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The ceiling, busy with light and shadow and bright wooden beams, contrasts with the simplicity below, the concrete floor and the living area's single piece of permanent furniture, the Arflex sofa.

The pleated roofline adds light and shadow to the bright and airy interiors.

Aaron and Yuka Ruell transformed a 1950s Portland ranch house into a retro-inspired family home with plenty of spaces for their four children to roam. In the kitchen, interior designer Emily Knudsen Leland replaced purple laminate cabinets with flat-sawn eastern walnut, and added PentalQuartz countertops in polished Super White for contrast. The kitchen island is clad with original red tiles, and hanging cabinets above it were removed to maximize light and family-room views.

Marble countertops of black and white with kitchen cabinets finished in sparkling white are offset by a unique glass backsplash, which offers a hint of the surrounding rainforest.

In this sleek kitchen renovation in San Francisco, the kitchen backsplash is an easy-to-clean glass backsplash that mimics the glossy finish of the surrounding white cabinets. Painters accomplished the high-gloss finish on the cabinets of a kitchen in San Francisco by applying a coat of paint, polishing it with very high-grit sandpaper, repeating the process for each layer, then topping it with three coats of clear varnish. "It’s like an auto body," says builder Jeff King. "It’s incredibly beautiful." The island provides shelving space and storage as well as a second sink, an is topped with pietra grigio marble.

common area

the kitchen is at the center of the living space

Full-height cabinetry, custom-built with a white matte lacquer finish, maxes out every square inch. The appliance garage at the center hides the Vitamix and coffee maker. When closed up, this bank of cabinets reads as a single wall and the finish reflects light, helping the space to feel bigger.

The owners of this home selected a geometric-patterned glass tile backsplash by Island Stone. The glass tile keeps the space bright, and the pattern adds interest.

Kitchen

With an eye to making the home eco-friendly, both structures were built of prefabricated cross-laminated timber, while large openings, like the sliders in the kitchen, promote cross-ventilation.

The Stewart-Schafer team hand-selected each slab of Calacatta Vagli marble to be book-matched. "We love the beautiful natural veining and imperfections of marble against the clean lines of the kitchen design," noted Stucker. To protect the marble, they used a trade secret sealing product that comes with a lifetime guarantee, which, according to Stucker "helps alleviate the hesitations some clients have with marble."

See Arch removed a wall to create a more spacious kitchen with a stronger visual connection to the dining area. The updated kitchen is outfitted with quartz countertops and Viking, Fisher Paykel, and Asko appliances.

This lakeside home in Quebec boasts a white kitchen with an elegant, white marble backsplash that adds just a touch of pizzazz to an otherwise simple and minimalist open kitchen.

The kitchen of this Brooklyn brownstone was updated with a white Carrara backsplash that frames the Bertazzoni range and Dunsmuir cabinetry, providing a white background that makes the Matte-black quartzite kitchen island pop.