A meeting place for functionality and aesthetic, enter nine modern kitchens with appliances cleverly hidden in plain sight.
There’s nothing more satisfying than discovering how a designer conceals the minutiae of everyday life in the kitchen. This is where integrated appliances become central to kitchen design, allowing the space to fit in with the designer’s overall style and brief – and to connect with other areas in the home. Naturally inviting a sense of refinement, when appliances are artfully integrated, the kitchen feels less of a workspace and brings materiality and craftsmanship to the fore. We step inside nine kitchens that make a case for integrated appliances, each sharing a focus on clean lines, ease of flow and careful consideration for space and scale.
Produced in partnership with Fisher & Paykel
Kew Apartment by Sarah Wolfendale
This regal apartment by Sarah Wolfendale, located in Melbourne’s Kew, has a distinctly Nordic flavour. Redesigned to better suit her family of four, every millimetre of the two-bedroom apartment works hard to maximise space. In the kitchen and European-style laundry, integrated Fisher & Paykel appliances such as the refrigerator freezer and built-in rangehood lie behind the custom grey cabinetry and 4.5 metre-long honed Brecciolino marble benchtop, with the exception of the 90cm built-in oven. The floating joinery by Guy Phelan with Buster + Punch T-bar pulls gives the impression of increased space, while a sliding ladder is for those harder-to-reach cupboards above.
Lena Residence by Smart Design Studio
Part of a new double-height extension that carefully attaches itself to a Paddington terrace in Sydney, Smart Design Studio’s kitchen is a clean backdrop to the home’s period details. White Corian dresses every surface in the kitchen to reflect light, offering continuity from the kitchen island to the full-height joinery, where the only visible appliance is the cooktop. Smart Design Studio have highlighted the minimalist forms by applying one material, marking a seamless transition between old and new.
Silo Apartment by Arjaan De Feyter
Arjaan De Feyter’s kitchen deviates from other curvaceous spaces in the Silo Apartment, overlooking Antwerp’s canal in a transformed malting distillery. Calling on age-old materials to shape the open-plan kitchen, a sleek travertine island with brass fixtures backs on to textural wood cladding with bespoke cabinetry that conceals all appliances. Arjaan de Feyter’s kitchen design doesn’t distract from the silo apartment’s views and works with the serene and textural interiors.
Copenhagen Apartment by Norm Architects
Designed by Norm Architects, the PH Apartment kitchen references the building’s original beauty – while creating a new identity – through a pared-down aesthetic. Said to be the former summerhouse of iconic Danish lighting designer Poul Henningsen, the designer’s vintage PH lamps are the star of the bespoke kitchen above a monolithic ceramic stone kitchen island. Aside from the induction cooktop, Norm Architects have hidden all other kitchen appliances behind the smoked oak joinery.
Portland Residence Kitchen by Atelier Barda
Architecture studio Atelier Barda took their signature minimalist style to a heritage home extension in Montreal, Canada. Steel frame glazing wraps the kitchen and informs the monochrome palette – in a bid to not distract from the greenery outside. An island anchors the kitchen space with a black storage volume that sits adjacent, featuring full-height joinery and built-in ovens. The volume also encases a bathroom and internal staircase.
Albert Park Home by Robson Rak
The Albert Park home, redesigned by Robson Rak, is shaped around a central courtyard concealed from the street. The kitchen features timeless and hardwearing materials and finishes such as natural stone to engage in a coherent dialogue with other spaces. Along with the restrained colour palette, white walls and timber cabinetry, Robson Rak has ensured the streamlined kitchen balances a sense of openness and privacy and taps into a fluid relationship between indoors and outdoors.
Longwood Apartment by Studio Prineas
The Longwood Apartment is situated in an iconic modernist 1960s building with unimpeded views of Sydney Harbour. Studio Prineas restored the interiors by capturing the period’s style and the owner’s sophistication, defining a refined kitchen palette that draws on the bold veining stonework. The integrated joinery creates extensive additional storage, where warm dark timber tones, rich leather-clad panels, and refined custom metal hardware details embody the point of engagement with the everyday.
St Vincent’s Place by B.e Architecture
B.e Architecture’s St Vincent’s Place is a striking expression of materiality and the value in uniting architect, artist and artisan. At the home’s core, a wave-like stainless steel kitchen island captures your attention, with the stainless steel cabinetry and stone benchtop carefully integrating the cooktop behind. Calling on materials that last the test of time, the kitchen doesn’t feel like a workspace, where sculptural, custom-designed elements play into the dedication to craft explored in the dining and living areas.
Seymour Avenue by Tom Robertson Architects
Taking us to Melbourne’s South Yarra, The Seymour Avenue kitchen by Tom Robertson Architects is all about measured restraint, through a balance of boldness and subtlety. The monochrome kitchen speaks to the art of subtly in its placement and integration of Fisher & Paykel appliances such as the integrated French door refrigerator freezer, warming drawer and induction cooktop. This level of detail extends to the integrated insert rangehood enveloped in the same natural stone as the splashback and kitchen bench; a combination of classic materials and contemporary gestures.
Elegant Design!