Tag: Kitchen storage

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.
Core Philosophy
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.
Palette and Materials
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.
Cohesive Entry Way
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.
Designer: Mona Simathamchai
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September 26, 2025
A Subtle Yet Modern Kitchen in Hobsonville
In 2024, we designed a kitchen and wardrobe solution for a new townhouse development in Hobsonville. Given the brand-new nature of the home and surrounding buildings, BoxMakers aimed to deliver a kitchen that not only matched its contemporary counterparts, but exceeded them in terms of performance and efficiency.
Housed on the second floor, we aimed to design and deliver a kitchen that had the key themes of modernity, subtlety, and capacity. With two tall vertical windows on either side of the kitchen, each cooking session is accompanied by tranquil views overlooking the neighbourhood.
Palette and Materials
The kitchen’s primary colour is white, in matching with the interior colour scheme. For the cabinets, we chose a core material of MDF, finished in embossed Prime White by New Zealand’s Prime Panels – a durable and versatile choice. Keeping with the theme of modernity and efficiency, we have selected a range of handles and fixtures that reflect the progressive nature of this home. Mardeco’s Aseda 4024 handles complete the base cabinets. Their Satin Chrome finish effortlessly complements the white surroundings. The overhead cabinets sport a handleless design, which allow for a uniform display of the face panels’ colour.
Completing the white theme is the benchtop, which is a slab of 30mm engineered stone by Uniquartz, finished in White Ice. The subtle texture of the glossy benchtop is matched by a softly patterned splashback featuring light streaks of grey, resembling trails of freshly-trodden snow. Above the kitchen island, a double-edged pendant light provides illumination to both the sink and surrounding area.
Custom Wardrobe
For the wardrobe, BoxMakers provided an expansive solution that featured triple garment rods alongside a quintuple set of cubbies, two of which feature a drawer design using Häfele’s Alto Soft Close runners. The white MDF mirrors the kitchen finish and provides a robust solution to clothing storage.
BoxMakers are proud to have contributed to this lively Hobsonville neighbourhood with a highly capable kitchen and wardrobe. We delivered on our target themes of modernity, subtlety, and capacity – all in a cool, light package.
Designer: Mona Simathamchai
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September 19, 2025
Fit: Saving Space with Smart Storage
Kiwi-owned and operated, Fit are a proud manufacturer of innovative home and kitchen storage solutions. Their own brands, Giamo and Tanova, provide powerful options in both kitchen storage and hidden bins respectively – both of which are incredible in reducing clutter and providing convenience.
Giamo Range
Fit’s Giamo range tackles the increasingly relevant problem of kitchen and pantry storage, with units dedicated to food, cookware, and utility storage. BoxMakers have consistently called upon Giamo for intricate and smart pull-out pantries, corner units, and drawer units. Their solutions have helped our kitchens to be incredibly efficient in both physical space and visual clutter. Dedicated in-cabinet units easily sort and conceal bottles, pans, and spices, saving valuable benchtop space.
Tanova Series
Fit’s Tanova series provides pull-out bin solutions, an effective way of freeing up kitchen space while also adding convenience. Instead of having a kitchen bin take up valuable corner space, Fit’s Tanova bins sit in an accessible in-bench location. In keeping with our goal of delivering space-efficient kitchens, these pull-out bins provide more movement room but also conceal the sight and smell of kitchen waste.
Fit’s range of products have helped BoxMakers immensely in creating versatile and highly functional kitchens. Their solutions are tailored towards space-saving and convenience, with a range of pull-out solutions, making sure that each of our kitchens is more than meets the eye.
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September 19, 2025
Dazzling Kitchens & Wardrobes for a Howick Townhouse
In 2024, our BoxMakers team was called to deliver unique kitchen & wardrobe solutions for six different units in a Highland Park townhouse development. The project called for a range of modular solutions; each tailored for their specific space in every home.
