Tag: Kitchen benchtop

White Motif and Clean Lines

One of our recent projects in Cockle Bay, this shiny new kitchen was designed around a central white motif in keeping consistency with the rest of the home. This snowy design language extends to almost every corner of the positively glowing kitchen. Designed and crafted by the BoxMakers team, this cooking space exudes confidence and personality.

Aside from the colour uniformity, the Cockle Bay project also features a focus on clean lines and space-efficiency. The island runs parallel to the perfectly flush handleless designs of the main benchtop. This level design extends to the overhead cabinets, whose hidden handles and integrated rangehood provides a sleek, minimalist look. The cabinetry body is made from Prime Panels’ Melamine Embossed MDF range, while the face panels feature Decorpanel’s Matte Snow White.

Aesthetic Yet Practical Cooking Area

The benchtop is 30mm Uniquartz Engineered Stone, finished in Plain White, and the splashback features a delicate arrangement of subway tiles that sport a glossy and grooved texture – built around a modest sliding window. Aesthetically, it adds character and depth to the kitchen while practically, it provides both natural light and ventilation, dispersing cooking smoke and odours. Underlining the overhead cabinets is a subtle stretch of iLLUMAX’s LED lighting, which comes in a warm 3000K temperature.

Storage Highlights

One of the highlights of this kitchen is the large pantry unit, built into what was once a storage closet. It comes complete with a set of 90-degree shelves, three drawers, and a small benchtop to mirror the kitchen. It allows for perfectly concealable and convenient food storage while making the most of the room provided.

Häfele, once again, was our choice for the drawer runners. This time however, we sought to include their Cooking Agent base cabinet as its feature-set aligned perfectly with our vision. Their AGO-vario cutlery trays also proved a convenient addition, and their subtle extrusion handles allowed for a uniform, invisible-grip design. Another base cabinet secret was the dual kitchen bin by FIT’s Tanova line. These features combine to make the kitchen appear as clean and simple as possible, while hiding an exceptionally versatile feature-set.

This Cockle Bay project serves as a great example of BoxMakers’ design philosophies in maximising both practicality and aesthetics by applying innovations in materials, fixtures, and techniques.

Designer: Mona Simathamchai

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One of our most recent kitchen renovations, this stylish project in Remuera was commissioned with the purpose of renewing, revitalising, and also expanding this aging kitchen. Aside from the broken hinges and general wear, the project sought to ambitiously relieve the kitchen of an aesthetic column that the owners found obtrusive. BoxMakers aimed to perform a comprehensive kitchen upgrade centred around the newly freed space.

Design Intentions

While the existing column served as aesthetical divider for the kitchen, it also doubled as a barrier, both physically and visually.

Interconnectedness was a key priority of BoxMakers’ plan for this project, aiming to free up both working space and visual clutter, as well as generating an enhanced sense of connectivity to the living space, as befit the home’s open floor plan. Great care and effort were taken in removal and preparation. The result was an unobstructed sightline into the kitchen and much more room for the new benchtop – which also meant more kitchen at no cost to space.

In addition to the column removal, a comprehensive renovation was also performed on the kitchen space itself, significantly replacing the joinery, benchtop, and fixtures. The new U-benchtop was of engineered stone, finished in Carrara Gold by Horizon Stone: a glossy white finish with fine veins of gold weave sewn into its design. The splashback featured the same design, extending up to the custom cabinetry.

Smart Storage System

With an emphasis on “shiny and new”, the main cabinet faces were finished in glossy White Swan by Decorpanel, bringing an unmatched level of sheen and polish to the kitchen. We chose a minimalist style of handles by Enko to support this design. Beneath the benchtop, we installed a dual-tiered Magic Corner unit from FIT’s Giamo series, as well as a hidden dual-bin from their Tanova series. The rest of the custom cabinetry featured a melamine finish of Prime Maple by Primepanels, which housed a tandem pantry unit by Kesseböhmer – and if that wasn’t enough storage, the under-sink cabinetry also featured a pull-out unit, likewise by Kesseböhmer.

The majority of the appliances were also replaced, such as a new Haier oven and a new Bosch cooktop and rangehood. A broad array of LED lighting was also installed, completing the new and modern look of the kitchen.

