Oak & Orange use their building know-how to turn a standard new build home into a cosy country-style home to sell with Caesarstone® Organic White™.
Oak and Orange dynamic duo Heather and Sarah turn a modern new build into a Cosy Country style home with Caesarstone® Organic White™ to achieve their goal of selling to make a profit.
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Building to Sell
Dream Home 6, affectionately named the Cosy Country Cottage, is nestled on a small 450 square metre block of land in a new housing estate on the outskirts of Sydney.
Working closely with their home builder, Better Built Homes, Sarah and Heather customised the standard home layout and finishes to create a country-style home with all the functionality a family need.
‘We’ve built around 20 homes over the last ten years, and one of our biggest successes is taking the advice of our local real estate agent. We make sure to include all the bells and whistles our buyers expect,’ explains Heather.
‘Time and time again, we hear buyers expect stone benchtops, so every single one of our projects has Caesarstone. It’s such a recognisable brand that using it adds value at sale time.’
‘Every project we tackle has challenges. Making our design choices work within budget is probably our biggest, but we know Caesarstone benchtops add value to homes.’
‘After living in many of our project homes, we know firsthand Caesarstone surfaces are high quality, hard-wearing and perhaps best of all, low maintenance. We know this appeals to new owners, so for us, Caesarstone is non-negotiable and features in all our projects,’ reveals Heather.
‘With so many colours to choose from, we’ve always found it easy to find a Caesarstone benchtop to suit the style of the home and our budget,’
Heather, Oak & Orange
Creating the Country Style Home Kitchen
‘We like to choose our benchtop quite early in the design process and start by choosing the perfect colour to fit our budget. We then take the stone sample with us to select the cabinetry and tiles,’ explains Sarah.
‘For the cosy country style home, we chose Caesarstone® Organic White™ from the deluxe range for all of our surfaces. We love the warm tones of this colour; they create the cosy country home design we want.’
Kitchen by Better Built Homes and Oak & Orange
Photography by The Palm Co.
‘In the kitchen, we use a 40mm thick Caesarstone Organic White™ benchtop and complement it with the warm tones of Laminex ‘Surf’ cabinetry,’ reveals Heather.
‘We often try to maximise the use of our Caesarstone slab on the kitchen island bench, so for this design, we increased the depth of the island bench to create room for additional storage on the underside of the bench seating area.’
‘That’s the beauty of stone benchtops; the design, colour, thickness and profile are flexible. It means we can achieve a look that oozes Cosy Country Cottage – what more could we ask for!’
Kitchen by Better Built Homes and Oak & Orange
Photography by The Palm Co.
‘Extending and widening the benchtop, however, did pose a challenge. It reduced the walkway into the kitchen and dining area from the hallway. The perfect solution was to curve the benchtop at one end to increase the space. Although a practical solution, it does make a beautiful feature within the home and gives extra storage.’
‘The curve in the benchtop led us to change our skylight above the kitchen island bench to match the shape of the benchtop. Together they’re the heroes of the design’.
Heather and Sarah continue the surfaces and styling into the spacious Butler’s pantry to create a seamless flow with plenty of open and hidden storage options.
Butler’s Pantry by Better Built Homes and Oak & Orange
Photography by The Palm Co.
Stylish Wet Areas
As Heather explains, ‘We like to use the same stone in our bathrooms and laundry, but for budgetary reasons, we chose 20mm Organic White™ for these areas paired with Laminex Spinifex in the laundry and Laminex White in the bathrooms.’
‘As we like to use the same stone colour throughout, we always check out the stone colour in a larger format in a showroom to ensure it works with the colour samples of all of our cabinetry and paint choices.’
Laundry by Better Built Homes and Oak & Orange
Photography by The Palm Co.
‘The Organic White™ benchtops work beautifully in every room, even with the blue tone of cabinetry in the Laundry.’
Master Bathroom & Family Bathroom by Better Built Homes and Oak & Orange
Photography by The Palm Co.
It just goes to show, by maximising the opportunities and their available budget to change standard layouts and specifications, Sarah and Heather create an incredible country style family home for prospective buyers.