No Two Kitchen Are The Same
No two homes were exactly the same, and the challenge of tailoring each kitchen exactly was an effort that BoxMakers proudly took on. One consistent element was the colour scheme across the units. Maintaining a glossy white look provided excellent synergy with the white tiled floors. This finish came in the form of Arctic Ice Gloss Plus for the centre residences, and Ultraglaze Alabaster Gloss for the end homes, the latter of which also featured laser-edged sides.
Materials
Classic features such as Häfele handles and drawer runners were implemented across the cabinetry for a smooth and modern experience. Many units also featured handleless designs for a highly flush finish that highlighted the glossy polish. The splashbacks featured a subtly-tiled design with graphics reminiscent of wintery trees, while the kitchen pendant lights resembled a collection of linked crystals, quite evocative of glistening icicles. These designs collaborated seamlessly with the frigidly finished cabinets and pale-patterned benchtops to paint a vivid picture of treading through sparkling snow on a sunny winter morning.
Appliances
The kitchens featured a thorough compliment of Bosch devices, such as the ovens, cooktops, rangehoods, and dishwashers. Within the cabinets, you can also find pull-out bins, and easy-access pantries. This equipped each home with a highly-capable roster of tools for any cooking endeavour.
Wardrobe Work
The BoxMakers team also took great care in planning out the wardrobes. Featuring walk-ins and double-doors, we implemented both variety and capability into each and every one of our creations. A consistent element was our box-shelves, which we always came alongside a selection of soft-close drawers. This provided easy storage for folded garments and accessories, and made deciding on your daily attire a breeze. The firm MDF with a white embossed melamine finish made each unit incredibly sturdy and aesthetically-adherent.
BoxMakers have displayed incredible range in providing visually resplendent solutions across a wide range of homes – treating each with special attention and care.
Designer: Mona Simathamchai
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September 12, 2025
BoxMakers’ 2025 Auckland Home Show Kitchen
The centrepiece of our BoxMakers stall at the Auckland Home Show is designed to cater to everyday New Zealand homeowners. The aim is to showcase a kitchen that strikes a delicate balance between aesthetics, affordability, and practicality, with features that can benefit the modern New Zealand lifestyle.
Design intentions
Our Home Show display was inspired by the idea of a crafting a space that acted not simply as a kitchen, but as a common space for everyday activities. Its range of purpose extends outside that of a highly capably cooking space, but as a place to gather with limitless possibilities for activities. We took inspiration from the flexibility of open-plan layouts, aiming to create a space that was not only practical for general use, but also aesthetically adaptable – pleasing in a diverse range of home environments.
Sustainable production techniques and enhanced element resistance made MDF our material of choice in balancing compatibility and longevity, not to mention its diverse propensity for finishes.
Colour Palette
We chose a deep walnut colour, which carries a timeless essence that stays relevant even as trends come and go, combining functionality with a refined visual presence. Our goal was to represent top-tier balance that is in line with everyday New Zealand considerations.
Center piece – Kitchen Island
The kitchen island is a core component of completing this communal area, acting as a second hub for the home – with room to eat, play, and dream. Finished in a refreshing white, the island provides a crisp and welcoming contrast against the deep wood cabinetry. The colours are incredibly accommodating, and are easy to compliment a wealth of home aesthetics.
BoxMakers’ has meticulously put together this kitchen with the goal of embodying our core values: balancing aesthetics with practicality, durability, and affordability. We wanted to create a multifunctional kitchen that New Zealanders can be proud to own, with endless potential for growth.
Designer: Mona Simathamchai
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September 5, 2025
Freeing Up a Remuera Kitchen
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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September 4, 2025
An Elegant Townhouse Kitchen – Sunnynook
To fit out one of our Sunnynook townhouses, we called upon the services of our brilliant BoxMakers team to design and execute a perfect kitchen and cabinetry solution. In a home designed by our architectural counterpart, VIKON Construction, BoxMakers sought to deliver a size-appropriate yet featureful inclusion that worked in tandem with the surrounding open floor plan.
