House and Home
January - February 2005

Modern Simplicity

Nicola and John Hall’s kitchen in Rathmines, Dublin proves it’s possible to do the white thing with a family without it looking cold and characterless.

AFTER YEARS OF MAKING do with a small, dark, dated and not-so-practical kitchen Nicola and John Hall decided it was time for a change. “Our old kitchen was really small and rather crowded, we’d very little storage and worktop space, and because the kitchen was at the back of the house it got very little light. What we really wanted was a big family kitchen that would accommodate us and our three children,” says Nicola, who knew that modernizing her kitchen would involve more that just ripping out the old units and replacing them with new ones. It meant knocking down walls to create a bigger space. Enter architect David Dwyer of Dublin practice Box Architecture.

THE BRIEF
“Nicola and John’s kitchen was a pretty standard 1980s design with lots of heavy mouldings. It was badly planned and very messy,” says David. “My brief was to create a light, bright and spacious modern kitchen with lots of hidden storage that could accommodate an island at one end and a large dining table at the other.”

John’s initial approach was to knock down the wall separating the kitchen and the living room to create one large open plan space but the wall was a supporting wall and so couldn’t be knocked down. What David ended up doing was to create a new space for the kitchen in the living room, knocking out the walls between the living room, knocking out the walls between the living room, side passageway, cloakroom and downstairs toilet to create and even bigger room. “The design was conceived as one long linear element with a flow of circulating space, linking the new kitchen to the new living room and outside,” says David.

ALL WHITE
Nicola and John’s new kitchen is an enviable 20ft long space featuring a huge wall of glazing to maximize the light, with walls and ceiling painted the brightest white. The design is sleek and very contemporary looking and features a white wall of hidden floor to ceiling storage with lots of pull-out drawers, extra deep and extra wide drawers, push-button units, a larder and a clever self-contained workstation with a shiny stainless steel splash back, extra workspace and glass shelves. Every inch of space here has been put to good use, and all appliances are fully integrated to enhance the streamlined, clean-lined look. “We’ve probably got more storage space than is necessary, but we’re slowly making use of it,” says Nicola.

The kitchen was designed by David and is the creation of Woodworks in Harolds Cross, it’s a gorgeous white laminate with worktops in black granite and is as functional as is stylish. Clever touches include putting the dishwasher beside the sink and raising it off the ground so Nicola doesn’t have to bend to access it, putting shelves beside the dishwasher for easy unloading, and putting a waste disposal unit in the island, which, with the addition of a few chairs also acts as an impromptu breakfast table.

While the design is undoubtedly modern, with its white on white look and use of glass, granite and stainless steel, the space is prevented from looking cold and characterless thanks to the warm wood of the Iroko framed windows and the few splashes of colour in the room, picked up in paintings and plants. As a concession to the character of her Victorian home, Nicola has incorporated a traditional looking black Aga into the design, tucking it inside the old chimney.

So are the couple happy with their new-look family kitchen? “Absolutely,” says Nicola. “David has done such a fantastic job. The kitchen is now more pleasant environment to work in. The white painted walls and units and glass make it very bright and light. It’s a great family space and I now have my longed-for island and dining table.”

Architect: David Dwyer, Box Architecture, 30 Blackpitts, Dublin 8, 01 473 7106
Dining Chairs: Kilcroney Furniture Ltd., Kilcroney, Bray, Co Wicklow, 01 282 9361
Dining Table: Diamond Furniture, Airside Retail Park, Swords, Co Dublin 01 890 7444
Kitchen: Woodworks, 302 Harolds Cross Road, Dublin 6W, 01 492 1088

www.box.ie