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Category: Living Room

  • A Picture-Perfect Alcove TV Wall

    A Picture-Perfect Alcove TV Wall

    As part of our upgrade package for our Freeman’s Bay project, BoxMakers crafted a highly accommodating custom TV cabinet. Precision cut and perfect to the millimetre, this TV unit was purpose-built to fit a specific space within this home.

    Slotted perfectly into the living room alcove, this brand new BoxMakers TV cabinet stands tall with 4 layers of shelving atop a quadruple doored set of cabinets. Starting from the top, the unit’s apex sits exactly flush with the room’s curtain rod. Finished with smooth Quarter Thorndon Cream from Prime Panels, this nuanced white blends perfectly with the living room.

    With the body made out of double-thickness MDF thanks to joined panels, the shelves’ rigidity is second to none. The thick, custom joined panels were chosen specifically to accommodate sculptures and antiques, and can of course double as a bookshelf.

    At the centre, we’ve created room enough to comfortably fit TVs up to 58 inches, making for a great viewing experience. Perfect for movie night, yet subtle and seamless, this unit is highly capable without being flashy.

    Beneath, the cabinetry features Dezignatek’s Russell series of their Thermoform panels – custom ordered to feature four grooves in the centre instead of the original 5. In an exquisite fusion of ornate and modern tastes, the Knurled Knob Handles by Mucheln in Antique Bronze made for a perfect finishing touch. These lower cabinets were able to tuck items away out of sight and made for ample storage.

    Making a returning appearance from the kitchen, Forté’s Ebony Rustic Plank serves as the tabletop. Its textured European Oak face adds maturity and elegance. Of note is the black, powder-coated steel edge we paired with it, which was custom ordered from TFW.

    Altogether, this custom TV unit makes the most of an alcove space to hide what needs to be hidden and flaunt what is to be shown – all while possessing the elegance, maturity, and subtlety of a smart, modern home solution.

    Designed by: Mona Simathamchai

    Looking for new cabinetry or thinking about a kitchen renovation? Call us on 09 827 1177, or send us an email at [email protected]

  • An Immersive Full-Wall Entertainment Unit

    An Immersive Full-Wall Entertainment Unit

    While broadcast television may be on its way out, your TV, and where you watch it, is more relevant than ever. With an abundance of shows to watch and games to play, nothing beats entertainment on the biggest screen in the home. The owners of this new Wainui residence are keenly aware of this fact, and sought to make their multimedia room the best it could be, calling upon BoxMakers for a full-wall entertainment unit.

    As connoisseurs of home entertainment, the family wanted a space to host the trifecta of gaming, listening, and viewing. Our acutely-eyed designers knew exactly what the job called for, such as tailor-made cubbies for consoles, turntables, and display materials. The power points, for example, were keenly positioned to make plug and play as easy as it sounds.

    From the outset, we aimed to deliver the client’s goal of an atmospheric and immersive space. This involved a rich finish of Dark Oak Puregrain from Melteca. The melamine-on-MDF combo ensured high weight capacity while also facilitating our choice of finish.

    On the left, the unit sports an accommodating assortment of adjustable shelving, while the right half features a TV display with purpose-built shelves for consoles and accessories. This side is notable for having slatted acoustic panelling, shared with the backing pattern. We partnered with Profile Panels to deliver this sleek and performant solution. Its Natural Ebony colour is a perfect collaborator for the melamine panels, bringing modernity and dynamism to the aesthetic. Its soundproofing ability boosts the room’s aural performance while also dampening its disruption to other spaces.

    The bottom cabinets feature a symmetrical selection of four drawers. Featuring Häfele’s quality hardware, they are a breeze to open and close. Underneath, the toe kick features warm LED lighting from Domus Line, supplied by Fit NZ. It also makes an appearance in, and beneath the TV housing, matching the glow of the ceiling lights cast upon the dark panelling. This gives a rich, theatrical atmosphere to the room. With room to accommodate even larger TVs, this entertainment unit allows for a veritable home theatre.

    Perfectly working with the room’s blackout curtains and soft carpet, our entertainment unit combines for a superbly immersive experience. The closable panels also make it incredibly friendly for the resident feline, being able to close away shelves from the mischief of curious cats.

    As a statement piece with incredible presence and function, this unit truly makes for an unparalleled viewing experience.

