Think about last time you walked into a great restaurant, bar or hotel. Most likely it featured a variety of lighting – from soft, moody light for people to relax in, to brighter, task-oriented light in ‘work areas’ to help the staff do their jobs properly.

It’s the same in your home. You can mix and match from a choice of lighting options to create a particular mood and also to supply the right type of light for work areas.

For example, a lovely ambience can be easily achieved with lamps, accent lighting such as up-lights or lights that focus on a piece of art.

Mood lighting such as LED strip lighting under the edges of cabinetry will enhance architectural details and give a subtle glow.

Task lighting over working areas (for example over kitchen bench tops) tends to be bright and broad so that you can comfortably work there.

It’s also possible to install lighting behind features such as granite walls or glass splash backs to softly illuminate their beauty. And there is a huge range of statement pendants to choose from that can quickly become the focal point of a space.

At dbm, we know that great lighting makes your home feel more inviting and easier to live in.

In the work we do with our Sydney home renovation clients, one of the services we offer is to guide and advise our clients on the best choice of lighting. In doing so, they are able to create beautiful and highly effective lighting for their kitchen, bathroom or living space at the flick of a switch.

Talk to one of our experienced kitchen, bathroom or living space designers about our Sydney lighting design service.

“I worked closely with my client’s interior designer to create a kitchen makeover that complemented the art deco style used elsewhere in the apartment,” dbm designer Tracy. “My clients love gold and black tonings and we incorporated these in the granite benchtop and also in the kitchen cabinetry.”

The result is an eyecatching kitchen that radiates personality.

“For such a one-off kitchen, unique finishes were required to create its bold look,” said Tracy. “To achieve the unusual finish on the timber cabinetry doors, I had them painted gold with a walnut stain applied over the top. They were then rubbed back to reveal the gold colouring and finished with an ultra high gloss polyurethane to add a mirror-like sheen.”

Kitchen cabinets were tailored to match the specific storage requirements of the owners.

“Like all my kitchen designs, the finish on this is meticulous,” said Tracy. “It’s a very tactile kitchen that makes you want to touch all its surfaces.”

The owners are thrilled with the result.

“There was not much room to work with so I needed to be clever with how I arranged the kitchen and the design of storage areas,” said Tracy. “The owners love coming home to it and visually, it integrates perfectly with the other living spaces within the apartment.”

Tracy designs Sydney’s most luxurious kitchens.

She can design a kitchen to match your particular style and space, ensuring your kitchen renovation delivers an end result you’ll love.

Contact Tracy today for information about dbm’s complete Sydney kitchen design service.

DBM Services: Kitchen Renovations Sydney

For some, it’s a great piece of art; others may choose a gorgeous ‘look at me’ light fitting, rug or furnishings with an arresting design.

Particularly in pared back contemporary kitchens, bathrooms or living rooms, a single and lively element is a great way to inject visual interest in the space.

Some great examples are these from a Sydney home for which dbm completed a recent renovation.

In the modern, open plan living room below, a beautiful piece of marble backs the gas flame fireplace. Like an artwork, the marble catches your eye as soon as you enter the generous space.

And in the kitchen below – like a slick of red lipstick – this coloured glass splashback punctuates the streamlined kitchen, making the area more dynamic.

At dbm, we design fantastic kitchens, bathrooms and living rooms throughout Sydney. We’re good at translating your ideas about how you want your renovation to look, and also how you plan to live in and use the space.

Contact us to discover how your kitchen, bathroom or home makeover will be one you’ll be thrilled with by drawing on our design and renovation skills.

There is virtually no limit to the look you can create. You may be inspired by a piece of artwork, a nature scene or any kind of graphic elements – and by having it printed on a glass splashback, it will be there for you to enjoy each time you enter your kitchen.

The trend towards open plan living (incorporating kitchens) makes printed glass splashbacks especially exciting. It’s easy to make it a central feature, introducing a strong style note into the space.

You can match the glass to a full spectrum of colours, so that it hits exactly the right note in your setting.

Being glass, it’s simple to maintain, with a quick wipe down to keep clean.

And with the right choice and positioning of lighting, you can really highlight its beauty.

