Kitchen designer in Pukehina.
If you are planning a kitchen at Pukehina, you have a designer just down the road. I am a mobile kitchen designer based here at Pukehina, working along this stretch of coast from Maketu through to Paengaroa. I come to your home and design the kitchen around your actual space and the way you live by the water, rather than fitting you to a range in a showroom. The design starts with your home and the coast it sits on, not with a catalogue.
Designed around coastal living.
A kitchen by the coast is lived in differently. The doors are open more of the year, the kitchen runs out to the deck and the outdoor table, and it works hard through summer when the house is full. That way of living belongs in the design from the start: how the kitchen opens to the outdoors, where people gather while someone cooks, and materials chosen to hold up to sun, salt and a busy holiday season.
Most kitchen design starts with a product range and fits you to what is in stock. I work the other way, beginning with the home, the light off the water, and how your household actually uses the space, then designing the kitchen to that. It is the reason a coastal kitchen still suits you in ten years, rather than looking right on the day and wearing poorly once a few seasons have been through it.
Based at Pukehina, from Maketu to Paengaroa.
I live and work here, so this coast is home ground rather than a place I travel to. I design for the range of homes along it: permanent homes on the spit and the parade, baches being made into year-round houses, and new builds going up with the water in mind. Close by, I work through Maketu and inland to Paengaroa as well.
Because I am a mobile designer and come to you, the plan is shaped by your actual home, its light, its outlook, and the way it meets the outdoors, not by a layout drawn in a showroom in town.
A Pukehina coastal kitchen.
One of my Pukehina kitchens shows how this works. The home is lived in around the water and the deck, so the kitchen was designed to open to the outdoors and to hold a crowd through summer, while still being calm to cook in on a quiet morning.
The layout was resolved first, around how the household moves between the bench, the outdoor table, and the rest of the home. Only then were the materials chosen, for the light and for coastal wear: surfaces that take the sun, finishes that stay easy through a salty, busy season. The result is a kitchen that suits the way this family actually lives on the coast, rather than a layout lifted from a catalogue.
A qualified designer who holds the whole project.
I am a Certified Kitchen Designer (CKDNZ), and I came to the work from a professional kitchen, a building site, and the study of how people live in a space. It is also why a coastal kitchen is designed around how you really live by the water, rather than around a catalogue. Because the studio is low-volume, I design every kitchen myself and hold the project from the first conversation to the final detail: designing it, procuring the cabinetry, surfaces and appliances through trade relationships, and coordinating with your builder so the kitchen lands cleanly inside the wider build. The full design process is set out on the services page.
Kate Blakeborough, CKDNZ. The considered hand behind every Design Suite kitchen.
Common Questions.
Do you design coastal and beachfront homes?
Yes. A coastal kitchen has its own considerations: how it opens to the outdoors, how it handles a full house through summer, and materials that hold up to sun and salt. I design around all of that, because a kitchen by the water is lived in differently from one in town.
I have a bach at Pukehina I am turning into a permanent home. Do you design those?
Yes, and it is some of my favourite work. Making a bach into a year-round home is as much about how the kitchen connects to the rest of the house and the outdoors as it is about the kitchen itself. I design from your actual home, so the new kitchen suits how you will really live in it.
Do you work across Maketu and Paengaroa?
Yes. I am based at Pukehina, so Maketu and Paengaroa are close by. I come to you and design from your home across this part of the coast.
How do I start?
The first step is a conversation, with no pressure in it. We talk through how you live, what is not working now, and whether a design-led approach is the right fit.
Begin a Design Conversation.
If you are planning a kitchen at Pukehina and want it designed around your home and the way you live and holiday by the coast, the first step is a conversation. We talk through how you live, what is not working now, and whether a design-led approach suits your project. There is no pressure in it.