Before & After: How a Native New Zealand Tree Became the Through Line for This Woodsy Kitchen Revamp

The renovation of this kitchen in Auckland, New Zealand, began with a contradiction: an open-plan layout that somehow felt constrained. Cabinetry crowded the perimeter walls, providing scattered and inefficient storage, and the cooking, dining, and living spaces were all crammed together.

When the homeowners first saw the 1950s duplex, however, the layout was the last thing on their minds. What caught their attention instead were the small traces of the home’s original character that had somehow survived decades of updates. "It’s an old state house, and it still has its original matai floorboards and doors," the homeowner says. "You can’t recreate those details easily."

Before: Kitchen

The setting helped, too. "The kitchen, dining, and living space gets both morning and afternoon sun," the homeowner says—and its southwest views overlook an estuary and the Waitākere Ranges in the distance. Although they appreciated the openness of the interior, the kitchen—installed sometime in the early 2000s—felt like an outlier from another era. "It had zero connection to any of the things we loved about the place," explains the homeowner.

Fixing that disconnect became the starting point for designer Raimana Jones of Auckland-based studio Atelier Jones Design. Rather than dramatically altering the footprint, Jones focused on reorganizing the room so the open-plan space could finally function as it should. "Our main strategy was about organization," Jones says. "Putting the storage where it made the most sense so the rest of the space could feel calmer."

After: Kitchen