Have you seen the living and dining room of ‘Shway’ yet? Then I guess you’ll realise that sometimes, all that glitters is quite literally, gold! We carried the soft gold vibe of the living area into the kitchen of Shway. After all, the home has to live up to its name, which means gold!
Kitchen of Shway
The kitchen of Shway was originally quite small. It’s the rectangular room you see in the lower right part of the plan below. The plan that you see below includes the staff-cum-store room, the staff bathroom and the kitchen. The clients didn’t need a separate room for staff, so we broke down these internal walls and reorganised the entire space…
… into this. We did need a staff bathroom here, but preferred it to not open into the kitchen. Since this home doesn’t have a balcony for drying clothes, a dry balcony was also required. So we partly closed off the area near the window to make a dry balcony and utility area for the washing machine, dryer and clothes drying rods. The staff bathroom also opens into this dry balcony.
The rest of the area became a large kitchen.
The Cooking Area
As you enter the kitchen, to the right we have the cooking counter with the hob in the centre of it. The bigger drawers in the centre hold the larger cooking utensils while the smaller drawers include the cutlery tray, spice box, bowls and cups and other smaller cooking accessories. The cabinets on either side of the chimney also help to keep all regular cooking essentials handy.
The Cleaning Area
On the opposite side, the corner makes the cleaning area. We have the sink on one side with the dishwasher close by in the perpendicular arm of the ‘L’ counter.
Overhead, the bifold cabinet holds the dishrack, with the water purifier fitting into the corner cabinet.
The Gadget Counter
The ‘L’ shaped counter ends in the rolling shutter and tall unit.
The built in microwave and oven fit into the tall unit. We have perforated baskets for onions and potatoes below the oven. The holes in the drawer front allow for ventilation to keep the veggies fresh.
To the right, the rolling shutter holds the smaller gadgets like the mixer and toaster. We have plug points within the rolling shutter, so these stay plugged in at all times. You just have to roll up the shutter to use these whenever required, and roll down the shutter when done. This makes it very easy to use these daily appliances, versus having to pull them out of cabinets, plug them in and then stow them away again afterwards.
Also, notice the slender cabinet to the left of the oven? This cabinet doesn’t open from the front at all. It opens from the side and is a tall, empty space for putting away longer items like the ladder, ironing board and vacuum cleaner.
Opposite the end of the ‘L’ counter, and to the left as you enter the kitchen, we have the refrigerator. There’s a small counter space right next to the fridge too, to keep things handy while putting in or taking out of the fridge.
The Dry Balcony
I’m sure you’ve heard of people taking the balconies into the rooms to increase the size of the room. We did just the opposite here – separated on part of a room to create a faux balcony where there wasn’t any.
We made the counter on the ‘balcony’ end higher than the cooking counter. This serves 2 purposes. First, it helps fit in the washing machine and dishwasher under it. Second, it visually demarcates the ‘balcony’ from the kitchen.
We also added a faux beam in the ceiling of the balcony area to visually separate the two areas.
We love lighting up our kitchens beautifully, and that includes this one. When the cooking is done and you’re using the kitchen just for heating and serving, put off all the ceiling lights.
The LED strips light up the kitchen well enough and make it look absolutely dreamy. It becomes an extension of the warm, moody vibe of the living room, and this is especially nice when you are entertaining.
Before and Afters
Let me share a couple of before and after pics where you can see the change in the layout of this kitchen too.
A view of the ‘balcony’ wall from the far end.
The area at the far end has been partly closed to make the staff bathroom and the dry balcony. The rest of the area makes one large kitchen.
A closer view of the window corner.
The washing machine and dryer fit below the raised counter with the clothes drying rods in the ceiling above. Overhead cabinets are useful to keep laundry essentials and washed clothes for ironing.
With this lovely terrazzo quartz, the handmade backsplash tiles and the muted gold and white colours, the finishes of the kitchen of Shway are a dream.
But we’ve done more than just beautify this kitchen. The finishes came into play only after we had completely reworked the plan to separate the various functional areas, and reorganise the kitchen. We have quite literally built this kitchen from scratch, and I am so proud of how it’s all turned out.
I’d love to know what you think of it, so let me know in the comments below. Also, if you haven’t seen this golden home yet, click here to see all of ‘Shway’. Finally, here is the link to sign up so you can always stay updated with our latest designs and projects.
I’ll see you here again next week,
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Photography: Biju Gopal of @bizou.photos