Modern kitchen built from an ill-wind 130-year-old salvage

The brief for the kitchen in this modern house was to keep it simple, no handles and clean straight lines.

It meant that I got to work with the best quality ply available to me. It is fully made of Birch Plywood that comes from Russia, is E0 rated and FSC approved. Birch is a very fast growing pale hardwood that makes into very beautiful plywood.

The bench tops are Stainless Steel, the top of the island bench is recycled Tasmanian oak, the timber for it coming off a house on Bruny Island, built in the 1890s. I grabbed the timber when the roof blew off and they had to replace it. The timber was most likely milled on site in Lunawanna and is all of similar colour so most likely from the one log.

To keep the kitchen simple (in looks) I hid extra drawers behind the fronts of bigger drawers. To avoid handles I cut doors and drawers short, bevelled the tops and set strips of Tasmanian oak behind.

I used soft closing runners and hinges and all the shelves are pull outs, The dishwasher is fully integrated.

The ply for the interior is Pine Ply (Australian, plantation grown, E 0 rated). This is much cheaper but softer, has usually only one good side but is fine to use.

All the ply and timber is oiled.