This Greenhithe kitchen went into a brand-new house on Auckland’s North Shore, built to the client’s architect’s plans rather than dropped into an existing room. The brief was straightforward to say and harder to do: design a kitchen that felt like it belonged to the rest of the home, not a standalone fit-out that fought the architecture around it.

A new-build kitchen designed to fit the whole house

Most of our work is renovating older Auckland homes. This one was different. The house in Greenhithe was newly built, so the kitchen had to answer to an architect’s drawings and the finishes going in around it. We designed and built it wholly to the client’s architect’s specifications and the family’s needs, which means the proportions, the joinery lines and the colour palette all had to sit comfortably with the spaces either side of it.

The palette is mostly neutral, calm rather than loud. The two features that give the room its character are the long island and a blue splashback, and both earn their place.

The long island and the blue splashback

The client wanted a long island the family could eat at when they were in a hurry. It is the busiest surface in the room: somewhere to prep, somewhere to sit, and the natural gathering point when people drift into the kitchen. A long run like this only works if the cabinetry under it is set out properly, because the benchtop and a seating overhang both add weight the framing has to carry.

Against the neutral cabinetry we added a blue splashback to bring in some colour. A splashback is one of the easiest ways to give a neutral kitchen personality without committing the whole room to a colour, and because it covers a smaller area it is simpler to change later than cabinetry or flooring. Weighing up materials? Read up on what a splashback costs in NZ before you decide.

How we build a kitchen to an architect’s plans

Building a kitchen into a new house is a coordination job as much as a joinery one. The cabinetry is set out to the architect’s drawings, then the plumbing and electrical rough-ins are confirmed before anything is closed up, so the sink, any island services and the appliance points all land where the plan says they should. The benchtop is templated only after the cabinets are installed and level, which is why the fit ends up tight rather than approximate. This is the same care that goes into planning a kitchen that suits the whole house, and it is how our team designs and builds a kitchen to a set of plans.

Ventilation is part of the plan too. Kitchen ventilation is covered by the New Zealand Building Code clause G4 Ventilation, and over a hob the usual way to meet it is a rangehood ducted to the outside rather than one that just recirculates air. Consent and Building Code questions on any given house are best put to a Licensed Building Practitioner or Building Performance (MBIE), not settled off a case study.

💡 Quick tip: Getting the layout right on paper is cheaper than moving a bench later. Our guide to getting the kitchen layout right walks through the work triangle, island clearances and where to put the bin.

What a new kitchen costs in Auckland

Cost comes down to size, the cabinetry and the benchtop. Our own Auckland kitchen cost guide puts a mid-range kitchen at around $28,000 to $35,000, rising to roughly $30,000 to $50,000 once you add custom cabinetry and a stone benchtop, with high-end kitchens running well beyond that. A new-build kitchen designed to an architect’s plans sits inside the same range and moves with the choices you make. To sketch a figure for your own project, run the numbers through our kitchen renovation cost calculator.

Kitchens across Greenhithe and the North Shore

Greenhithe sits on Auckland’s upper North Shore, near the Upper Harbour Motorway between Albany and the north-western suburbs. It is exactly the sort of area we work in day to day, and these are the kitchens we build across the North Shore, from new builds like this one through to full renovations of older homes. For more finished rooms and ideas, have a look through our kitchen design gallery.

➡ Book your free in-home consultation with Superior Renovations
➡ Price your kitchen with our cost calculator
➡ Request a free feasibility report for your project