MASSEY, WEST AUCKLAND

A black, white and gold entertainer’s kitchen and bar, built for hosting

Completed January 2020

Quick answer: We turned a closed-off Massey kitchen into an open-plan entertainer’s kitchen and bar finished in black, white and gold, knocking out the walls between the kitchen and living areas so whoever’s cooking is part of the night rather than shut away from it. This modern kitchen renovation in Massey, West Auckland was completed in January 2020.

Why Guru and Neeta Renovated Their Massey Home

Guru and Neeta knew exactly how they wanted to live. They loved having people over, and they wanted a kitchen and living space that could hold a crowd. The problem was the house wouldn’t let them do it.

Their lounge and dining already opened onto a balcony that wrapped around the space, which was great for a party. But the kitchen was a separate room behind a door, so whoever was cooking got cut off from everyone else. Anyone who has hosted in a closed-off kitchen knows the feeling. You’re in there plating up while the night happens somewhere you can’t see.

They talked to a few companies before they came to us. What tipped it was the conversation with our project manager, Jin Park. They wanted someone who’d give them honest, practical ideas rather than just nod along, and they hit it off with Jin straight away. On a renovation that matters more than people expect, your project manager is your single point of contact for weeks, the person making the calls and sorting the problems when they come up.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

The Design Brief: Luxe, Modern, and Made for Guests

The brief had two clear parts. First, design around the existing footprint without touching anything structural beyond the walls that boxed the kitchen in. Second, make the space work for entertaining, so the kitchen, lounge and dining read as one room.

So we took the walls separating the kitchen from the living areas right out and opened the lot into a single space. The look the clients were after was modern with a bit of glamour, and the scheme came down to three colours used on repeat: black, white and gold. Matte black cabinetry, white stone that reads like marble, and warm gold lighting and accents tying it together.

“Black, white and gold is a scheme that can tip into looking heavy if you’re not careful. The trick here was contrast and reflection. White stone against the matte black lifts the whole room, and the mirror finishes bounce light around so a dark palette still feels open.”
— Dorothy Li, Designer, Superior Renovations

The Floor Plan

What Went Into the Kitchen

Cabinetry and benchtops

• Custom-built matte black cabinets and shelves
• White engineered-stone benchtop, made to look like marble, chosen to contrast the black and open the room up visually
• Stefano handleless cabinet system with warm gold LED lighting

The details that earn their keep

• Blum soft-close door hinges and DTC soft-close drawer runners
• Undermount Blanco Silgranit sink
• Pull-out rubbish bins and storage baskets
• Magic corner shelves to use the dead corner space
• Custom pantry with pull-out shelves
• Mirror-finish glass splashback behind the sink and stove, so the wall wipes clean and bounces light

💡 Quick tip: A handleless system like this looks clean, but it relies on good drawer hardware doing the work the handle used to. Spend on the runners and hinges. It’s the difference between a kitchen that still feels tight in five years and one that doesn’t.

The Bar That Stole the Show

The real showstopper wasn’t the kitchen. It was the bar.

We built it into the lounge and ran the same theme straight through, so it reads as part of the kitchen rather than a bolt-on. Same matte black cabinets, same handleless gold-lit look, and a 30mm stone benchtop with waterfall ends made to match the marble look in the kitchen. Mirror-black glass on the bar wall, and wine-glass hangers built into the upper cabinets so the glassware is part of the display.

“The bar had to feel like it belonged. If it had been a different timber or a different stone, it would have looked like an afterthought stuck on the end of the room. Carrying the exact scheme across is what makes the whole open-plan space feel designed as one piece.”
— Dorothy Li, Designer, Superior Renovations

More Than a Kitchen: Flooring, Paint and Carpet

While the kitchen and bar were the headline, the work ran through the rest of the house. New 10mm underlay and light laminate flooring went through the living area, picked partly because it’s easy to keep clean. The kitchen and dining took 12mm tiles. We pulled the old carpet out of every bedroom and laid new 55–60oz carpet, stripped the wallpaper, and sanded, plastered and filled throughout.

The painting was done properly rather than fast. Oil-based undercoat on all the windows, door frames and doors for durability, then low-sheen water-based paint on the interior walls. It’s the unglamorous part of a renovation, but it’s what makes the finished rooms feel new rather than freshened up.

Why So Many West Auckland Kitchens Get Opened Up

Guru and Neeta’s situation is common across Massey and the wider West Auckland suburbs. A lot of the housing here was built across the waves of subdivision that pushed the city west, and plenty of those homes were laid out with the kitchen as its own room, walled off from the lounge and dining. That made sense when they were built. It makes a lot less sense for how people actually live and entertain now.

So the single most requested change we see on West Auckland kitchen projects is the same one we made here: take out the wall, open the kitchen to the living space, and design the whole zone as one. It’s usually achievable without major structural work, which keeps the project sensible — but it’s worth checking early, because a wall between a kitchen and a lounge isn’t always just a wall. If you’re weighing up a full-home reno rather than a single room, our full-home renovation team covers the lot in one go.

What a Renovation Like This Costs in Auckland

Every kitchen is priced to its own scope. The size of the space, whether walls come out, the benchtop material, and the level of cabinetry hardware all move the number, so a figure from someone else’s project won’t tell you much about yours. Rather than quote something that won’t match your home, run your own numbers through our kitchen renovation cost calculator for a realistic Auckland estimate, or talk to our Auckland kitchen renovation team about where your brief sits.

💡 Quick tip: The two things that quietly lift a kitchen budget here are the stone and the glass. A waterfall benchtop carries a premium for the extra stone and the fabrication, and a mirror or reflective splashback costs more than tiles. Both are worth it for the look, but they’re worth knowing about before you set your number.

“Jin was great. He helped us in choosing everything for the kitchen. We did it together. He has become one of us now.”
— Guru, Massey

One Open Room, Built for the Way They Live

Guru and Neeta wanted a home they could host in, and that’s what they got. The walls are gone, the kitchen, lounge, dining and bar read as one space, and whoever’s cooking is in the thick of it. The black, white and gold runs the whole way through, so it looks like one decision rather than several.

If you’ve got a closed-off kitchen in West Auckland and a similar idea in your head, we’re keen to talk through what’s possible in your space.

➡ Book your free in-home consultation with Superior Renovations
➡ See more of our Auckland kitchen renovations
➡ Request a free feasibility report for your project

Massey Kitchen Renovation FAQs

Further Resources

1. More completed Auckland renovation projects
2. Real client stories from across Auckland
3. How our in-house Design Studio works