Inside Amanda Keller's New Kitchen

Featuring Caesarstone Pure White

TV and radio personality Amanda Keller currently co-hosts WSFM’s breakfast radio show Jonesy and Amanda in the Morning as well as Network Ten’s Logie Award-winning lifestyle show, The Living Room, alongside Chris Brown, Barry Du Bois and Miguel Maestre.

Barry Du Bois is an Australian designer, building expert and TV personality on Network Ten. He first appeared on reality renovation show The Renovators as a building mentor and judge and now is co-host and design/building expert on lifestyle program The Living Room.

So much of the skill in designing the perfect kitchen is knowing how the family lives day-to-day. Good design works with you on a practical level, rather than forcing you to live in a stylised home only suitable for show.

And this is the same for everyone, even media personalities such as Amanda Keller and her family – husband Harley and two teenage sons, Liam and Jack.

With the boys growing up fast, Amanda and Harley wanted to upgrade their kitchen, so Amanda turned to her close friend and fellow TV presenter, Barry Du Bois for practical help.

Designer and building expert Barry worked with Dominique McAdam of Provincial Kitchens Home to create a new kitchen that will meet the teens’ growing needs and provide a central hub for this very close family.

“When I first looked at it, I saw that we had an opportunity to tie a couple of spaces together,” explains Barry. “There was this beautiful courtyard space, a dining space and a kitchen space, and my initial plan was to tie those spaces together, yet keep the zones a little separate. I knew with the right selection of joinery and the way we approached the benchtops, we could blur the lines between the dining room and the kitchen, between the outdoor dining and the indoor dining.”

Barry explains that the choice of Caesarstone’s Pure White™ for the benchtops helped to link the spaces.

“That’s where Caesarstone came into it, because that was about blurring the lines and subtly crossing over,” he says. “We extended the kitchen a little bit into the dining room, by disguising the end of the kitchen with a bar.”

Caesarstone’s renowned toughness and reputation for being easy to maintain helped to make the decision easy, especially given the challenge of having teenagers and all their friends eating there regularly.

“For the space to work properly, the choice of benchtop was going to be key,” says Amanda. “It was a big element. Barry was confident, as always, in his choice of Caesarstone, and that it should be Pure White. The result has been perfect. We now have a good sized eating and socialising area at one end, and the sink ( the working bits) down the other. It’s been in for a while now and has survived literally everything we’ve thrown at it.”

“I’ve been in the business for over 35 years.”

“Caesarstone for me is a proven and trusted performer, and it’s never let me down. It’s the product I use in my own home. I’ve used it in everything from a one-bedroom studio apartment, feature wall, to an $8 million waterfront, so I know these guys. I know that I can trust them and I know that it’s a product that works.”Barry Du Bois

Barry Du Bois

The kitchen redesign was inspired by the closeness of the family, who like to spend time together in the same room most evenings, he adds.

“We centralised the home around the hub around the kitchen and put less value on self-contained spaces for individuals around the house.”

“What that also did was give the family a utility space, so if they were outside in the courtyard and wanted to come in for a drink, the bench was right there. You don’t have to disturb the people that were cooking in the kitchen. And then of course, to be able to have that giant island bench where the family can come together in the morning.”

“It really represented more of their personality, and who they are. Amanda and Harley love colour; they love to display their collectables and the colours we chose really emphasised that.”

Barry has nothing but praise for the team from Provincial Kitchens, especially the owner, Dominique McAdam.

“Dom’s incredible, and she was open to all my thoughts,” he says. “The detail that she brought to the kitchen cupboards is second to none.”