Houses Revisited: Christchurch Kitchen
The double height kitchen in this house designed by Sheppard & Rout Architects.
Looking along the granite benchtop towards the storage wall.
Looking east along the kitchen to the garden beyond.
The scullery kitchen is used for preparation and tidy up by caterers.
This Christchurch kitchen marries chic styling and culinary ease, first published in 2012.
The owners of this house had lived in an apartment for 18 years before commissioning a large house on an expansive rural section outside of Christchurch. They briefed Jonathan Kennedy of Sheppard & Rout Architects to design a home that would be a gathering place for their four adult children and friends, a place they could stay or visit anytime.
The range of living spaces in the house is extensive, with a formal sitting room, a den, and a home theatre room. The kitchen space reflects the scale and grandeur of the house in size and its function – to serve a busy, social home.
The kitchen in this house needed to be the heart of the large, L-shaped plan. From the kitchen it is possible to see up into the second storey where a hallway is open to the double height space. You can also see straight out north to the pool and garden, past the open dining space in front of the island bench. To the west from this spot lies the formal dining room and the living room.
American dark walnut, stone floors, and granite bench tops are all warm, textural materials designed to be hardwearing and forgiving of heavy use but also to dress up well.
The island bench is large, and a storage wall on the west side of the room conceals the entertainment centre and controls, and wine storage. Behind the kitchen, on the south side of the house is a scullery kitchen. This is a space for caterers to use when the clients are entertaining larger numbers or hosting more formal occasions. It has extensive storage space, and a sink and dishwashers for washing up behind the scenes.
This is a grand, luxurious space, but not cold or sterile. A thoughtful interaction with the transitional areas of the house, such as the upstairs hallway, and the use of warm timber tones that wrap the walls and portions of the ceiling make it a big but warm and inviting living and working space.
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Note: These are stories from our archives and, since the time of writing, some details may have changed including names, personnel of specific firms, registration status, etc.
