Kitchen build - Dan Kitchens Australia

Day 14

So very nearly done!


Door handles are on, and some appliances are now in place. We thought about getting concealed door handles of various profiles but decided on nice chunky Kethy Roma handles that simply make drawer operation easy, even when drawers are fully loaded.


They also match the door handle of our new Neff B48 oven, which has a "slide and hide" door!


The rest of the oven stack has also had its drawers, shelves and door fitted:


The rangehood facia and adjacent shelving is now up too. Rangehood is a Sirius SL906EM-L520 with an off-board motor.


Main sink is a Blanco NAYA8SK5, black/anthracite finish. Tap will be a matching Blanco ALTASA pull-out mixer. We prefer the undermount look, but went overmount here as we didn't want an exposed edge for pots and pans to chip away at.


Drinks area sink is a stainless steel Oliveri undermount. This one will only be used for rinsing/washing drinkware.


A few bits and bobs (including the floating shelves in the drinks area) are still to be done, but critically the cabinets are all in place and prep-tops built up to allow final measurements to be taken for the caesarstone benchtops. These will take a couple of weeks to make so the next update may not be for a while

 

Looking great!

 

I love seeing the transformation! Looking good!

 

Day 27

Still waiting for the caesarstone to be cut and installed later this week, but the builder decided to pop by yesterday (Sunday!) to finish off the skirting boards, the left wall of the drinks area, and the fridge vents.



Rushed in a couple of coats of paint this morning, but not happy with my work so I'll sand it back a bit and repaint it tomorrow. Saving a few bucks on cheap painting gear is such a false economy.

 

I remember warning you about that shelf - looking forward to it being a beautiful display of all Bub's toys

It's looking awesome - can't wait to see the sink and everything in it!

 

lol yep! The crawling has just begun, so walking won't be far away... no breakables in that display shelf

Today my mum mentioned that I had a habit of emptying all of the kitchen cupboards when I was a toddler... everything would be taken out and placed onto the floor. Some of my traits I hope bub inherits, but that isn't one of them

 

Day 28

Scraping, sanding then another coat or two of paint with a much higher quality roller (Monarch Razorback) and the wall looks ten times better, albeit only in person as the previous photos didn't show the uneven finish and dozens of hardened fibre clumps sticking out everywhere.

Took the chisel and course+medium sanding blocks to the old skirting board so it blended better with the new one. New nib wall has some curve to it (emphasised by our non-flat original wall) so one less glaring join line helps that inconsistency almost disappear.


Found a great time/effort/cleanup/paint saver at Bunnings: UniPro paint tin lid/pourer. This one is for 4L tins, think 1L is also available.


Day 29 preview... should be a good one!!!

 

Day 29

HUGE step towards completion with the caesarstone "white shimmer" benchtops arriving on schedule.


Hard to capture in photos, but the stone sparkles really nicely as you move around and let the downlights do their thing


Drinks area has had the bar fridge installed, along with some floating shelves either side of the window. Sink is an undermount Oliveri SN1020U, hope it's big enough to wash cups, perhaps the 1030 would have been a wiser choice at the cost of eating up a bit more bench space. Tap will be a KWC pull-out mixer with the cold water plumbed via a Brita inline filter.


DKA made a tiny little bit of colour-matching trim so that the upper splashback doesn't leave a "hole" in the corner:


Island has a display shelf, waterfall stone side and 7 storage compartments:


Main cooking/cleaning area has the Neff induction cooktop and Blanco 1.5-bowl sink installed. Dishwasher is a perfect fit and actually determines the final height of all the benchtops (48.5mm thick - thought we ordered 60mm but this looks perfect)


Plumber and sparky will be in tomorrow to add their finishing touches, followed lastly by the builder who will install the external rangehood vent. Hard to believe we are almost done...

 

Looking fantastic!

 

Looking amazing! I see what you mean about drink-sink though - it's a bit tiny. Might be hard to get your hands in?

 

The thinking behind it is that it's mainly there to catch drips from the tap, which is primarily there to fill up the kettle and coffee machine (by pulling the tap out to the appliances, rather than bringing the appliances to the tap.) Originally we were going to go for a small drain grate often found with those pricey Zip Hydro taps:

but instead decided to go for a bit more functionality.

