Kitchens, the heart of a home.

At Southern Timber Works, we combine quality joinery, clever storage solutions and expert design to create the ultimate culinary workspace for your home.

Full Kitchens
Island Benches
Kitchenettes
Re-facing of existing cabinets

Do you already have your design ready to go? E-mail your plan through to us here or give us a call so we can arrange a quote!

Time for a shiny new kitchen?

Have you perused the internet painstakingly for months saving and pinning countless images of your dream kitchen ideas? Deciding to go ahead with having a new kitchen installed in your home is a very exciting step, but before you head out and buy new cutlery, toasters and matching dinnerware sets, there are some important things to think about to ensure you end up with exactly what you need (and want!)

Things to consider:

Are you a keen cook?
Is your kitchen a central part of the home?
Do you have lots of gadgets and small appliances?
How much bench space do you need?
What is a safe comfortable height for your family to access the microwave?
What sort of sink (double/single) is practical for your needs?
What large appliances (multiple ovens, dishwasher) do you need to allow space for?
Will there be a separate walk in pantry area or will food be stored in the main kitchen?
Do you want to include a seating area such as an island bench?
Do you want to include a dedicated utilities drawer / cupboard to act as a charging spot for phones/laptops etc?

Keeping things practical

The kitchen area tends to be the hub of the home and as such it has to be a practical space. When designing, we need to think carefully about who will be using which parts of the kitchen every day.

Are there children in the home?

Kids can be pretty rough on kitchens, drawer handles are never supposed to be used as stair cases and bench tops are certainly not walkways, but despite best efforts at the end of the day many parents are left not so much wondering how the dried weetbix has glued itself to the top cupboards, but what on earth are they are going to use to get it off again without potentially damaging their cupboards surface.

Luckily there are lots of innovative yet simple solutions available to keep your kitchen safe from sticky little fingers. From soft close hinges for doors and drawers to fingerprint resistant easy clean surfaces, you can still achieve your dream look in a way that is practical and safe for your whole family.

What sort of surfaces will suit your family & lifestyle?

Cupboards, Drawer Fronts and Panels:

There are a variety of surface options available for face panels on your cabinets including Laminate, Timber, Polyurethane and Vinyl Wrap. While they can all look fantastic in their own right each of these materials has slightly different attributes that may make them more or less practical for the needs of different households. Have a chat to your joiner about which product may work best for you!

Bench Tops:

Stone benches are hard wearing and look exquisite. They are a frequently seen on magazine covers and on popular design websites but not all stone is created equal. For example, Marble may not necessarily be the most practical choice for those of you who enjoy a relaxing glass of red wine in the evenings as it’s porous surface stains more easily than other materials and could leave you finding unfortunate red rings permanently embedded in your beautiful new bench top!

Marble bench top with timber veneer drawer faces in American Oak

But even if marble isn’t the most practical option for you, it doesn’t mean you have to give up on your dream look, instead of the real thing, you could opt for a marble-look laminated surface or created stone product such as EvoStone which still give an elegant finish but are less prone to staining and tend to be more budget friendly.

Composite stone and granite offer a beautiful and very durable surface available in a wide range of colour and style choices to suit any kitchen.

Caesar Stone bench top with polyurethane finish to drawer faces

Laminate is the most affordable option and it is available in a massive selection of colours and patterns with texture options such as a more matt stipple effect through to high gloss.

‘Diamond Gloss’ range by Laminex laminated bench top with laminate finish to door and panel faces

Stainless steel and timber are also popular choices, they may require a bit more upkeep than a stone or laminate surface but a lot of people find the aesthetic result is well worth the effort!

Stainless Steel bench top with laminated drawer faces

Solid timber bench top and timber veneer door and drawer faces all in American Oak

Accessibility and Planning

Humans are by nature lazy, (or as I prefer to call it ‘practical’) and functionality is a key component in your kitchen design. Can you reach the mugs the coffee and the kettle without having to walk all over the kitchen? Are your spices stored close to the stove top to avoid leaving the simmering stove unattended while looking for that elusive jar of Chinese 5 spice?

Popularly known as the ‘kitchen triangle’ the art of minimising the distance between the Fridge, Stove and Sink has become a well known kitchen design rule, but there are lots of other things to consider too.

Planning ‘what’ to put ‘where’ needs to be considered in the early stages of your kitchen design as there are some wonderfully innovative hardware products such as lazy susans and pull out pantries for awkward corners, pull out bins, slimline spice rack pullout cupboards that sit neatly next to your oven and so forth that will make your life much easier but aren’t nearly as easily installed 3 months down the track.

Other things to consider:

Safe access for reaching high cupboards
Do you have any special needs that may require varying the height/width of benches or allowing additional space to gain safe access to cupboards and drawers?
How can you maximize the space is available to you?
To island bench or not to island bench
What is your budget?

Funky Hardware

There are lots of things to consider when designing your new kitchen but with the range of clever hardware designs on the market today you no longer need to be limited by smaller spaces or tricky hard to access corner cabinets.

Pull-out Pantries
Pull out Bins
Lazy Susans
Lift ups and drop downs
Servodrive
Slow motion runners
Slow motion hinges

Our hardware suppliers such as Nover have a great range of funky gadgets and hardware available that we can install into your new kitchen to help improve accessibility, increase storage and save precious space. Check out their website for a comprehensive range of products or pop into one of their showrooms to view their products and try out some gizmo’s in real life!

Lazy Susan’s are a great way to accessibly store large or awkward shaped items.

The Fun Stuff

For many people, choosing your colour palette, selecting handles and visiting appliance stores to check out the latest innovations in kitchen technology are some of the most fun and exciting aspects of the Kitchen build process. We see lots of beautiful images from Pinterest, Houzz and Instagram where our clients have fallen in love with a particular style, colour scheme or detail and our joiners are happy to work with you to incorporate your preferences and determine practicalities and priorities in order to ensure your new kitchen is unique and special.

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