2011 Kitchens & Bathrooms awards

Category: Most Innovative Use of Laminate; Renovated Kitchen Project $40,001-$50,000
Company: Felicia for Lifestyle-Design
Location: Wembley Downs

With a brief calling for a design that would stand out from ones in magazines, designer Felicia Olsen had her work cut out when renovating this Wembley Downs kitchen. The tired kitchen lacked storage space and needed to be brought into the 21st century and to accommodate the lifestyle needs of the owners. “The client and her extended family love cooking so a huge bench space together with a good passageway between benchtops was essential for their family ‘cook-out’ gatherings,” Ms Olsen said. “The kitchen now takes pride of place as heart of the home.”

Features include two striking pendant lights, which Ms Olsen sourced from Melbourne, and a black-and-white, laser-cut brushed-finished aluminium panel under the breakfast bar. “I used a leser-cut panel, backed it with a coloured panel for the seen side of the kitchen and topped it with rope lighting for night-time ambience,” she said.

These touches of modern Art Deco style sit nicely with the home’s older style. Cornices around the new bulkhead over the kitchen were also matched to those in the family room.

She also renovated the children’s bathroom creating a design that would accommodate the needs of the three children. To overcome the lack of space, Ms Olsen kept the floating basin, shelf and tall cabinet off the floor. “The floating tall cupboard tucjed away in an awkward corner helped proportion out the space whilst providing huge amounts of storage space,” she said. “After the design concept was accepted, I needed to inject fun, colour and ‘kids sophistication’ and looked at the Laminex Fusion Circles, the perfect choice to inject soft colour, yet with standout wow factor. “Fusion Laminate added a kid’s perspective without it looking childish in a few years.”

Cy Clayton

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