I wonder if we'll actually be washing cups here, as it seems a chore to separate dirty drinkware from plateware after a meal "no the cups go over there remember" and also it would be nice to avoid having a dish drying tray, detergent, tea towel etc in the drinks area. First world problems

Sparkies and plumbers are over at the moment fitting light switches, power points, taps, drains and the waste water pump. Still can't comprehend using the space as a kitchen - for the last month it's just been a construction zone to take pictures of while we use our temporary setup in the living room / courtyard

 

Haha yes - been there! You won't know yourself! I still wander around my kitchen marvelling at it's form and function...

 

Day 30

... on day 34. As soon as the kitchen became usable, we immediately wanted to use it, so we did Took a while to get everything moved back over from the temporary setup, but it's so good being able to wash dishes indoors again!!



Sparky fitted Clipsal Saturn Pure White light switches and power points at all visible locations, and standard fittings elsewhere e.g. inside the pantries. Both pantries have automatic lighting and work benches level with the main benchtops; this one designated as a breakfast area:


Main area has 3 double GPOs (one hidden behind the plastic bag.) The left one also contains the light switch for the task lighting. The waste water pump (mounted on the other side of the wall) emits a faint hum whenever the main sink is used, but it's very muted and is largely vibration of the naked gyprock wall which will be dampened by the splashback later. Isolating the waste pipe between the wall and the pump with something flexible could help, but I doubt I'll bother as it is already quiet enough to be ignored.


The island has 1 double GPO for using occasional appliances on the island, as well as a light switch for the lower display shelf. Our old dining table is just butted up against the island. We are VERY glad we left the island completely bare (no sink/cooktop/etc) - the freedom of space/function is so liberating.


The drinks area has a double GPO on either side, and also a light switch for the downlights in the bulkhead. Sparky gave us the option of having those downlights turn on with the main kitchen lights, but recommended we keep them separate as that's the setup most of his customers end up with (he's happy to change it later.)


Getting the main (150kg) fridge back up 3 stairs was incredibly difficult... it took me + 2 neighbours to get it up. Bunnings collapsible stair trolley and a ratcheting strap made it manageable though, and it fits like a glove!


Back to present: today we had a visit from DecoGlaze to show us some samples from their standard colour range and take measurements. Unsurprisingly we weren't happy with any of their standard colours so my wife (being a professional colour consultant) will precisely pick our own; they can use any Dulux paint colour.

 

just came across this thread, wow
Can I ask what is the wood you've used or the stain ? I love this look

 

Would love to help but I bought the house with the floorboards in place. After sanding, the floor wasn't stained directly; rather some stain was added to the polish and done in 3 passes.

 

Looking great! I'm surprised that the colour of the glass wasn't bedded down prebuild to match with everything but sometimes it is good to wait and see what works in the space rather than a showroom.
I think a grey smokey mirror would look awesome but it is a little unsettling. I keep on getting spooked by my reflection all the time in my bronze mirror.

 

We were also surprised when the kitchen builder said that they always leave the splashback selection until the very end - but it does make sense as the lighting of the whole area has changed dramatically with the new cabinets and stone tops.

The splashback sample that we were 90% sure would be suitable (during the design stage) turned out to be totally wrong now that we're moving a physical piece of glass around the kitchen at various times of the day.

Smoke/shadow mirror-effect was one of our showroom favourites haha... until we tried the samples in the actual kitchen. Yeah... nah

 

@chylld what material is the benchtop that is inside the pantry? Stone or laminate? I really like what you've done there, makes it "leave" stuff on the benchtop, but can easily close the door so its nice and clean.

 

They're laminate; fixed integral pieces of each pantry:


The left one is for preparing breakfast (cereal spreads jaffles etc) and the right one is for bub's stuff and occasional appliances, e.g. vacuum sealer. Part of the kitchen designer's original plan, we thought yeah those could be handy sometimes... we already use both at least once a day

 

Beautiful. Well done.