Builder programme · Australia · 2025
Australian builder, eleven rooms
Eleven rooms to 2,700mm on one E0 carcass, shipped as a single 40HQ.
Home / Projects / Australian house under a vaulted ceiling
WHOLE HOUSE, AUSTRALIA - DELIVERED 2025
An Australian house under a vaulted ceiling.
A white flat-lacquer kitchen carried up into a raking ceiling with two skylights, a mesh-fronted pantry beside it, and two closets in the same finish - one house, one finish, three very different ceiling heights.
Residential · Australia · 2025 · Whole-house
The brief
The ceiling is the drawing.
Most kitchens are a run of cabinets under a flat soffit. This one sits in a room where the ceiling rakes up to a ridge and two skylights cut through it, which means there is no single horizontal line to build to. The tall units on the back wall stop at one height, the run beside them at another, and the whole thing has to look deliberate rather than unresolved.
What made it hard
A raking ceiling has no datum to measure from.
On a flat ceiling you measure up from the floor and every tall unit agrees. Under a rake, the finished ceiling height changes every 300mm along the wall, so a tall run either stops short of the ceiling and leaves a wedge of dust-collecting gap, or it is cut to follow the rake and then every door in it is a different height. The back wall here was surveyed at intervals and the last unit on each run was cut to its own measured height, with the filler set behind the door line rather than in front of it.
Flat lacquer, no visible frame, lighting inside.
A flat slab door in a matt white lacquer has nowhere to hide: no beading, no moulding, no shadow line to absorb a 1mm error. It works only if the carcass is square and the hinges are adjusted after the doors are hung. The closets were built with internal LED in the shelf rebate rather than surface-mounted, so the light comes off the shelf face and the door front stays flat.
- Door flat slab, white lacquer, matt
- Carcass 18mm E0 board, edged on every cut edge
- Kitchen tall run cut to a raking ceiling, measured on site
- Pantry mesh-fronted cabinet, integrated with the kitchen run
- Closets two runs, internal LED in the shelf rebate
- Hardware Blum soft-close, 50,000 cycles
The build
Kitchen, pantry and closets.
2SKYLIGHTS
RAKINGCEILING
FLATSLAB DOOR
2025DELIVERED
Spec
What was built.
| Location | Australia |
| Year | 2025 |
| Sector | Residential - whole house |
| Scope | Kitchen, pantry, two closets, living joinery |
| Door | flat slab, white lacquer, matt |
| Carcass | 18mm E0 board, melamine faced |
| Ceiling | raking, two skylights, no single datum |
| Hardware | Blum soft-close hinges and runners |
The ceiling was surveyed at intervals along each wall rather than assumed level. Under a rake, the highest cabinet in a run and the lowest are not the same product.
Factory to site
How the project ran.
Week 0 - Site survey
Ceiling height recorded at intervals along each wall, plus the skylight openings and the ridge line.
Week 1 - Setting out
Tall runs set out to the lowest point of the rake so no unit is cut below its door height.
Weeks 1-2 - Drawings
Each run drawn with its own top height, and the fillers detailed behind the door line.
Weeks 2-4 - Production
Panels cut, edge-banded, sprayed flat and trial-assembled before crating.
Weeks 4-8 - Shipping and install
Flat-packed by room, installed by the local fitter against the numbered kit.
Production & export
The filler goes behind the door line.
Where a tall unit meets a raking ceiling, something has to absorb the wedge. Put the filler in front and you get a strip of plain panel running up the face of the cabinet, which reads as a mistake. Put it behind and the door front finishes clean while the filler does the work in the gap. It is the same principle as a scribe on a wall - the adjustment belongs where it is not seen.
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FAQ
This project, in plain answers.
How do you fit tall cabinets to a raking ceiling?
Survey the ceiling height at intervals along the wall, then cut each run to its own measured top height with the filler set behind the door line. Assuming a single height under a rake leaves either a wedge-shaped gap or a set of doors that are all different lengths.
Why use a flat slab door rather than a shaker profile?
Because it is the least forgiving option and, when the carcass is square, the cleanest. There is no beading or moulding to absorb an error, so the box has to be built accurately and the hinges adjusted after hanging.
Where should internal wardrobe lighting sit?
In the shelf rebate rather than surface-mounted. A surface strip throws light forward onto the door front and breaks the flat face; a rebated strip washes the shelf contents and keeps the front clean.
What is a mesh-fronted pantry for?
Ventilation and visibility on a tall larder. A solid door hides a deep shelf run; a mesh front lets the contents read as part of the room while still closing the cabinet off.
Do Australian orders need different electrical certification?
Yes - appliances and integrated lighting sold into Australia carry SAA certification, which is specified at the quote stage rather than added after the container is packed.
How is a whole-house order packed?
By room, with the crate marked for the room it belongs to. A flat-packed container that arrives sorted by product type rather than by room costs the fitter days on site.
Build something like this.
Send your plan and scope - we’ll draw the solution and price it per spec.