Printed glass splashbacks are very popular in modern kitchens in the UK and Europe right now, and they are also being used in many of the luxury kitchens we help create here in Sydney.

If you would like to personalise your kitchen with a custom designed printed glass splashback, talk to us. As part of our complete kitchen design and renovation service, we would be pleased to assist.

We are often asked to design a kitchen that has a minimal look, and an important consideration in this is the choice of rangehood.

In the not too distant past, the only choice was to have a large overhead rangehood that tended to be a dominating feature in the kitchen.

Not any more. Today, more and more of our clients are choosing a downdraft rangehood that disappears from view at the touch of a button.

Sounds good? Yes, it does, and for many good reasons.

A huge benefit of a downdraft rangehood is that it can be installed practically anywhere.

Under a window or in an island bench or anywhere else you can think of, this slick and efficient steam extractor will emerge only when needed, then retreat out of sight when it’s not, via its smooth hydraulics.

A downdraft rangehood is a particularly good choice in rooms with low ceilings, or where you have a view you don’t want to obstruct.

The Wolf range of downdraft rangehoods is the system we often recommend. It’s quiet and easy to wipe down to keep clean. Built from stainless steel, it complements the look of many kitchen styles.

For those who are keen to keep their kitchen as tidy looking as possible, we think islands are better for cooktops rather than kitchen sinks. This is because with a cooktop, the island is only busy when you are cooking and packing away, whereas kitchen sinks tend to attract bits and pieces all day long.

A kitchen island that incorporates a cooktop can be a real feature when you are entertaining too. Guests can gather around and be served straight from the cooktop, which is much more convivial than gathering around to watch you wash up!

As Sydney kitchen designers, we can help you create a customised and stylish kitchen to fit the way you live.

A specialist kitchen or bathroom designer will intuitively ‘see’ how you can achieve much more than you may think is possible in your renovation.

For example, a kitchen renovation we recently undertook for a client in Sydney transformed it from being a poky and awkward area into an energised space that integrated seamlessly with the adjacent living room.

“I love my new kitchen,” said the owner. “dbm’s design ideas have given me a kitchen that reflects exactly how my family lives. The cabinets have been designed to exactly match their purpose and what’s stored in them. This means everything I need to use is easily accessible and there’s no visual clutter.”

In the design we came up with for this client, we suggested relocating an adjacent bathroom to a more logical position, which allowed us to convert the former bathroom into a generous, purpose built pantry.

“While the actual footprint of the kitchen is not all that much bigger than the original, it feels vastly bigger,” said the owner. “Everything from the choice of finishes to the placement of each element has contributed to making the kitchen seem more generous and expansive.”

In the previous ‘standard’ kitchen layout, the family members had found themselves continually in each other’s way. By introducing distinct zones and considering carefully how the family uses the kitchen, the kitchen design we developed significantly reduced the amount of ‘traffic’, making it much easier to use.

“By focussing on getting the design of our kitchen renovation absolutely right, we’ve ended up with a space that contributes a lot of energy and happiness to the way we live,” said the owner. “When people come to visit they can’t get over how much bigger the kitchen seems since the renovation.”

We at DBM (www.dbm.net.au) are interior designers Sydney homeowners can rely on to work to the highest possible standards and produce results that will please you both now and for many years to come. We consider every aspect of your home’s interior, from the way light passes through the different rooms to the way each detail fits into the overall pattern, yet also fulfils its own aesthetic function.

Seeing both the “forest” and the “trees” of the proverb simultaneously – that is, being able to handle both the details and the overall design scheme of the house at the same time – is a complex task, but one which you can count on us to carry out diligently and successfully. Keeping both factors in mind with every design decision, with both the individual function of a specific detail and its place in the décor of the entire building being carefully weighed and balanced against each other, is the way an interior designer needs to work if they expect to develop truly stunning, breathtaking designs.

Both aesthetics and functionality are fully considered when we are drawing up a design brief for your house. Attractiveness and usefulness are certainly not mutually exclusive, and we will prove this amply to you – and prove our value as top quality interior designers in Sydney – by providing you with interior decoration that will make the most of your home’s potential both for comfort and appearance. Visit DBM today on www.dbm.net.au for an overview of the services we provide, and then call us for a free planning session and estimate.