Wahroonga · Ku-ring-gai
Kitchen renovations in Wahroonga.
These houses were built with a small service kitchen at the back, deliberately separated from where the family sat. Undoing that is the brief on almost every Wahroonga job we quote.
NSW contractor licence 397801C · Ku-ring-gai Council area · About 6 minutes from our Hornsby showroom
Houses — 74.5% of Wahroonga
A modern kitchen in a period house.
Wahroonga has the highest share of freestanding houses in the district, much of it older stock. The design problem is not making the kitchen contemporary — it is making it contemporary without the house and the room arguing.
Absorb the old scullery
There is usually a pantry, scullery or maid's room adjoining. Taking that space in is often easier than moving a wall.
Use the ceiling height
These rooms are tall. Cabinetry to the cornice with a bulkhead above the run reads as built-in rather than furniture.
Shaker without the pastiche
A simple recessed profile in a restrained colour sits happily in a period house. Ornate reproduction detail rarely does.
Keep what is original
Picture rails, ceiling roses and skirting profiles are part of what the house is worth. We work around them, not through them.
Wahroonga by the numbers
5,777
occupied private dwellings in Wahroonga
74.5%
separate houses — highest in the district
54.6%
of homes have four or more bedrooms
17.8%
rented
How it runs
Old houses need the survey first.
What is behind the wall changes the budget far more than which door profile you pick.
01
Check the heritage mapping
Kitchens rarely trouble a listing, but a new external window or vent does. Confirmed before the layout is fixed.
02
Survey the old services
Cast iron waste, galvanised supply and circuits without an earth are ordinary finds in a house of this age.
03
Design to the existing walls
Absorbing an adjoining scullery is usually cheaper and less disruptive than taking out a structural wall.
04
Strip carefully
Lath and plaster makes far more dust than modern sheeting. Containment matters if the family is staying.
05
Install, template, return
Cabinets in, stone templated off them, fitted on a second visit. That gap is in the programme from the start.
Units — 19.6% of Wahroonga
Apartment kitchens near the station.
1,135 flats and apartments by the 2021 count. None of the period-house thinking above transfers — a unit kitchen is a joinery and approval exercise instead.
No heritage question inside
Wahroonga's unit stock is newer than the houses around it. The constraint is the by-law, not the listing.
One scope to the committee
Cabinetry, plumbing, electrical and flooring submitted together so approval happens once.
Filter, do not duct
A carbon-filter rangehood, because ducting through an external wall means common property.
Credentials
Licensed for period house work.
NSW contractor licence
397801C
Renova Holdings Pty Ltd
Director and builder
99764S
Alireza Kamalzadeh
HBCF eligibility
To 15 Oct 2028
Approved to $750,000 per dwelling
From our showroom
About 6 min
104 George St, Hornsby
Dwelling and bedroom figures from the ABS 2021 Census QuickStats for Wahroonga (SAL14103). Heritage items and conservation areas are mapped in the Ku-ring-gai Local Environmental Plan — confirm with Ku-ring-gai Council. Verify licences on the NSW Government public register.
Wahroonga questions
Period houses, current kitchens.
Will a modern kitchen look wrong in a period house?
Not if the proportions are right. What jars is usually scale rather than style — low cabinetry in a tall room, or ornate reproduction detail that the house never had. A restrained shaker profile taken up to the cornice generally sits far better than either a glossy handleless kitchen or a Victorian pastiche.
Can we take the wall out between the kitchen and the dining room?
Often, but on a house of this age it is frequently cheaper to absorb an adjoining scullery, pantry or old maid's room instead. That gets you most of the space without a structural beam. Where the wall does have to go, it needs an engineer's design — a cost line, not an obstacle.
Does heritage listing affect a kitchen?
Almost never internally. Heritage controls in Ku-ring-gai are concerned with external appearance and significant original fabric. The exception is where the design needs a new or enlarged external window, or an external vent for a rangehood. We check the mapping by address before finalising the layout.
What will you find behind the old kitchen?
In a house of this vintage, commonly cast iron waste, galvanised supply that has narrowed with corrosion, and wiring that predates modern earthing. It is ordinary rather than alarming, but it belongs in the budget from the start. We carry a named allowance rather than quoting low.
Can we stay in the house during the kitchen?
Usually. With four or more bedrooms in over half of Wahroonga homes there is generally somewhere to set up a temporary kitchen. The genuinely difficult part is dust — old plaster and lath produces a great deal of it — so containment matters more here than in a modern house.
Send a photo of the hallway too.
The kitchen should look like it belongs in the house. We design it from the rest of the rooms, not from a catalogue.
