Dark plywood creates ski pad ambience
Everything about this spacious Queenstown apartment speaks of comfort and style, from the chef’s kitchen to the private spa with views over the lake and mountains.
When new owners purchased this five-bedroom apartment in early 2019, a renovation was overdue. Let for short-term rentals, the owner explains her vision for the property. ‘The open-plan kitchen and living room needed to be a sociable, entertainment-style space. We wanted it to look fun but sophisticated; stylish but solid.’
Out went the tired MDF kitchen, and for Mark Guerts of Connoisseur Kitchens, PlyPlay was a natural choice over MDF owing to its resilience to water exposure.
‘And it is so easy to work with,’ he adds. ‘We used birch Double Trouble, which is inherently stable and straight. We grain-matched everything, cutting pieces out of the sheets so they matched right through to make it look like we’d used a single piece.’
PlyPlay panels are prefinished with a UV-cured coating, making installation ‘less labour than a lacquered kitchen’, says Mark. Nonetheless, he added bespoke touches, such as mitred corners, and sanded and oiled the cut edges for a ‘craft, handmade detail’.
From the kitchen, the dark Double Trouble extends along one wall of the living room, and even in custom-made coffee tables. The feature wall anchors the room, creating a rich, characterful focus around the fireplace that is ideal for winter ski-season evenings: a stylish touch for a practical and good-looking living space.
