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Custom cabinets in a mix of white oak and lacquered paint join Miele appliances and a honed quartz countertop.

In the kitchen, honed Welsh slate tops pale English Sycamore cabinetry.

Kitchen

Northcote House by Mitsuori Architects / kitchen

Project architects Studio Marshall Blecher and Jan Henrik Jansen Arkitekter opened up the center of the house, previously comprising a maze of fourteen small rooms, creating one large and airy kitchen and dining space with a high, chapel like ceiling. A six-meter-long concrete plinth standing at the center of the room which doubles as an island bench and dining table, had to be lowered into the house by a crane while the roof was being reconstructed.

In the main living spaces, Montgomery exposed the Douglas fir LVLs, which are structural support beams that span the entire ceiling and don’t necessitate support columns.

“I’m the queen of Ikea cabinets,” laughs Jade. She commissioned custom birch-veneer plywood for the doors from L.A.’s Anderson Plywood. While she was budget-conscious in many ways, she also is willing to splurge where it counts. “Hardware is where I spend money. That’s where people touch and feel it,” she says. “It’s important to me that it feels significant.” Here, pulls and knobs come from Mockett. The countertop is a man-made resin from Arizona Tiles in La Quinta.

Homeowners Izabel and Paul made a large open kitchen a top priority, insisting on counters at double the standard width.

The expanded kitchen has a large central island, with room for prep, seating, storage, and cooking. The cabinetry is a mix of wood, Shinnoki Milk Oak, and white fronts, Fenix NTM Bianco Kos. The terrazzo counters are by Concrete Collaborative. There are two types of tiles: the Mutina Rombini fluted tile on the island and Cepac Krave Sugar Tiles on the backsplash. “It looks very mid-century modern,” says Blaine of the backsplash tile. “But in this application, it also adds that little touch of depth that I think is really important to making the house feel interesting.” The counter stools are from Hay.

The open-plan kitchen, dining and living room honors the home's original design and heroes the existing stone wall.

The ADU's kitchenette is tucked into one side of the structure, with a ladder leading to a carpeted playroom for the kids. "It's a great example of a family home that doesn't always look like it,

After: The soaring new living and dining space benefits from an abundance of natural light from every side, and they spent a lot of time trying to find the best lighting for the kitchen. The final choice: long, narrow copper pendants from Denmark suspended by ultra thin wires to not disrupt the visual flow of the room.

The countertop is a custom Concrete Collaborative terrazzo, and the colored flecks nod to the wall tiles.

The new kitchen features green kit kat tiles, a terrazzo-effect rubber floor, white cabinetry, and cherry wood veneered cabinets. The client originally wanted teak cabinets, but 4 S Architecture recommended using cherry wood instead as it is more sustainable but has the same warm tones as teak. “We couldn’t get behind teak as a product so we used FSC certified European cherry that has less air miles than American cherry,” explains architect Julia Hamson. “The client was really pleased with the result.”

Leah designed a stone planter that works as an herb garden and vinyl storage, noting that

The design team restored the cork floors. The island lights are Sven Middleboe for Nordisk and are original to the house. The counters are Ceppo Di Gre Marble and the door to the restored pantry is painted Tarrytown Green by Benjamin Moore, and given a porthole window with reeded glass.

A San Francisco home by ballonSTUDIO employs a warm beige palette across all four flours.

The relocated kitchen includes Villa Lagoon concrete floor tiles, Heath Ceramics island tiles, Schoolhouse Electric pendant lights and Design Within Reach Valencia stools.