Kitchen of the Week: Into the Blue in Melbourne
This 64-square-foot kitchen Melbourne may not be terribly small, but it certainly felt that way with a large swinging door and enormous brick wall blocking off any open space. The few who live here wanted to show the room’s possible, and hired Isaac Watt and Born Builders to make an open, practical and bright kitchen.
Watt and his team tore through a claustrophobic brick wall along with peach-tiled counters and floor, developing a blank slate. Polished concrete flooring and crisp subway tile today complement bold blue cabinetry, plus a new extended countertop serves as an impromptu dinner table.
Kitchen in a Glance
Location: Richmond, a suburb of Melbourne
Size: 64 square feet
Price: $20,000, including appliances, new materials, electrical work, painting, hardware and overall labour
Born Builders
Brick walls had closed off this kitchen, along with a swinging door opened into an adjoining living space; the door swing wasted space, and the walls left the kitchen feel cluttered. Watt and his team took out the wall closing off the kitchen left a glimpse of this rich reddish brick. “It made perfect sense to expose the bricks as part of their splashback,” says Watt. It is possible to find a glimpse in the uncovered brick to the right of this window.
Born Builders
The customers loved the concept of having cool blue cabinetry to complement the gray concrete floor along with the dark wood countertops.
Born Builders
Watt and his team custom made the MDF cabinet doors along with the custom cabinetry light over the stained Tasmanian oak peninsula. They had the cabinets finished with a two-pack paint — a kind usually used on automobiles — for a shiny, extra-hard finish. The cabinets cost around $6,000.
Born Builders
The peninsula, where a wall once stood, acts as a dinner table at the compact apartment. The Tasmanian oak installation cost about $3,000.
Born Builders
Whirlpool appliances in miniature sizes work well with the limited square footage. A row of LED strip lights adds a glow light in the kitchen window reflects off the white range hood and subway tiles. The backsplash tiles cost around $1,500.
The concrete flooring finishing cost about $1,500. Watt and his team simply polished, stained and lacquered the concrete subfloor underneath the old kitchen peach-colored flooring tiles.