feast of design
From Habitat magazine - issue 14
A light and restful scheme for a traditional style kitchen is the winner of our Electrolux competition.
The winner’s existing kitchen is a dark, outdated space with impractical cooking appliances.
As usual with our room make-over competitions, we had a high standard of entries to the Electrolux habitat kitchen competition but it was Sheryl Herbert of Pokeno who won the wonderful Electrolux induction hob and pyrolytic oven, worth a total of $6000 and a Resene paint voucher, with her scheme for a lighter, brighter look for her traditional timber kitchen.
Not only was her entry well thought-out, beautifully presented and wittily written but she had to be the most deserving in terms of appliance-need. She and husband Dave have an old cast iron stove, a 20-year-old microwave and a bench-top oven as their only means of cooking food. While fully functional, the cast iron stove takes too long to feed and stoke to reach cooking temperature before it’s time for bed.
Says Sheryl: “It would be great if, even once, we could cook our Friday night treat of pizza and wedges at the same time, instead of needing to split them into two courses. And how special would it be to invite more than two people at a time over for dinner.” And to be able to make a complete batch of muffins for her grandson.
Sheryl’s kitchen makeover is just that – a makeover rather than a full replacement. As a cost-effective solution in these economically tough times, she will have the ‘lifeless’ timber doors professionally spraypainted in Resene Quarter Truffle. The walls will be Resene Alabaster to counteract the dark room, with accents and splashbacks in either Resene Lemon Grass or Resene Pohutukawa… or both.
Sheryl’s winning scheme retains the old cast iron stove and traditional lines but adds freshness with Resene Quarter Truffle, Resene Alabaster, Resene Lemon Grass and, possibly, Resene Pohutukawa.
Sheryl is a big fan of Electrolux products. Her 30-year-old Electrolux vacuum is still going strong despite doubling as a horse for her grandson, an agility jump for the dog and endless entertainment for the cat (the retractable cord).
Other entries included one from Nelson in the form of a poem, a sophisticated scheme from Hamilton where sparrows are nesting in the extractor fan, an entire scrapbook of inspirational images from a Timaru homeowner, a kitchen of bright blue, green and orange, and one from a creative and hardworking Invercargill single parent whose current kitchen has wallpapered cabinets!
