Joinery for a kitchen using american oak timber in white
A bold, colour led kitchen in Wollongong that shows what’s possible when a homeowner wants a kitchen with real personality rather than a safe, neutral palette. Completed for client Claudia in 2023 for around $30,000, this project pairs a deep, confident blue against white stone and pattern tile to create a kitchen with joinery that reads as considered rather than loud.
Client
Claudia
Location
Wollongong
Project Year
2023
Project Value
$30,000 - $35,000
Materials
Shiplap timber
Designer
Paul Royal
The custom Joinery design brief
Claudia wanted a kitchen that stood out, built around a strong blue rather than the white and neutral palettes most renovations default to. The challenge with a colour this confident is getting the balance right. Too much blue and the room feels heavy, too little and the impact is lost. The brief called for a kitchen that used the colour with intent, backed by materials and finishes that could carry it.
The design solution
Cabinetry and hardware
- Full height cabinetry in a deep blue vertical shiplap style profile, run across the base cabinets, overheads and a floor to ceiling pantry and fridge housing, giving the colour real presence throughout the room
- A mix of handle styles, with rounded timber pulls on select doors and slim chrome bar handles on the drawer bank, adding texture and stopping the blue from reading as one flat surface
- A freestanding SMEG upright cooker in black with chrome trim, chosen to sit against the blue cabinetry as a feature in its own right rather than being built in and hidden away
Benchtop, splashback and display
- A white stone benchtop and island top, used to balance the depth of the blue cabinetry and keep the room feeling open rather than closed in
- A patterned blue and white circular tile used on the island end panel and as a splashback behind the open shelving, picking up the cabinetry colour and repeating it in a different texture and scale
- Open timber shelving fitted against the pattern tile, giving a spot for everyday bottles and glassware while breaking up the run of solid blue doors
- A window splashback above the rear benchtop, keeping natural light moving through the kitchen despite the depth of colour on the cabinetry
Layout
- A freestanding island with a slim black frame and stone top, positioned to anchor the room and carry the patterned tile through to the side the family faces most often
- Pendant lighting with a timber neck and cone shade over the island, tying the timber tones from the handles and shelving into the light fittings
Why these design choices were made
The biggest risk with a strong colour like this blue is that it can overwhelm a room if it’s not given something to sit against. The white stone benchtop and island top were chosen specifically to do that job, giving the eye a place to rest and stopping the kitchen from feeling closed in despite the depth of colour on nearly every cabinet surface.
The patterned tile was brought in to repeat the blue in a different form rather than introducing a competing colour. Using it on both the island end panel and the splashback behind the open shelving means it reads as a deliberate design thread running through the kitchen, not a one off feature stuck in a single spot.
Mixing timber pulls with chrome bar handles was a considered choice rather than an oversight. A single handle style across a kitchen this colour heavy can flatten the design and make the cabinetry read as one continuous block. Varying the hardware, while keeping the timber tone consistent with the open shelving and pendant lights, gives the eye more to register without adding another colour into the mix.
Leaving the SMEG cooker freestanding rather than building it in was also intentional. Against a strong colour like this, a freestanding appliance in black and chrome becomes a feature rather than something to disguise, and it avoids the extra joinery cost of a fully integrated housing.
Why custom joinery is a better choice compared to a flat pack
A kitchen built around a specific, confident colour is one of the clearest cases for custom joinery over flat pack or a volume supplier.
Flat pack cabinetry ranges are built around colours and finishes that suit the widest number of buyers, which usually means whites, greys and a small handful of muted tones. A blue this deep and specific isn’t something most flat pack ranges carry, and getting it applied consistently across a full height pantry run, overheads and base cabinets isn’t something a standard flat pack system is built to do.
Volume kitchen suppliers offer more colour choice than flat pack, but the range is still fixed, and features like a shiplap style door profile combined with a specific paint colour and a mixed handle treatment usually sit outside what’s available without a significant cost jump.
Custom joinery meant the blue could be matched exactly, carried through every cabinet in the kitchen without compromise, and paired with a door profile and handle mix that suited the brief rather than what happened to be on offer. For a kitchen built around a strong design idea like this one, that level of control is what makes the difference between a colour that looks intentional and one that looks like a compromise.
The photo gallery of the completed kitchen
The finished kitchen delivers a genuinely distinctive space without losing the practicality a family kitchen needs. The blue cabinetry gives the room its identity, the stone benchtops and pattern tile keep it balanced and light filled, and small details like the mixed handles and timber shelving stop a bold colour choice from feeling one note. It’s a good example of what’s possible when a client is willing to commit to a strong idea and the joinery is built to support it properly.
