PARNELL, AUCKLAND CENTRAL
Full Home Renovation
in Parnell, Auckland Central
A two-storey Parnell unit reworked top to bottom — open-plan kitchen, polished-concrete living, and two hotel-feel bathrooms
Completed February 2020
RENOVATION
Project Managed By
Jin Park
Sales and Project Management
jin@superiorrenovations.co.nz
0800 199 888
Quick answer: This was a full home renovation in Parnell, Auckland Central — a tight two-storey unit reworked from the studs out, with the kitchen relocated to open up the living space, polished concrete through the ground floor, and two upstairs bathrooms finished to feel like a hotel suite.
| Location | Parnell, Auckland Central |
| Completed | February 2020 |
| Scope | Full two-storey home — kitchen, living and dining, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, full project management |
| Designer | Superior Renovations in-house design team |
| Project type | Owner-occupier |
Reworking a Small Parnell Unit Without Losing the Space
Space is the usual problem with unit-style homes in central Auckland, and this Parnell home was no different. The owner had a great spot — walking distance to Parnell Village, that quiet-but-urban pocket the suburb does so well — but the unit itself was working against him. Downstairs was a cramped living area and a kitchen with barely any bench to speak of; upstairs sat two dated bedrooms. It had the location. It didn’t have the room, the convenience, or the feel he wanted.
Sound familiar? It’s the classic Parnell trade-off — you buy the address and inherit a floor plan from another era.
Getting more out of a small footprint is less about square metres and more about planning. Our design team started by questioning where everything sat, not just how it looked. The single biggest move was relocating the kitchen from the left side of the room to the right, then taking down the wall between the lounge and dining. That one decision gave us an open-plan kitchen with proper bench space, room for a bar, and a dining area that finally fit.
The Kitchen: Moved, Not Just Made Over
This wasn’t a rip-out-and-replace kitchen job. We physically moved the kitchen across the room. The original sat on the left; on the right was a downstairs toilet and the dining space. We removed the toilet, claimed that footprint, and built a generous kitchen in its place. The old left-hand side became a closet laundry with a pantry alongside it — storage where there used to be none.
The result is the open, bench-heavy kitchen the unit never had, with the laundry tucked out of sight and a pantry doing the daily heavy lifting. It’s the kind of layout problem that rewards a properly designed Auckland kitchen renovation over a cosmetic refresh — moving services costs more up front and pays for itself in how the space actually lives.
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
Kitchen Specifications
Building work
- Removed the wall between the dining room and kitchen
- Closed off the downstairs toilet to claim the space for the kitchen
Custom-built cabinets
- 16mm MRPB carcase boards (water-resistant)
- Handleless setup across all cabinets
- BLUM soft-close hinges and drawer runners throughout
- 30mm engineered-stone benchtop in a marble look
Everyday conveniences
- Custom pantry with pull-out drawers and built-in bins for easy storage and sorting
- Blanco Silgranit sink for low-maintenance cleaning
- Instant hot-water tap — quick to use and more efficient than boiling
Splashback — the star of the kitchen
- A 3D splashback adding texture, depth and character
- BIS374 White Frozen Crystal tiles
- Tile size 258 × 298mm
Technology
- Integrated lighting was one of the highlights of the job
- LED strips above the splashback and under every handleless cabinet door
- Remote-controlled, with dimming and brightness functions
“Moving the kitchen rather than rebuilding it in place was the call that made the whole ground floor work. Once the toilet wall came out, we had room for a real bench, a bar and a dining space — in a footprint that started out fighting us.”
— Superior Renovations design team
Living and Dining: Concrete, Fire and a Built-In Bar
The living room was reworked in neutrals and off-whites to turn it into an intimate space for entertaining. We built a custom bar into the dining area, complete with LED lighting and a wine fridge. The two features that pull the room together, though, are the polished concrete floor and the electric fireplace.
The fireplace needed a workaround. We couldn’t mount it on the existing wall, so we built a false wall in front and ran a 30mm engineered-stone mantle — the same marble-look stone used on the kitchen bench — to tie the two spaces together.
BEFORE
AFTER
Living and Dining — Design Highlights
Bar
- Custom cabinets with integrated LED lighting
- Wine fridge built in to complement the bar
Electric fireplace
- A false wall built in front of the main wall, since the original wall couldn’t carry it
- 30mm engineered stone (marble look) used for the mantle
Concrete floor
- A concrete pad laid across the ground floor — kitchen, dining and living
- Light-to-medium stone-exposure diamond polish system
- Epoxy tie coat, polished finish, stain guard applied
Upstairs: Two Bedrooms and Two Bathrooms, Hotel-Style
The second storey held two bedrooms and two bathrooms, all of them dated. The brief was simple: make it feel like a modern hotel suite. We redid the floors and reworked both bedrooms and bathrooms to land that upscale, calm-and-considered feel — the sort of finish you’d expect from a full bathroom renovation done properly, not a quick tidy-up.
