Whole house · Australia · 2025
An Australian house under a vaulted ceiling
A white flat-lacquer kitchen carried up to a raking ceiling with two skylights.
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COASTAL HOUSE, AUSTRALIA - ORDERED 2025
A dark coastal kitchen - four rooms over the water.
A kitchen and two closets in a house that looks straight out over the sea: deep lacquer base runs under pale upper cabinets, a stone splashback, and four rooms built on one 2,400mm datum with SAA-certified appliances.
Residential · Australia · 2025 · Whole-house
The brief
Salt air, dark fronts, and a stone upstand.
This house sits on the water, which changes two things in a kitchen. The glazing runs almost to the floor, so there is no wall height to hide a tall cabinet against and every run is seen in profile against daylight. And the air carries salt, which is unkind to exposed metal and unkind to a soft finish on a surface that gets wiped daily.
What made it hard
A dark front shows every fingerprint, and every fix.
Dark matt lacquer is the least forgiving surface in a kitchen: it reads as a flat field of colour, so a variation in sheen between two doors is visible from across the room, and a fingerprint shows more than it would on white. It also cannot be touched up invisibly - a repaired panel is a re-sprayed panel. That is why the base runs here were sprayed as loose doors and inspected in daylight, and why the splashback runs full height in stone rather than a painted panel behind the hob.
Dark below, pale above, stone between.
The base runs are a deep lacquer; the wall cabinets above are a pale blue-grey that picks up the water rather than fighting it. Between them the splashback is stone, carried up the full height behind the hob - which solves the practical problem of a painted panel taking heat and grease, and gives the dark base something to sit against instead of floating.
- Kitchen H 2,400mm, E0 plywood carcass, lacquered HDF door, matt
- Bar cabinet H 2,400mm, matching the kitchen specification
- Closets master and guest, 18mm E0 particleboard, lacquered HDF door
- Top stone, island and perimeter, full-height splashback
- Appliances SAA-certified range hood and integrated units
- Hardware Blum soft-close, 50,000 cycles
The build
Four rooms, one datum.
4ROOMS
2,400MM DATUM
STONESPLASHBACK
2025ORDERED
Spec
What was built.
| Location | Australia, coastal |
| Year | 2025 |
| Sector | Residential - kitchen, bar and two closets |
| Board | E0 plywood kitchen, E0 particleboard closets, 18mm |
| Door | lacquered HDF, matt |
| Top | stone, with a full-height splashback |
| Appliances | SAA-certified, specified at quote stage |
| Terms | EXW, 40-45 days production |
The kitchen carcass is plywood and the closets are particleboard, on purpose: a kitchen sees moisture at the sink and the dishwasher, a closet does not.
Factory to site
How the project ran.
Week 0 - Plans and elevations
Four rooms surveyed, the glazing run checked so no tall cabinet blocks a sightline.
Week 1 - Finish sample
Deep lacquer sample and stone slab held against the room in daylight before sign-off.
Weeks 1-2 - Drawings
Appliance housings detailed to the 2,400mm datum rather than to the appliance manufacturer dimensions.
Weeks 2-4 - Production
Carcasses cut and edged, doors sprayed loose, hardware fitted, flat trial assembly.
Weeks 4-9 - Shipping
Crated flat-pack by room, shipped EXW and installed by the local fitter.
Production & export
Appliance housings are built to the cabinet datum, not the appliance.
A fridge cavity dimensioned from the appliance leaves the tall run 5mm out of line, and under a pale upper cabinet that 5mm is visible. The housing was built to the 2,400mm datum, with the appliance allowed for inside it and ventilation detailed at the back. Every run in all four rooms finishes on the same line, which is what makes a dark kitchen read as one object rather than four purchases.
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FAQ
This project, in plain answers.
Why use plywood in the kitchen and particleboard in the closets?
Because the kitchen sees standing water at the sink and the dishwasher, where plywood holds up better, and a closet does not. Both are 18mm E0 board and both are edged on every cut edge - the difference is the core, and it is chosen per room rather than per house.
Does dark matt lacquer show fingerprints?
More than white, yes. A dark matt front reads as a single field of colour, so marks and sheen variations are both more visible - which is why the doors were sprayed loose and inspected in daylight before assembly.
Can a dark lacquer panel be touched up on site?
Not invisibly. A repaired panel is a re-sprayed panel, so the spare-door allowance matters on a dark finish more than on a white one.
Why carry the splashback full height in stone?
A painted panel behind a hob takes heat and grease and cannot be cleaned aggressively. Stone to full height removes the painted surface from the dirtiest zone and stops the dark base run from floating against a blank wall.
Do appliances need Australian certification?
Yes. Range hoods and integrated lighting sold into Australia carry SAA certification, specified at the quote stage - it cannot be retrofitted to a packed container.
What does EXW mean for a project like this?
That the goods are handed over at the factory and the buyer arranges the freight. It suits a builder or an importer who already has a forwarder, and it is why the lead time here reads as production time rather than door-to-door.
Build something like this.
Send your plan and scope - we’ll draw the solution and price it per spec.