Warm and welcoming, with generous curves and a subtle, organic palette that evokes the hues of the Australian landscape, The Expansive Kitchen designed by Kennedy Nolan is a collaboration with Laminex that explores the potential of laminate.

The Expansive Kitchen is the first of a series of three spaces designed by Kennedy Nolan in collaboration with Laminex. While laminate has a well-established reputation for its functional benefits as a hard-wearing, stable, easy-to-clean surface, Kennedy Nolan was also interested in the design possibilities offered by the unique material qualities of laminate. With its ability to be cut and formed with ease and the Laminex Colour Collection providing an unparalleled range of colours and tones, the design flexibility offered by Laminex laminate saw Kennedy Nolan exploring unexpected and innovative uses of the material – from bold gestures to nuanced details.

It is a generous kitchen that is destination, a space for entertaining and cooking – and in these times even possibly a place to work from home.The curve as a formal motif and a muted palette inspired by the Laminex Colour Collection, which takes its cues from the Australian landscape, became the means through which the design finds its balance. The striking curved island bench, as the central object in the kitchen around which activity coalesces and circulates, is the natural point of reference within the design.

Working with the unique qualities of laminate, Kennedy Nolan sought to go beyond preconceived ideas about the typical kitchen island to design something that is closer to a piece of furniture than traditional joinery. Drawing on laminate’s sculptural potential, the island is an exercise in form-making, with its distinctive curved base that is by turns convex and concave. Then above, on the benchtop two tones Laminex Paperbark and French Cream are used on the same plane to create a graphic interpretation of the curves below. 

The Laminex Whitewashed Oak, Paperbark and French Cream bring a light yet grounded quality to the space that is complemented and enhanced by the curves that are at once organic, abstract and sculptural. By emphasising the aesthetic potential of a product that is also a practical, hardwearing and stable material, Kennedy Nolan has created a kitchen that responds to the contemporary Australian way of life, in which the kitchen is a space that is both functional and a joy to inhabit.