Commercial fit-out of staff room and home economics rooms, completed during summer break. Hard-wearing surfaces, institutional-grade hardware, designed for daily use.
Materials used
St. Mary's National School in Oldtown needed a full kitchen fit-out across two rooms — a staff room and a home economics room — completed within the summer school break. The constraint was absolute: every trade had to be finished, snagged, and cleared before the first day back in September. The school environment ruled out anything that would leave lasting mess, noise disruption during term, or any safety hazard for staff re-entering the building.
Photography of this project will be added shortly.
The programme was set before a single cabinet was drawn. Two rooms, one summer. We sequenced the work so both rooms could be snagged independently, giving the school flexibility if term prep required access to one room while the other was still being finished. Every delivery was coordinated to avoid the car parks filling up during school events.
A staff room kitchen sees more daily use than most domestic kitchens. We specified thicker carcass board, commercial-grade hinges, and laminate-finished doors rather than painted MDF — materials that take daily knocks and regular cleaning without showing wear. The home economics room required additional lower-level storage and worktop runs designed for group cooking sessions.
Working in a school means working to a different standard of site cleanliness and conduct. Tools were stored and secured each evening, dust was contained, and no work was left half-finished overnight. The school was able to use unaffected parts of the building throughout, without any disruption to staff preparation work happening in adjacent rooms.
Both rooms were handed over clean, fully snagged, and ready for use before the new school term. The school has reported no issues with the fit-out in the time since, and the cabinetry continues to perform as intended under daily institutional use.
“Tony delivered a complete kitchen fit-out for our staff room and home economics rooms over the summer break, on schedule and on budget. The work was done to a high standard, and his team were respectful of the school environment. We've had no issues since.”
St. Mary's National School, Oldtown, Co. Dublin