    Designed by: Mona Simathamchai

    👉 Looking for new cabinetry or thinking about a kitchen renovation? Call us on 09 827 1177, or chuck us an email at [email protected]

  • An All-Round Reception Upgrade

    An All-Round Reception Upgrade

    Facing the problems of cramped seating, poor navigability, and aging furniture, this reception at a renowned Mt Eden school was due for a BoxMakers renovation. Featuring a wholly redone front desk, brand new cabinets, and a custom front façade, this upgrade was centred around practicality while preserving the school’s heritage.

    Find out what we did to tackle each problem the original reception had:

    Flow & Printer Accessibility:

    Originally, the reception had two forward-facing seats, and one facing the wall. Not only did this cause congestion, but it also affected uniformity. As such, accessing the printer, which was on the opposite end, was difficult.

    Since it was constantly in use, traffic easily crowded up. BoxMakers alleviated this issue by rearranging the layout for all three seats to be facing the front, and relocated the printer to a dedicated space we made by the doorway. This freed up a tremendous amount of room and made the reception area feel much airier as a result.

    Desk Height & Front Façade

    The former front desk suffered from the woes of a low, non-standard height, which made for tight leg space, and a feeling of constriction. In order to expand the space and add more height, the reception fascia had to be altered. To this end, BoxMakers redesigned the lower half with a contemporary woodgrain look featuring both sleek angles and soft curves.

    We paid a lot of respect to the original look when designing this, making sure it appeared faithful to the school’s heritage. With elegant lighting and plenty of legroom, the reception looks and feels better than ever.

    Cabinet Positioning and Replacement

    Facing aging and yellowed cabinets, the school sought a fresh, unobtrusive solution. The back face of the original space featured awkwardly-mounted units that crowded the head-level space and made movement cumbersome. BoxMakers cleared these away, while installing a healthy complement of brand new, custom cabinets all around the edges.

    Melteca’s Snowdrift finish combined with Prime Panels’ Premium Ply woodgrain made for a light and modern look. Combine that with Mardeco’s Barcelona handle series, and you have a smart complement of reception cabinetry that is just as capable as it is good looking. With lockable cabinets, double-door shelving units, and numerous Häfele drawers, the staff would want for nothing when it comes to storage.

    BoxMakers are pleased to have made the reception a more accommodating space are we are confident that it has made the room much more comforting to work in. Our team is always happy to find solutions that empower not just the students, but also the staff, and everyone around them.

    Designed by: Mona Simathamchai

    Looking for new cabinetry or thinking about a kitchen renovation? Call us on 09 827 1177, or chuck us an email at [email protected]

  • A Purpose-Built TV Cabinet

    A Purpose-Built TV Cabinet

    For this recently bought Glenfield house, the owner conducted a thorough home renovation. Having finished a beautiful modern kitchen for this family, our work also extended to a custom TV cabinet and a bathroom vanity, which combined to firmly cement this home as a full modern package.

    Coming with the original home, the owner’s living space inherited an old fireplace. As they wished to opt for indoor heating, this fixture would have served as nothing more than a decorative relic. In place of it, BoxMakers were called upon to deliver a floor to ceiling TV cabinet, with a broad enough space to accommodate TVs up to 75”.

    Beautiful Panels

    Our precision cut cabinetry used a 16mm MDF substrate with a finish that came in Bleached Maple Woodgrain by Prime Panels. This mirrored the look of the brand-new kitchen while also fitting perfectly with the hardwood floor. As far as storage is concerned, the cabinet offers four large shelves with backlit LEDs, dual vertical cabinets with ample shelving, and bottom drawers featuring Häfele’s runner systems.

    The wall-facing corner was carefully cut to accommodate the room’s crown moulding, ensuring a seamless fit and perfectly integrating it with the living room. Multiple power points were also thoughtfully installed with the family’s uses in mind. In addition to enjoying shows on a very large TV, the household are also big fans of gaming and karaoke. These power outlets allow for convenient powering of consoles and accessories while being excellent at hiding cables.

    Complementing the Bathroom

    Downstairs saw a significant structural makeover, and BoxMakers’ role was to deliver a new bathroom vanity to provide additional storage and a convenient basin. It features the same Calacatta Bianco countertop as the kitchen, partnered with a new cabinet finish of white melamine, yet complementing it just as well. The handles were chosen to be Mardeco’s Arezzo series, a rounded rectangular bar handle in black. This quaint little corner vanity adds cohesion and function to the new ground floor.

