The renovation of this kitchen in Auckland, New Zealand, began with a contradiction: an open-plan layout that somehow felt constrained. Cabinetry crowded the perimeter walls, providing scattered and inefficient storage, and the cooking, dining, and living spaces were all crammed together.

When the homeowners first saw the 1950s duplex, however, the layout was the last thing on their minds. What caught their attention instead were the small traces of the home’s original character that had somehow survived decades of updates. “It’s an old state house, and it still has its original matai floorboards and doors,” the homeowner says. “You can’t recreate those details easily.”

Before: Kitchen

The setting helped, too. “The kitchen, dining, and living space gets both morning and afternoon sun,” the homeowner says—and its southwest views overlook an estuary and the Waitākere Ranges in the distance. Although they appreciated the openness of the interior, the kitchen—installed sometime in the early 2000s—felt like an outlier from another era. “It had zero connection to any of the things we loved about the place,” explains the homeowner.

Fixing that disconnect became the starting point for designer Raimana Jones of Auckland-based studio Atelier Jones Design. Rather than dramatically altering the footprint, Jones focused on reorganizing the room so the open-plan space could finally function as it should. “Our main strategy was about organization,” Jones says. “Putting the storage where it made the most sense so the rest of the space could feel calmer.”

After: Kitchen

Before the renovation, cabinetry wrapped the room in fragments, leaving appliances and everyday items scattered across multiple zones. The redesign consolidates the refrigerator, pantry, laundry, and linen storage into a single wall of tall joinery that runs along the back of the room. A slim cupboard conceals everyday essentials like the vacuum and broom, which previously had no clear home. By concentrating the storage in one place, Jones freed up the rest of the space so that the cooking, dining, and living areas could unfold in a more intuitive sequence.

Material choices help anchor the new design within the home’s older character. Most of the cabinetry fronts are crafted from warm-toned solid walnut, which sits comfortably beside the home’s original matai flooring. Custom-turned brass handles punctuate the joinery, and marble stretches across the backsplash and countertop.

Before: Storage

Some of these finishes initially surprised the homeowners. “Brass is something we never would have chosen ourselves, certainly not in the quantity it appears here,” the homeowner notes,“but now we can’t imagine the kitchen without it.” The same is true of the dark-green marble. “It was something we needed to be talked into,” the owner admits, “and it’s something we now completely love.”

After: Cabinetry

To keep it from feeling overly polished, Jones aged the brass with a vinegar-and-salt solution that produced a softer, timeworn patina that shifts subtly as light moves through the room. By afternoon, sunlight spills across the built-in dining nook and glints off the cabinetry, warming the walnut joinery around it.

Running through the renovation is a motif inspired by the seedpod of the native New Zealand kōwhai tree. The circular pattern appears on stained glass panels, cabinetry details, and terra-cotta tile, forming a subtle thread that ties the space together. “The kōwhai just feels joyful,” the client says. “It flowers in spring, which is our favorite season, and the seedpods come in autumn, our close second.” The plant’s distinctive form also lent itself naturally to the design. “The seedpod has this quirky, graphic quality that works so well as a repeated motif,” they explain. “You can see it in the stained glass, the tiling, and the brass inlay.”

Before: Dining Area

After: Dining Area

Once the motif emerged, it began shaping the rest of the project. Jones drew inspiration from the interiors of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, whose furniture, stained glass, and textiles often feature repeating floral motifs. “We loved that Jones referenced Mackintosh,” the homeowner says. “That idea of weaving a single motif through a space, but making it something that feels genuinely Aotearoa/New Zealand, was very clever.”

The house hasn’t changed dramatically in size or footprint, but the kitchen now feels inseparable from the rest of it. Where the space once felt cluttered and discordant, it now sits comfortably amidst the character that drew the homeowners in from the start.

More Before & After stories:

They Rebuilt Their Home’s Historic Brick Facade—but the Back Is a Different Story

How a Two-Bedroom Craftsman Grew to Fit a Family of Six for $605K

For Less Than $200K, a Fixer-Upper in Northern California Becomes a Beacon of Color

Project Credits:

Interior Design: Raimana Jones and Mathilde Polmard, Atelier Jones Design / @atelierjonesdesign

Cabinetry: Atelier Jones Design

Builder/General Contractor: Seyd

Stained Glass: A Touch of Glass / @atogmedia

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