Bay Builds: Kyal and Kara reveal kitchens, dining and living rooms
So far in the Bay Builds journey, Kyal and Kara Demmrich’s latest property adventure, the couple have revealed bedrooms, bathrooms, home offices, media rooms and their first-ever wine rooms in two mirror-image new builds on the NSW Central Coast.
This week the couple reveal the much-anticipated showstoppers of the build: the kitchen, dining and living rooms.
During the design phase, Kyal says they had three key priorities for the heart of the home: that the space be practical, flow well and look “drop-dead gorgeous.”
The couple nailed the brief with an open-plan layout, luxury finishes and abundant natural light streaming in from skylights above.
Sticking with the French-inspired theme in House One, a grand-scale white Sensa granite benchtop divides the kitchen and living spaces. Creamy-hued cabinetry under the benchtops complements light-toned American oak pantry details. A black fluted sink and oversized cooker provide an unexpected contrast.
The bright stone benchtop – 100 millimetres thick and 3.2 metres wide – is intricately veined and comfortably seats five people.
“I just know how much we congregate around the island bench and most people do – it ends up being where you entertain,” says Kara.
Functionality is crucial to the couple’s design approach throughout the house, but most critically in high-use spaces like the kitchen.
“Every time we create a kitchen, we imagine how someone would live there,” says Kara. “The space has to accommodate those family moments in the morning or of an evening as well as those weekends spent with family and friends.”
House Two has the same generous benchtop, but in line with this home’s Spanish-inspired theme, it is cut from a darker Brazilian quartzite, which also boasts beautiful veining throughout.
Dark American oak pantries hide clever storage solutions, including pull-out shelving, corner storage and spice racks.
Both kitchens boast custom-made range hoods cut from the same stone as the benchtops and fitted perfectly to the curve in the wall – a detail Kara says elevates the kitchens to “a whole new level.”
“Both those range hoods with the corresponding micro-cement colours just look so stunning,” she says.
With so much stone involved in bringing these kitchens to life, install day was a literal nail-biter for the couple. Kara says she was so anxious to get the huge slabs safely into place that, by the end of the day, “I literally had no fingernails left.”
“Kyal’s always calling me Nervous Nelly and I don’t think I’ve ever felt more nervous because this is the first kitchen we’ve done with natural stone,” she says.
“The natural stones have a lot of veins through them, which is what you love about the material, but they’re the weak points. It’s fine once it’s installed but it’s the movement that scared me.”
Those moments of high stress paid off, as the results elicited a strong emotional response from the couple once they saw the stone set in place. “I can’t put my finger on it but it makes me feel all squishy inside,” says Kyal.
A butler’s pantry, tucked away behind the curved kitchen wall, has open shelving, additional benchtops and cabinets, offering ample storage and preparation space.
A kitchen of this calibre requires an equally impactful dining space to share the fruits of culinary labour with friends and family. Custom-made, wrap-around bench seating and oversized, recycled timber dining tables accommodating over 12 guests in both homes provide just that.
It’s a design choice that the couple have made “time and again.”
“It saves so much space because you don’t need that extra circulation space for the chairs,” says Kara. “We love it.”
Another area where the couple have used clever space-saving hacks is the entertainment cabinets that run the length of the living spaces in both homes.
“We did a similar thing in our last build and we just know how practical it is – it can function as a bench seat, it’s got the built-in drawers and acts as a styling piece for artwork so it’s a trifecta,” says Kara.
Completing such crucial spaces in the builds allowed the couple to reflect on how far they’ve come in such a challenging project. With over two years between designing the rooms on paper and seeing them come to life, there has been ample opportunity to second-guess decisions.
“I work better under pressure,” says Kara. “If you have a lot of time, that’s when you start second-guessing yourself.”
But the project has taught the couple “a good lesson in trusting that first decision.”
It’s this commitment to those original choices that ensure the identity of each home shines through. House One’s living space is fresh and bright, with a large white statement sofa and marble coffee table.
House Two is warmer and moodier with a curved, modular sofa and nested coffee tables in soft organic shapes.
“I think those rooms are breathtaking,” says Kara. “I’m excited to see people’s reactions when they walk through the spaces for open homes.”
Bay Builds is Kyal and Kara’s latest property series, with new episodes and room reveals dropping weekly. We’ll cover every room reveal, and you can watch the episodes here.
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