Jane first met with Sarah Burrows Design at the 2017 Home Show when she was considering a kitchen renovation and wondering who might design and manage that process. This meeting in a neutral environment enabled her to get an idea of the scope of the project and what we could bring to the process. This was followed up by an on-site visit to discuss requirements and ideas in more detail plus outline how the project would proceed.

John and Jane felt they were able to engage with us with the confidence that we would provide a design they loved and professionally manage the completion of the build

Project Details

The current kitchen had a good layout but it needed a few tweaks to make it functional. The appliances were recently new too. However, the main push for Jane & John was that the shaker style kitchen cupboard fronts were peeling off and the terracotta tiles with timber ceiling felt heavy for the space. The space over by the back door leading out to the BBQ area needed to be made into a pantry area to house the coffee maker, small appliances and pantry items.

In order to design this we needed to work closely with our builder and create a smaller door. The ceiling space was limited, and we loved helping Jane discuss the best options for the lighting design to illuminate the space. We used an MDF door lacquered in Resene – Quarter Rice Cake to keep the kitchen durable and timeless to suit this 1930’s home. Stone bench tops were selected to stay tonal with the space and Tile Imports provided large square tiles in just the right colour!

One thing really important to us is clear communication - keeping our clients in the loop of any updates and constantly being in communication means that everyone is always on the same page. So we provided Jane and John with a timeline, as well as phone numbers for all our trades to keep the project management smooth and stress free. As we are situated 2 hours north of Auckland our management system was key to documenting all our conversations and changes along the process. It made the management of all aspects of the job easy, and meant that the clients were always in the know.

Feedback from Jane & John

“Sarah made the extra effort to make a number of trips to Auckland so she was familiar first hand with the site and any issues and always available for key decisions. Sarah also had many Auckland trade and supplier contacts. Sarah was easy to communicate with. She was prompt to reply to any communication and her emails were detailed and clear. She was responsive to any questions, suggestions and requests. It felt like she was invested in the project."

"She pulled the timeline together and ensured the trades were available when needed and that the construction ran to schedule. Due to thorough planning the renovation process was very smooth. The tradespeople were considerate, competent and reliable. One of the key things about choosing to use Sarah was the tradespeople she brought to the job and her management of these. She was able to address any issues that arose without necessarily being on-site and was in Auckland relatively frequently – making site visits or meeting up at suppliers’ premises."

"Sarah designed a kitchen as per our thoughts and in keeping with our home, listened to our feedback and made adjustments accordingly. She was always positive and responsive. Sarah brought our vision to life, filled in the details and organised the trades so that it was all completed smoothly. Overall it was a very pleasing process. One that we did take quite some time finalising but were consequently able to do at our convenience.”

The Finished Space

After carefully working for 6 months on the design process, we loved seeing the client communicate really well with us. We were able to work closely with our joiner Labella Kitchens, our electrician and all other trades to bring this to life. Some words from Sarah & Kim:

“We loved working with our client and taking on board all her ideas, designing clever storage solutions and creating a cohesive space. The lighting is our favourite detail which we worked hard to collaborate with all our suppliers. We also enjoyed working with a shaker style kitchen and being sympathetic to the architecture of the home.”