  • A Stellar Dual-Function TV Cabinet & Guest Renovations

    A Stellar Dual-Function TV Cabinet & Guest Renovations

    The second act to our Tāwharanui Peninsula project, this luxury home saw a stellar TV unit, wardrobe, and bathroom vanity by BoxMakers. Coming in the same vein of dark yet graceful midnight-themed cabinetry, this mysterious living room unit offers more than what meets the eye…

    Brooding silently at the end of a decadently spacious lounge, this cool and collected TV cabinet holds a few more secrets than it might seem. Clad in the armour of night, this bespoke unit effortlessly flaunts StyleLite’s Carbon series in TruMatte – a hypnotic black teeming with thick atmosphere. The thick outer panels emphasise its strong, silent nature while also limiting glare for the TV inside. Below, a subtle triplet of cubbies allow for convenient media storage.

    The cabinet doors are composed of a modern arrangement of vertical slats. Plytech supplied their Maestro Latt series, a premium panel which we selected in Pepper Oak on Black – an airy timber reprieve with a contrasting dark underlay for definition and effect. The two-tiered rail allows the entire until to be concealed, but the real mystery isn’t the panels themselves – it’s what behind them…

    Sliding over the door, the slats reveal a full kitchenette, complete with a sink, splashback, and mini-fridge. Needless to say, yes, it came in black. Featuring Silestone’s Night Tebas18, the benchtop is a captivating star-specked spacescape, whose details are only observable under close scrutiny.

    Shifting through the deepness of space is the splashback, which features undulating tones of wavelike stone and a pattern evocative of a gas giant’s stormy shell. With the same black matte panels and glossy onyx handles, this mesmerising midnight enigma offers galactic levels of convenience and storage, especially with Häfele’s drawer systems. It even has a local ice giant (a mini fridge).

    The guest bedroom also saw a blacked-out addition in the form of a wardrobe. With smooth sliding doors, accommodating cubbies, and ample hanger space, this wardrobe is perfect for handling guest storage. Enko was our choice for the drawers here as their Slimbox system was perfect for handling large capacities with smooth operation.

    Elsewhere, the guest bathroom features a modern natural aesthetic. To deliver definition against its light wooden tones, BoxMakers installed a bathroom vanity of the same black scheme with a few key differences: the face panels reintroduced Dezignatek’s fluted design, while the basin resembled the hollowed-out half of a meteorite. Its raw, natural curves pair perfectly with the bathroom’s natural aesthetic, while the floating vanity adds a touch of modernity. With a smartly disguised kitchen and TV space, large wardrobes, and modern vanities, this project is out of this world. Featuring premium materials fit for its luxury location, this multi-faceted BoxMakers renovation delivered functional upgrades across the guest suite, thoroughly dripping with atmosphere. Also, they’re incredibly cool.

  • A Multi-Room Renovation in Westmere

    A Multi-Room Renovation in Westmere

    Last year, one of our most diverse projects was a double room renovation in Westmere. This was a highly involved project that showcased our cabinetmaking expertise in tailoring to numerous use cases. The family’s lifestyle was fast outgrowing their original rooms and required solutions that better suited their needs and activities.


    To start off, the owner required an unused bedroom to be converted into a study room. BoxMakers’ role included designing and incorporating a solution that allowed for dual desktop computer placement with specially installed cable grommets to minimise visual clutter. The client envisioned a clean, neat, and productive workspace that could be used for both study and work. As a whole, the study room included a large corner desk, complete with a full suite of cabinetry – including overhead shelves and cabinets, as well as drawers and corner shelving.


    Material-wise, Dezignatek’s White Thermofoam became the choice for the cabinet face panels, with their Oslo-style door profiles. Their centre indents create a subtle sense of texture and tactility without detracting from the clean look. The shelves were finished with a Timber Veneer in American White Oak while the desktop featured the same finish, and featured a mixed core Plywood constitution for lasting durability. Häfele’s soft-close series was used for both the hinges and drawer runners, hampering those jarring door sounds. iLLUMAX’s LED strips were applied underneath the open shelves to provide warm task lighting – perfect for reading and paperwork.


    Elsewhere, the children’s playroom was renovated to serve as a general living space, adapting to the family’s evolving needs. The room had also inherited some extra space thanks to a recent expansion. Taking full advantage of the renewed space, the owner called upon BoxMakers to design and build a set of cabinetry befitting of this new and improved room.


