A richer kind of apartment kitchen
In an apartment kitchen, every choice has to earn its place. Tea House does that with a kind of edited richness: layered, tactile, and quietly exacting, without ever feeling overstuffed.
Designed by Natalie Du Bois of Du Bois Design, the Parnell kitchen works in a palette that is both grounded and unexpected. Custom olive-stained ash veneer brings warmth to the cabinetry, while the beaded timber drawer fronts add a fine, almost furniture-like rhythm. It is a detail you feel before you properly notice it.
The benchtop is honed Negresco granite, dark and serious in the way natural stone can be, but softened by the surrounding timber and the mustard gloss of Japanese finger tiles. Brass appears as a considered counterpoint, used on the rangehood and leg detail, giving the kitchen a handmade note rather than a showroom shine.
The specification is also doing some heavy lifting. Gaggenau appliances sit within the architecture of the room, including Vario gas and induction cooking, integrated refrigeration, oven, combi microwave and dishwasher. Blum hardware, Hideaway Bins, Zenith chilled water, Fit power and tea towel rails, and Hafele inserts keep the working parts refined and concealed.
Tea House feels less like an apartment compromise and more like a compact lesson in atmosphere: a kitchen with proper function, beautiful manners, and just enough theatre to make everyday rituals feel a little more deliberate. It is polished, but not precious; practical, but never plain. A small room, made to feel expansive.
