Hughes Rd Blairgowrie
Joinery Installation: Blending Function and Design
At our Hughes Road project in Blairgowrie, TEMSEA is currently completing the joinery installation stage for this custom-built home. In this particular phase of the project, we’re focusing on delivering high-quality, durable, and visually cohesive cabinetry using coloured board joinery paired with 40mm stone bench tops, a combination that balances form and function with cost-conscious design.
Why Coloured Board Joinery?
For this home’s internal joinery, we’ve implemented melamine-faced coloured board, which has a thermally fused decorative surface. When installed correctly, this provides resistance to moisture, abrasion, and UV degradation, which is highly sought after in coastal settings like Blairgowrie.
Melamine coloured board also offers a wide array of finishes in both texture and colour, ideal for creating a cohesive and contemporary look throughout the kitchen and living zones.
At TEMSEA, we favour this material in builds that require reliable consistency across multiple cabinetry zones without compromising on design integrity.
In the Hughes Rd project, we used these coloured boards to achieve a cohesive modern aesthetic while remaining aligned with the project’s budget and time constraints. While edge banding is visible in this option, we applied it with CNC precision to minimise visibility.
Material Considerations: Function Meets Design
We always guide our clients through a detailed material selection process, weighing up visual appeal, durability, and long-term maintenance needs. Below is a more in-depth comparison of joinery finishes often used in residential construction:
- Melamine/ Coloured board
- Applications: Ideal for flat panel cabinetry and modular layouts.
- Strengths: Cost-efficient, highly durable, easy to clean. Extensive colour and texture ranges now mimic everything from timber grain to matte painted finishes. Edge tape is visible, but when precision-machined, this becomes an extremely minor drawback.
- Limitations: Not suitable for routed panels or complex profiles.
- Vinyl Wrap
- Applications: Great for profiled cabinetry such as shaker or V-groove panels.
- Strengths: Seamless face finish, capable of handling curved or routed shapes.
- Limitations: If not vacuum-pressed correctly, vinyl is prone to delamination, particularly in high-humidity or high-heat zones like near ovens or dishwashers.
- 2PAC (Two-packed painted finish)
- Applications: High-end, bespoke cabinetry requiring a flawless finish.
- Strengths: Unlimited colour customisation, seamless appearance, and compatibility with detailed profiles.
- Limitations: Higher cost, longer lead time, and vulnerable to chipping. Repairs, when needed, are labour-intensive and rarely invisible.
Bench Top Choices: Understanding the Alternatives
Joinery isn’t standalone. It must work in tandem with bench top selections, particularly in kitchens, laundries, and bathrooms, where thermal, impact, and water resistance are non-negotiable. For this project, we chose 40mm engineered stone bench tops for their structural stability and aesthetic synergy with the cabinetry.
As experienced builders, we often evaluate the following bench top options based on usage profile, project type, and client priorities:
- Laminate:
- Pros: Economical and available in many finishes.
- Cons: Vulnerable to heat, water ingress at joins, and surface scratching, typically not ideal for long-term value in custom builds.
- Timber
- Pros: Natural warmth, suitable for feature areas or softening modern palettes.
- Cons: Requires regular sealing and is prone to water damage, warping, and staining, especially in humid environments like bathrooms or coastal kitchens.
- Engineered Stone (Used in this project)
- Pros: Non-porous, heat-resistant, low maintenance, and available in a wide array of colours and veining patterns. It provides the tactile weight and visual appeal of natural stone with enhanced durability.
- Cons: Higher initial cost, but far outweighs alternatives in lifespan and performance.
By combining engineered stone with melamine cabinetry, we created a visually unified yet high-performing finish, ideal for the Blairgowrie home’s open-plan layout and proximity to the coastal elements.
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