Kitchen Designers near you

On a new build or a renovation assessed under the National Construction Code, yes. Part H6 of NCC 2022 Volume Two sets Performance Requirement H6P2, which limits the energy value of the building's domestic services against a reference baseline of nominated efficient equipment, and the whole-of-home provisions count fixed energy-using equipment including heated water and lighting alongside on-site generation. A kitchen contributes through its hot water supply, its fixed lighting and the fuel strategy it locks in. Whether your particular job is assessed depends on its scope and your state's adoption of the Code.

A like-for-like replacement of cabinets and benchtops inside existing walls, with no services moved, often needs no building approval, though the electrical and plumbing work is still licensed and separately certified. The moment you remove a wall, change the building's structure, add or relocate plumbing fixtures or alter the building envelope, it becomes building work and an approval is required. Approvals are a state matter, issued by a council or a private certifier depending where you are, so ask locally rather than assuming.

As a cooking question it is a matter of preference and habit. As a compliance question it is not neutral any more, because the whole-of-home provisions in the Code assess the efficiency of a home's fixed energy-using equipment and any on-site generation together. A fuel decision in the kitchen tends to pull the hot water and heating strategy with it. Decide it early with whoever is doing your energy assessment rather than at the appliance showroom, because the joinery, the ventilation and the electrical supply all follow from it.

Often, if your project is entirely inside the cabinets. The service is paid for by the cabinetry order, so the solutions offered are bounded by the supplier's system and the incentive is to sell it. That is fine for a conventional room. Where the project involves moving walls or services, an awkward footprint, or energy decisions that affect the rest of the house, an independent fee-based designer can consider options the showroom cannot and can put the joinery out to competitive tender.

Before the joinery is documented, not before it is installed. Cabinetry is built to actual model dimensions, ventilation clearances and door swings, and integrated appliances have panel requirements that vary between manufacturers. Late substitution is the most common cause of a kitchen that does not fit, and it is also the point at which an electrical or gas supply that was never allowed for becomes an expensive discovery. Lock the model numbers, not the categories.