    The layout consisted of an arch arrangement of open shelves over a row of cabinets with a flat benchtop – perfect for showcasing pottery, books, and framed photos. The base benchtop features the same mixed-core plywood found in the study, keeping aesthetic consistency while providing an incredible amount of storage room. The TV-space is also immense, allowing room for large screens that could be watched from the other end of the room.


    This multi-faceted project showcases BoxMakers’ ability to create purpose-built, space-efficient rooms and effectively transform spaces to accommodate a broad range of lifestyles.

  • A Special Scandinavian Kitchen in Mt Albert

    A Special Scandinavian Kitchen in Mt Albert

    Our ongoing work at this Mt Albert home is helping bring to life the owner’s visionary passion project. Envisaging a crystal-clear idea of exactly what they wanted for their family, the owner worked closely with BoxMakers to ensure part of the kitchen and cabinetry was how they dreamt it to be.

    The core design philosophy behind this project is to create a minimalist, clean, and airy kitchen that feels simply freeing the moment you step in. A simple and light Scandinavian-style kitchen was the goal. The colours were selected to mirror this relieving nature, being a warm beige and gentle white. Melteca’s French Cream was chosen as the primary colour, a decadent tone evocative of elegantly-presented desserts.

    Prime Panels’ Embossed White fills out the rest of the scene with hints of levity. Beneath the melamine colours, the cabinetry’s core material is a sturdy MDF – a versatile substrate for hosting such a palette. Uniquartz’s Sparkling White makes an appearance as the benchtop’s finish. The textured grey of the engineered stone strikes a perfect midpoint between the cream and white.

    For the handles and drawer features, we found Häfele to hit all the right notes for the owner’s vision. Their intricately engineered drawer runners, sides, and faces made storage both satisfying and accommodating. In keeping with a flush, minimalist design, Häfele’s Luxe series were chosen to serve as hidden extrusion handles, hiding away even the slightest amount of visual clutter. The theme continues with Enko’s Vibo Pull-Out Bottle Organiser, and FIT’s Tanova Dual Pull-Out Bin.

    The centrepiece of the cabinetry, however, is the full-height glass display cabinet, right beside the kitchen. It comes complete with a full set of per-shelf LED lighting, primed for figurine display.

    BoxMakers’ work continues on another home in the same complex, with much of the same principles carried over, such as a clean, minimalist design, and a feature-set designed to cater to all generations of a growing family. The project’s tenets of simplicity, durability, and versatility can be seen in both lots, but the former is undeniably something special.

  • A Reimagined Island Getaway

    A Reimagined Island Getaway

    In a trip across the Hauraki Gulf, our BoxMakers team was called to renovate a beautifully situated residence on the southwestern tip of Waiheke Island. We were adamant on delivering a product that could not only compliment, but elevate the stunning views of the island’s flora.

    The project called for extensive cabinetry and joinery work across multiple rooms, including the fireplace, laundry, office, and more. Our work in the living room featured a TV unit made of stained American Oak panels and cabinetry, which sported concealable asymmetrical shelving and large sliding panels, which part to reveal space for a genuinely enormous television. Situated above a modern fireplace, extensive care was taken to ensure the longevity of both the woodwork and the items they housed.

    For the office, BoxMakers delivered high quality, height-matching cabinets complete with finger pull-handles and soft-close drawers. Subtle LED accent lighting was applied to the overhead units, providing an elegant touch of light that accentuates the cabinetwork. Similar work was applied to the full-height entrance storage units, which featured a diverse range of joinery work, offering everything from shelves, to drawers, to sitting spots. The L-profile handles and warm white toe-kick LED lighting adds both convenience and accessibility while matching the home aesthetic.

    The master ensuite also featured a wide range of cabinetry work, featuring floating drawers in black stained oak, tastefully contrasting the eggshell walls while preserving the natural yet modern tone of the home. The soft-close drawer systems minimise noise disruption when opening and closing, especially during times of peace and quiet. Also receiving an upgrade was the laundry room, which was renovated with premium birch plywood and a wide array of drawers and cabinets, eliminating any storage issues. The cabinetry was made to perfectly accommodate the two laundry units, serving as a prime example of space efficiency.

    With splendid views overseeing Te Wharau Bay as well as vast stretches of the lush Waiheke greenery, BoxMakers elevated the residence with complementary natural colours and extensive functionality, making the home a luxurious getaway with plenty of room to grow.