cantilever Interiors takes the concept to another level entirely! Comprised of three different options (small, medium, large), the hugely customisable system features straight up shelving, a drawer option and a multi-purpose storage/hanging unit too.
Created in the brand’s Brunswick workshop, from high-quality sustainable materials sourced within Australia, there’s no end to the colour and configuration options the design presents. As loyal readers will know, we love a customisable interior product and this is no exception. The only problem we foresee is just how we would narrow down our selection!?!
Wanda’s backing board (available in charcoal, light grey and white) is constructed from high pressure laminate pressed onto sustainable E0 MDF board while the accompanying brackets are made from stainless steel. The shelves are comprised of laminate on ply wood and come in charcoal, light grey, white, and through other gorgeous colours – burgundy, olive and pale blue. The shelves are available in two widths – narrow (525mm) and wide (825mm).
The Wanda Library is a traditional storage solution – the stainless steel shelving is movable and we visualise books, files, storage boxes and all sorts of office ephemera slotting right into the system.
The Wanda Library
The Wanda Studio is a ridiculously clever design that is a movable shelving and desk/drawer solution that slots onto the peg board – we’ve seen nothing like it. You could use it as bedside shelving or even a desktop and mix it up as your needs change.
The Wanda Studio – we love that olive green!
The Wanda Utility is a smaller, multi-purpose piece that allows you to display, hang, stack or hide your household items – it’s a perfect spot for hanging your keys, umbrella or even coat making it ideal for the hallway.
The Wanda Utility – the burgundy is an inspired colour choice
With mid-century design still big news on the interiors scene it follows that the period is influencing our bathroom and kitchen schemes too. Whether you’re renovating a home (mid-century or otherwise) or keen to incorporate a mid-century inspired kitchen in a new space, we caught up with Melbourne’s Cantilever Interiors recently to discuss key design considerations.
The finishes Nothing says mid-century design like plywood and laminate – pair them with white for a timeless feel. “Materials such as plywood, which is synonymous with furniture by iconic mid-century designers Charles and Ray Eames, is a key feature of the design period. One of our recent designs, the K1, features laminate benchtops with plywood edges and our palette of finishes is generally quite faithful to mid-century design,” says company director Dean Wilde.
Ergonomics Mid-century furniture is characterised by its attention to both form and function – ergonomic considerations were key to the design period. “Just like mid-century furniture, our kitchens are also designed with ergonomics in mind. Swing-out pantry systems, soft-close drawers and pull-out bin organisers are all examples of how the kitchens are designed for the comfort and ease of the home cook,” says Dean.
Styled spaces Another mid-century design aspect that Dean favours is the open display box – a great place for you to play with an array of ever-changing vignettes and an opportunity for you to mix things up when things feel stale. “Mid-century design can be evoked in the way you dress a kitchen, so designing display areas like open shelves allows you to reference the era in different ways and it also means you can rotate the objects when you feel like a change of scene,” says Dean.
Open display boxes & ergonomic drawer handles
Modern layout If you are renovating a mid-century home, your existing kitchen is probably closed off in the back corner – something that doesn’t suit most lifestyles today. “The kitchen is now a multi-purpose space for the whole family, so when planning a mid-century kitchen renovation, you may need to factor in some structural changes so it can integrate with open plan areas,” says Dean.
With a steadfast commitment to sustainable design, Melbourne’s Cantilever Interiors not only make beautiful kitchens but they’re timeless and built to last too.
In order to ensure your kitchen remains ageless, and less likely to end up in landfill, they recommend a pared-back colour palette that can easily adapt to future trends. Open shelving is also one of their design signatures, included in all their kitchens. This allows objects can be displayed and changed over the years as styles change. They combine these design features with robust materials which are also key to a kitchen’s longevity.
As for their environmental credentials, the company source sustainable materials within Australia, their board materials have zero emissions and all their timber is treated with low VOC water-based finishes. Their benchtops are sustainable and constructed from reconstituted stone (made from 75% recycled materials) or laminate that uses low levels of formaldehyde.
And their environmental commitment doesn’t end there – the whole company is run on green principles. Their kitchens are built using 100% carbon neutral electricity and they use the latest machinery that reduces waste and increases yield from panel products. The packaging, packing boards and packing crates are also recycled.
Green credentials aside, these are some seriously good-looking kitchens, don’t you think?