Cabinet Finishes
Featuring a combination of Scandinavian design cues and modern farmhouse aspects, this highly functional kitchen leans heavily on creating a cosy and inviting atmosphere. The woodgrain of the cabinetry and gloss of the subway tiles create a striking balance of texture and polish, while also fusing styles for a multilayered kitchen appearance. Finished in Melteca’s Aged Ash Organic melamine, the cabinets evoke a certain sense of naturalness – perfectly complimented by earthly accessories such as potted plants.
Appliances and Engineered Stone Benchtop
The sink unit and cooktop are placed perfectly opposite one another, on separate benchtops, and are both finished in White Sand Engineered Stone by Uniquartz. The subtle gloss gels charmingly with the subway-tiled splashback, completing the white and wood aesthetic.
Storage Solution
Our custom cabinetry features a handless design for the overheard units, complimented by a quaint three-shelf display and a convenient extended-base cupboard. The rangehood is also subtly hidden away beneath the main cabinet. Likewise, a Tanova pull-out bin is tucked away within the bench. Our bench cabinets feature Mardeco’s 4045 handles finished in black, and are also used on the accompanying fridge cabinetry, generously sized to accommodate a wide range of refrigeration units. Unlike the rest of the cabinetry, these MDF panels are finished in embossed white, easing the aesthetic transition into the living space.
The combination of these elements creates a curated and functional meld of both form and function, while taking up only a modest amount of room.
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August 28, 2025
Plentiful Pantry Storage in Avondale kitchen renovation
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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August 21, 2025
A Stylishly renovated Kitchen Packed With Features
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.
Planning a renovation? We design and build integrated cabinetry that transforms spaces from cluttered to considered.

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August 14, 2025
Must-Have Features for Your Custom Kitchen
Make your kitchen smarter, sleeker, and built for everyday living.
When it comes to designing your dream kitchen, it’s not just about looks — it’s about making it work for you. At BoxMakers, we believe good design should solve problems, simplify daily routines, and spark a little joy every time you open a drawer.
Here are 10 must-have features to consider in your custom kitchen:
1. Soft-Close Drawers and Doors
No more slamming! Soft-close hinges and drawer runners add a premium feel, extend the life of your cabinetry, and keep things calm and quiet — even on busy mornings.
2. Pull-Out Pantry Units
Maximise vertical space and keep everything within reach. Pull-out pantries make spices, cans, and snacks easy to see and access, especially in narrow kitchens.
3. Corner Storage Solutions
Say goodbye to the dark abyss of corner cabinets. Solutions like lazy Susans, magic corners, or corner drawers turn wasted space into storage gold.
4. Hidden Bin or Recycling Station
Keep your kitchen looking clean with pull-out bin drawers that hide rubbish and recycling while keeping them easily accessible where you need them most.
5. Under-Cabinet Lighting
Integrated LED strips under wall cabinets improve visibility while cooking and add an ambient glow in the evenings — practical and beautiful.
6. Built-In Spice Racks or Knife Drawers
Custom inserts for spice jars, knives, and utensils make meal prep faster and safer, while keeping your benchtop clutter-free.
7. Deep Drawers for Pots and Pans
Ditch the old-school base cabinets. Deep drawers glide out effortlessly and let you store heavy cookware without the bending and digging.
8. Appliance Garage
Tuck away your toaster, blender, or coffee machine in a custom-built cabinet with a lift-up or roll-down door — easy to access, easy to hide.
9. Charging Station or Power Drawer
Stay connected with built-in USB ports or concealed power strips in a drawer — perfect for charging phones or powering small appliances without messy cables.
10. Open Shelving for Display and Personality
Balance function with style by adding open shelves for cookbooks, ceramics, or plants — bring warmth and personality into the heart of your home.
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July 2, 2025