woman in the kitchen
It was an unfortunate situation Nicola Cumming can thank for catapulting her into the kitchen design world, and emerge as one of New Zealand's leading kitchen designers
woman in the kitchen
BY AGE 21, NICOLA Cumming was enjoying a thriving career within the jewellery industry. "I felt good about life," she says. "I'd learned the jewellery trade,
travelled to London and even ended up opening a jewellery store there. Later, I holidayed in Europe and then returned happily to my city life in Auckland. I was saving for a deposit on my first house. Everything was going well until the jewellery company I worked for suddenly closed, and I was made redundant." That morning Nicola stared unemployment in the face. But, as fate
would have it, by the afternoon her new career in kitchen design was sealed. "I met my girlfriend for lunch that same day and was unexpectedly
joined by a friend of hers. When I discovered she was a kitchen designer, it really appealed to me. The job sounded like fun, so I asked her to help me get my foot in the door … and she did!" says Nicola. Nicola was taken on as an apprentice for the 'Rolls Royce' of
LEFT: Kitchen Designer Nicola Cumming with husband Keith Payne
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