Rooms made to be lived in, slowly.

Custom kitchens, wardrobes and bathrooms, designed and built by a small joinery workshop in Penrith, from the first sketch to the last hinge.

Penrith & lower Blue MountainsWorkshop visits by appointmentDesign, build, installOne team, one plan
Concept visualisation, AI-generated from the before photo: the same kitchen in the Warm Minimal style Before (real photo): a U-shaped kitchen with honey oak cathedral-arch doors, white tiled benchtops, a timber-framed fluorescent light box, a microwave over a stainless cooker and a beige vinyl tile floor Before · real photoConcept · AI-generated
Before · real photo by Brian Wangenheim / Unsplash (not an Oak & Ember project)
Concept visualisation · AI-generated from the before photo
Drag to compare. The windows, cooker, sink and bench runs never move.Warm Minimal: pale oak, honed travertine and soft linen walls.
Try a style

We keep what already works in a room, and spend the effort on the things you touch every day: the drawer that glides, the benchtop edge under your forearm, the light at seven in the evening.

Fly-through: from the front hall to a real before photo of a kitchen, then an AI-generated Warm Minimal concept of it

Looking down a quiet hallway with pale oak floorboards towards a bright renovated kitchen at the far end Before, a real photo: a U-shaped kitchen with honey oak cathedral-arch doors, white tiled benchtops, a timber-framed fluorescent light box and a beige vinyl floor The same kitchen as a Warm Minimal concept, AI-generated from the before photo: putty slab doors, a travertine splashback, pale oak floor and linen pendants; windows, cooker and sink in the same places Low view along the stone benchtop towards the window, putty drawers with brass pulls below and a bowl of pears Macro of the travertine benchtop edge over putty drawers with brushed brass bar pulls A putty drawer pulled open to show a solid oak drawer box with dovetail joints and folded linen
AI-generated concept image

Walk in from the front hall.

A single-storey late-1990s home in Glenmore Park, from a fictional brief. The kitchen sits at the end of the hall, where the light is.

Before · real photo by Brian Wangenheim / Unsplash (not an Oak & Ember project)

A kitchen as it stands.

Honey oak arched doors, tiled benchtops with grout to scrub, a boxed fluorescent light. The layout works. The surfaces have had their day.

Concept visualisation · AI-generated from the before photo

Same walls. Same windows.

The Warm Minimal concept keeps both windows, the cooker, the sink and every bench run exactly where they are, and changes everything you touch.

AI-generated concept image

Along the bench.

Honed stone under your forearms, putty slab drawers below, a travertine splashback catching the window light.

AI-generated concept image

The edge under your forearm.

Travertine with its natural pits, a crisp shadow gap between drawers, a brass pull that will darken where hands go.

AI-generated concept image

And the part nobody sees.

Solid oak drawer boxes with dovetailed corners, made in the workshop and finished before they reach the house.

Seven things make a kitchen.

A Warm Minimal kitchen, taken apart piece by piece into what we design, make or coordinate. Each part carries a sample allowance from the Design studio.

Concept visualisation, AI-generated: a Warm Minimal kitchen with putty slab fronts, a fluted oak island, travertine benchtops and splashback, brass pulls and linen pendants Concept visualisation · AI-generated
  1. LightingTwo linen drum pendants over the island; dimmable downlightsPendants · downlights sit with the electrician.$550–1,050
  2. HardwareSlim bar pulls in brushed brass, soft-close hinges and runners$400–900
  3. Doors & frontsSatin slab fronts in Warm putty; fluted European oak island claddingIsland cladding · slab fronts are in the cabinetry line.$4,300–6,250
  4. BenchtopsHoned silver travertine, 20 mm with a pencil-round edge$5,200–7,950
  5. SplashbackThe same travertine, run up the wall as one slab$2,300–3,500
  6. Appliances & sinkUnder-bench oven, gas cooktop, integrated rangehood, undermount sinkChosen by you, integrated by us · not in the allowance.Your choice
  7. Carcasses & shelvingMoisture-resistant board carcasses, four tall units, solid oak shelvesIncludes the slab doors hung on them.$12,350–18,350

Indicative total, including trades, installation and a 10–15% contingency$38,150–63,000Fictional sample allowances for a 4.6 m run and 2.4 m island. Not a quote. Images are AI-generated concept visualisations.

How a project unfolds

Nothing is priced until you have read and approved a written brief.

  1. Conversation

    A relaxed first chat about the room, how you use it and what is bothering you.

  2. Measure

    A site visit to measure properly and note what must stay.

  3. Concept

    Visual concepts and a material board to choose a direction.

  4. Brief & quote

    A written project brief, then a fixed quote against it.

  5. Make & install

    Built in the workshop, installed by the people who made it.

The full process

Material samples on linen: travertine, Carrara and Nero marble, terrazzo, oak, blackbutt and smoked oak veneers, zellige tiles, brass, bronze and leather pulls, and a pencil sketch of a kitchenAI-generated concept image

A library of honest materials.

Timbers, stone, tile and hardware we like working with, with notes on how each one ages. We bring real samples to your kitchen table, because a screen cannot tell you how travertine feels at seven in the morning.

Open the material library

Start with a conversation.

Tell us about the room. Bring photos if you have them and a rough budget if you know it. Or neither. We will take it from there.

Book a consultation