BoxMakers was able to achieve this dazzling result thanks to a diligent understanding of the client’s vision, combined with our experience in designing any type of kitchen aesthetic – whether it’s matte and traditional, or glossy and modern.

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One of our more recent projects, this Kitchen renovation in Avondale called for an extensive facelift, including brand new custom cabinets, kitchen fixtures, and a slew of storage additions.

Overview

This renovation was performed primarily to tackle the shortage of space in the original kitchen which resulted in a cramped layout with no room for appliances. This spurred the need for new cabinetry units, especially across the kitchen overhead.

Cabinet details

Our cabinetmaking team carefully selected embossed melamine for the new units, settling on Prime Panels’ Prime White for the colour, a clear choice to compliment the walls. Installation called for the removal of a tall double-door cabinet that took up far more storage space than it provided. This freed up room for the new benchtop to continue around the corner, granting valuable oven-space.

The renewed space also opened up room for a collection of overhead and bench unit cabinets, making storage and accessibility far more accommodating than before.

Above the new Bosch cooktop, a hidden rangehood is accommodated by the overhead cabinetry, significantly reducing visual clutter while also contributing to the sleek, featureful nature of the kitchen.

Smart Storage Solutions

That’s not the only hidden feature either – a pull-out Kesseböhmer pantry is built into the bench cabinetry, and dual Tanova soft close bins are tucked away down beside the kitchen sink. Behind the kitchen corner, dual pull-out shelves by Artia allow for seamless kitchenware storage.

On the other side of the doorway is the fridge unit and accommodating cabinetry. The top level features a dual-door cabinet with custom notched shelving for accessible rear access. Beneath it lies a rolling door unit by Sage Doors – also finished in matching white, used to prevent dust accumulation on dormant appliances and dampen visual clutter.

Setting the mood

The benchtop is White Ice Engineered Stone by Uniquartz, which completes the white-themed kitchen. Providing a sleek accent are the Mardeco cabinet handles, finished in Brushed Nickel, with a colour-matching kitchen mixer by Galaxy Homeware.

To top it all off, the overhead cabinets are equipped with undermounted warm LED lighting strips, making for delicate nighttime illumination, and introducing a sunny accent to the cool-white kitchen.

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In mid-2025, the BoxMakers team were called to deliver a kitchen and bathroom renovation project in Mount Roskill. On top of delivering custom shelves and cabinetry, the project also called for the installation of a variety of modern kitchen features, such as a rotating corner solution, hidden kitchen bins, and a pullout bottle rack.

Sleek and Subtle Cabinetry

For the kitchen cabinet face panels, the project called for melamine MDF in a white finish. The overhead panels operate on a handleless design, adding a smooth, flush, and contemporary aesthetic to the upper strip of the kitchen. Underneath, the base cabinets feature sleek angular chrome handles which add a clean and contemporary accent to the kitchen.

Featureful Living

Beneath the new 30mm Cararra Gold quartz benchtop, a range of unique kitchen amenities are tucked away. While they may seem like simple cabinets at first glance, the units in fact sport a variety of hidden solutions. The corner unit is a two-tiered revolving carousel featuring ample room for pots, bowls, and trays. Beside the stovetop, a convenient double-bin drawer rests along soft-close slides, providing generous room for waste disposal without the sight and smell. Also present is a pullout bottle rack, which adds liberal storage for cooking ingredients without having to walk across the room.

An Enhanced Bathroom Experience

As with the kitchen work, BoxMakers also performed significant work on the bathroom, replacing the tile shower base, shower glass, and handling tile installation across multiple rooms. In addition to this, we also undertook electrical, carpentry, and plumbing work. A range of new fittings were also installed, such as toilets, bathtubs, and vanities, their selection carefully curated by the owner. The backlit LED mirrors provided a futuristic touch to the vanities. These renewed bathrooms sported superior watertightness, functionality, and overall polish.

We are proud to have finished work on a highly capable kitchen and bathroom renovation to create something that is more than what meets the eye. The refreshing aesthetics and featureful inclusions are sure to carry this home well into the future.

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