A Cromwell-based joinery firm has made the final of the Society of British and International Interior Design's international design awards in London for a kitchen installed in a home near Lake Hayes.
''If we come out of this with something, we'll never come down off the cloud. Cromwell will lift itself above the mountains, I tell you,'' delighted Masterwood Joinery general manager Jim Cleveland said.
The kitchen won five major awards, including supreme kitchen design, at the recent National Kitchen and Bathroom Association awards in Melbourne.
One of the judges suggested Masterwood enter the SBID awards. Public voting opened this week. Voting closes on September 9, and winners are announced in London on October 25.
Masterwood Joinery's award-winning kitchen - which was at the ''top end'' of the $80,000-$100,000 category - was in a ''really, really magnificent home'', Mr Cleveland said.
The firm did a lot of high-end work and that particular project ''sits high in the high end'', he said.
The business, owned by Alistair Saville, has an international flavour; it was in Stefan Sonntag's home town of Cologne, Germany, that he saw an advertisement for a kitchen designer, placed by the then-owner of Masterwood Joinery.
At the time, Mr Sonntag - who trained as a joiner and went on to complete kitchen design studies - was disappointed plans by his Italian kitchen design and manufacturer employer to involve him in setting up in Auckland had not come to fruition.
Still keen to move to New Zealand, despite having never heard of Cromwell, he applied and got the job, moving to Central Otago about 15 years ago. He and wife Britta have two children, Willa (14) and Sullivan (12).
Meanwhile, Mr Cleveland was appointed general manager in October last year, having lived overseas for many years.
Born and brought up in Dunedin, he qualified as a joiner before heading to Australia on a working holiday when he was 21.
He established a successful joinery and shop fit-out business in Queensland before moving to Florida with his American wife, Claire.
After the resurgence of an existing cancer - he has been in remission from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma for about 14 years - the couple decided to move to Wanaka.
He set up a joinery installation business, which brought him into contact with Masterwood Joinery and Mr Saville. The couple have since relocated to Bannockburn.
The firm's McNulty Rd showroom would soon have new display kitchens highlighting Mr Sonntag's designs. A large, new factory and showroom was also planned for Cromwell's industrial area.
Mr Cleveland loved his job. ''I love the design aspect. Certainly something very, very difficult to create is always a cool challenge for me.''
There was a great team at Masterwood Joinery and they also had a lot of fun. Treating staff well was something that he had learned from his uncle, the late Dunedin philanthropist and businessman Les Cleveland, who was his ''inspiration'', he said.
