Barkly Street — The Chef’s Kitchen

Barkly Street house is home to one of Brunswick East’s hardest-working kitchens, designed by ceramicist and architect Colin Hopkins with Cantilever’s Travis Dean, and client Bette (seasoned cook!)

Photography by Martina Gemmola

When it comes to the quality of a renovation, a well-designed kitchen is instrumental, and the appliances we select to go with it are just as important.

This is not only for the longevity of the joinery but our enjoyment and health too!

Instead of treating appliances as building inventory, start the thought process centred on lifestyle goals.

Premium and specialty appliances aren’t exclusively reserved for those serious about their flame, grill ‘n’ bake game - they can inspire all of us to create better, healthier lives.

The average person will purchase a suite of appliances once or twice in their lifetime, so why not get it right?

Think about your health goals over the next ten years, the food you want to share, and the people you want to share it with. The appliances you choose will influence these outcomes.

The next thing to consider is their role in the design process.

A confident appliance list early on allows us to invest our attention on refining usability. Cantilever’s approach to ‘making good kitchens’ is design-led, with customisation for client appliance selection a standard within our service model. This adaptability was essential to Bette (a seasoned cook and advocate of healthy organic living) achieving her culinary K2 Kitchen. 

We caught up with her to reflect on the process and importance of getting hands-on when it comes to high performance.

As a workspace, Bette’s kitchen is a master’s domain: the details disciplined; stations ordered; appliances regimented. For a full walk-through of this commercial-inspired K2 kitchen check out our first segment.

The knowledge she applies to her culinary skills is evident in her meticulous selection:

“I did a lot of research first. I love to cook. I know what I want to achieve. The process from there involved trekking through a lot of appliance stores and speaking with experts to narrow down a selection I was happy with... once they realise that you are quite serious, they’ll book you in for cooking demos and private trials.”

One of those was with Gaggenau.

For the central bench, she squared in on a quartet of cooktops from the Gaggenau Vario 200 range. Tailored for the serious home chef, the series is offered as a selection of modular, compact and specialised applications for one to curate the ultimate personal workstation.

Bette’s selection was equal parts sentimental and exploratory with a mix of contemporary and traditional technology from induction, BBQ grill, wok and gas. Whilst designed to align flush, we love the deliberate spacing framed by a band of Carrara benchtop. Bette steps us through each item gestured with movements of a chef in action:

“I love flame. I grew up with flame…but the induction just brings water to boil so fast. I was hesitant at first, ‘will I like it?’ But it’s a game changer seeing them in action.”

 “The BBQ grill is great. The lava stone under the grill creates that flavour you can only get from - a grill! As a plant-based cook, method is really important when it comes to flavour.”

Overhead two cylindrical Qasair rangehoods impress upon the room. Manufactured locally in Melbourne, this staple Australian brand is trusted for powerful performance with low noise.

For the oven tower, she deliberated over including a steamer with the oven and warming drawer, “Was it worth the investment? In using it I found the steam just enriches the food unlike anything else. I wasn’t expecting that. It’s impressive. I reheat food in it regularly.”

The meal you cook is only as good as the fresh food it’s prepared with. Having experienced poor performance with refrigeration before, she was thoroughly impressed with the fine temperate control of the Liebherr fridge and freezer range. The reduction in food wastage is notable, “I used to have everything in individual tubs! These - just - work.”

There’s something truly satisfying about things that - just work - and it has a name:

The experience of how something looks, feels and performs is called ‘Joy of Use’ – Bette’s kitchen is exactly that. Enriched by her passion for healthy living, her thoughtful approach beckons us to think a little wisely about the technology we engage with and bring into our home.

Having worn multiple hats in his colourful career as a musician, architect and ceramicist, Colin Hopkins is uniquely placed to understand the creative process from multiple angles. And occasionally, one pursuit overlaps with the other.

Shifting away from architecture to better focus on his ceramic business, Porcelume, Colin was teaching a pottery class at Abbotsford Convent when a student overheard talk of his other profession, and approached him with the prospect of renovating their house.

“I do get dragged out of retirement every now and then,” laughs Colin. “Barkly Street house came about through the pottery connection with the client, so we had a bit of rapport even before the project started. I think she appreciated my aesthetic – I’m fairly minimal, which she could see through the ceramics. It gave her a window into my process.”

Said client, Bette Poulakos, shares her Kitchen and delicious recipes through her catering business Organic Soul Food. Given the nature of her work, Bette had a strong sense of the space she intended to both live and work in. What began as a relatively straightforward brief – to knock off the back of the old house, update the kitchen and add a living room – soon expanded to a full-scale, two-storey redesign. But while the scope of the project grew, one specification remained the same.

“As soon as we started talking about kitchens, she said, ‘Oh, it just has to be Cantilever!’” says Colin. “She was very impressed with their work.” A truly local project, given the serendipitously close proximity of Cantilever’s East Brunswick showroom, on the same street.

Colin’s broad spatial schematic presented Travis Dean, director at Cantilever, an opportunity to add bespoke functionality and thoughtful elements to a kitchen made to cater to the masses. 

“It was definitely a unique one for us. We’d never built one like it before,” says Travis. “Bette’s kitchen is quite different in the sense that it has these three bays, or islands. It can be used for everyday family living, but then it can also crossover into almost commercial use,” says Travis.

Bette’s working knowledge of the kitchen drove many of her decisions on appliances and materials. Not only did everything need to be super-functional, but since she shares snaps of her home life online, it needed to be photogenic. Natural marble was selected for her benchtops, against tall Blackbutt veneer cabinetry along one wall, neatly accentuated by handles that Cantilever had designed for a previous project.

“We’d created these long, Mid Century-style handles with a rounded, sculpted feel,” says Travis. “Bette really loved them, and they just seemed to work perfectly here.”

Project
Barkly Street

Kitchen System
K2
by Cantilever

Service
Full Service
Whole Home

Architect
Colin Hopkins

Builder
Brett Smyth

Location
Melbourne

Appliances

Images
Martina Gemmola

Styling
Ruth Welsby

Applying their characteristic attention to detail, Cantilever’s execution made seamless work of joinery throughout the whole house, including study storage and shelving, bench seating by the fireplace, Robes, laundry, and bathrooms. This creates a consistent language which flows between the existing areas into the new design.

“With some cabinet makers, it can be a struggle to convince them of the importance of getting the details right,” says Colin. “Whereas Travis was just on the same page. Cantilever’s already got that high level of aesthetic and design. All of those finer things that really bring the joinery to life.”

“Colin was very engaged with the process, and really easy to work with,” says Travis. “He did a beautiful job of the space. It’s got a nice luxury feel to it, but it’s still understated.”

A great dialogue between two creatives with an intimate knowledge of material, and a common understanding of craftsmanship.