The Tricky Bit: Working Around What We Couldn’t Move
No renovation in a compact two-storey unit runs entirely smooth, and this one had its constraints. The fireplace wall couldn’t take a mounted unit, so we built a false wall to carry it. The kitchen relocation meant rerouting plumbing and waste from the old toilet position, and threading new services for the laundry and pantry into the reclaimed footprint. None of it is visible in the finished photos — which is the point. The trick with a small home isn’t hiding the constraints, it’s designing so they stop mattering.
What a Full Home Renovation Like This Costs in Auckland
Every renovation is priced to its own scope — the size of the home, the materials, and how much structural and services work is involved all move the number. A whole-home job like this Parnell unit, where the kitchen shifts position and the ground floor gets a poured concrete floor, sits well above a single-room refresh. Rather than quote a figure that won’t match your home, use our Auckland renovation cost calculators to get a realistic estimate for your own project.
💡 Quick tip: Relocating a kitchen — moving the plumbing, waste and power rather than reusing the existing positions — is one of the biggest hidden cost drivers in a unit renovation. It’s almost always worth it for the layout, but budget for the services work, not just the cabinets.
“The unit was central and we loved the spot, but it never felt like enough space. Moving the kitchen and opening it up completely changed how we live in it — and the upstairs feels like a hotel now.”
— The homeowner, Parnell
A Parnell Unit That Finally Lives Like One
This full home renovation in Parnell took a well-located but tired two-storey unit and gave it the space, storage and finish the address always deserved. The same in-house team handled the design, every trade, and the project management from first concept through to handover — which is what makes moves this big, in a footprint this tight, actually work.
If you’ve got a central Auckland home that’s fighting its floor plan, that’s exactly the kind of problem we like.
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Full Home Renovation in Parnell — Your Questions Answered
What did this full home renovation in Parnell involve?
It was a complete two-storey rework. Downstairs, we relocated the kitchen from one side of the room to the other, removed the wall between the lounge and dining, and laid a polished concrete floor across the kitchen, dining and living areas. Upstairs, we redid both bedrooms and both bathrooms to a hotel-suite standard. The whole project was designed and managed in-house, from concept through to handover.
Why did you move the kitchen instead of just replacing it?
The original kitchen sat on the cramped left side of the room with almost no bench space. By removing the downstairs toilet on the right and building the new kitchen into that footprint, we gained room for a proper bench, a bar and a real dining area. The old kitchen side then became a closet laundry and pantry. Moving services costs more up front, but in a tight unit it's the difference between a tidy kitchen and one that actually works.
What benchtop and cabinetry were used in the kitchen?
The cabinets are custom-built on 16mm water-resistant MRPB carcase boards, handleless throughout, with BLUM soft-close hinges and drawer runners. The benchtop is 30mm engineered stone in a marble look, and the same stone was used for the fireplace mantle to tie the spaces together. The pantry has pull-out drawers with built-in bins.
What is the splashback made of?
The kitchen splashback uses BIS374 White Frozen Crystal tiles in a 258 x 298mm size, chosen for their 3D texture. It's the standout feature of the kitchen, with LED strip lighting run above it and under every handleless cabinet door — all remote-controlled with dimming and brightness functions.
How was the polished concrete floor done?
We laid a concrete pad across the entire ground floor, then applied a light-to-medium stone-exposure diamond polish system. An epoxy tie coat went down, the concrete was polished, and a stain guard was applied to finish. It runs continuously through the kitchen, dining and living spaces, which helps the open-plan ground floor read as one space.
How much does a full home renovation in Parnell cost?
There's no single figure — cost depends on the size of the home, the materials, and how much structural and services work is involved. A whole-home job that relocates a kitchen and pours a new concrete floor sits well above a single-room refresh. For a realistic estimate against your own home, use our online renovation cost calculators rather than working off a generic number.
Do you handle the whole project, or just the build?
Both. The same in-house team handled the design, every trade, and the project management on this Parnell renovation — from the first concept through to handover. For a compact unit where the kitchen moves and services get rerouted, having one team coordinating the lot is what keeps a complex job on track.
Further Resources
- More completed Auckland renovation projects
- Real client stories from across Auckland
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