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Measure book — the record

Kitchen renovation projects and case studies

A finished kitchen photographs well from one corner. What it cannot show you is the wall that was out of plumb by 22 mm, the waste pipe that decided where the sink went, or the brief the owner wrote on the first visit. So the subject of this page is the record itself: the eight-part template — location, brief, before and after, layout, materials, cabinetry, benchtops, result — that every kitchen we build in Moorabbin and the surrounding bayside suburbs is written up to as the job runs.

Individual case studies are published only from real project material supplied by the owners of the kitchen, so records appear here as jobs are documented and permission is given. Until then, what this page shows is the template every project is recorded against, and the three bayside footprints those records compare.

Book a measure and quote

See the twelve services behind them

Reference photograph: an L-shaped kitchen with a freestanding island — the footprint most single-fronted bayside houses end up with once a wall or a side door is worked around.

Field label

The case-study
template

Two kitchens can only be compared if both were written down the same way.

What a project record holds

The record starts at the consultation, before anything is drawn. Wall lengths are taken at three heights, the fall across the floor is noted, service positions are marked, and the owner’s own words about what the kitchen fails to do are written down as the brief. Everything that follows — the layout chosen, the cabinetry specified, the surface ordered — is entered against those opening figures.

That is why the eight parts are always the same. Put two records side by side and the same lines can be read in both: what the room measured, what was asked for, what it cost the layout to deliver it, and what the bench looks like with nothing on it. The full build sequence behind each entry is set out in the 12-step renovation process, and the drawing stage in Kitchen Design.

01 Location — suburb and house type, in general terms

02 Client brief — what the old kitchen would not do

03 Before and after — the same camera position twice

04 Layout — footprint kept or changed, and why

05 Materials — finishes, tiling and hardware specified

06 Cabinetry — carcass sizes, doors, drawer systems

07 Benchtops — surface, edge profile, join positions

08 Final result — what the room does now at handover

The stage worth photographing is the open one

Once the old kitchen is out, the house stops hiding things: the stud line that never ran true, the chase where the old gas point sat, the difference between the render and the plaster at the return wall. Those days between demolition and cabinetry are where a project record earns its keep, because they explain every dimension that appears later on the benchtop template.

Reference photograph: an open-plan kitchen still in fit-out — timber carcasses and pale drawer fronts part-installed, lighting hung, and tools and offcuts still on the floor where the benchtop will be templated.

Footprint one

|—————|
2400–3600 MM RUN

Galley

Two parallel runs with a corridor between them. What it usually limits is bench space either side of the cooktop, and the ability to open a dishwasher and a drawer at once. The fix is almost always dimensional, not decorative: gap width, appliance positions, and turning wall cupboards into full-height storage.

02 Kitchen Design

03 Small Kitchen Renovations

11 Kitchen Storage

Footprint two

|———+
|
TWO WALLS + DOORWAY

L-shape with a side door

Common through Moorabbin, Bentleigh East and Heatherton: two working walls interrupted by a back or side door that eats the third. What it limits is the continuous run, and it is the footprint most likely to justify moving something structural rather than re-facing what is there.

05 Kitchen Remodelling

01 Complete Kitchen Renovations

07 Custom Cabinetry

Footprint three

———————
ONE WALL, NO RETURN

Single-line

The typical bayside unit and apartment kitchen: everything on one wall, often open to the living room. Plumbing and the meter box usually rule out relocation, so value concentrates in the visible plane — doors, one uninterrupted benchtop and a splashback that runs the full length without a change of material.

12 Kitchen Makeovers

08 Kitchen Benchtops

09 Kitchen Splashbacks

Opening a page for your own kitchen

Every record starts with a measure

The first visit is not a sales call with a folder of finishes. It is an hour with a tape, a pencil and a page: wall lengths, ceiling height, window and door positions, where the water and the gas come in, which way the fridge door needs to swing, and what you find yourself doing twice every evening because the room makes you.

From those figures the honest answer usually arrives quickly — whether the layout is the problem or only the finishes are. One leads to a complete renovation, the other to a makeover that keeps sound carcasses. If you would rather ask a question before booking anything, use the contact form.

Useful to have ready

Two photographs taken from the doorway, one from each end of the room

Rough wall lengths in millimetres, even if paced out

Appliances you intend to keep, and their sizes if known

Anything structural you already know about — a window you cannot move, a meter box, a door to the yard

Three things the current kitchen does badly, in your own words

The brief is more useful than a folder of saved images.

Read alongside

Kitchen Guides

Written for the decisions that come before the drawing.

Kitchen Layouts Explained: Galley, L-Shape and Island
The three footprints above, measured out in full.

Small Kitchen Ideas for Bayside Units and Galleys
What actually buys space in a narrow room.

What Drives Kitchen Renovation Costs in Melbourne
Where the money concentrates, and why layout changes move it.

Planning a Kitchen Renovation Step by Step
The order decisions have to be made in.

Benchtop Materials Compared for Real Kitchens
Six criteria applied evenly to five surfaces.

Choosing Kitchen Cabinetry: Doors, Finishes and Hardware
The line every other dimension is taken from.

Page one of your own measure book

Tell us what the room measures and what it fails to do

Send through your suburb, the kind of kitchen you have and roughly what you want to change, and we will arrange a measure across Moorabbin, Highett, Hampton East, Bentleigh, Bentleigh East, Cheltenham, Mentone and Heatherton.

Prefer to ask something first? The contact form reaches the same people. To see the full service list before you write, start at Kitchen Renovation Services.

Measure first, decide second, quote third.