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Nadarajah decided to put windows where a backsplash might go in order to bring extra light into the kitchen. "The birch cabinets were custom-designed to be the length of a wok and the height of a cake dome," she says.

On a sought after an idyllic island in the center of Amsterdam an old warehouse, formerly in use as a pillow factory and a garage has been converted to a warm and eclectic family home. The kitchen features a mixture of green tiles, green painted mullions, and exposed wood beams for a warm, soft feeling that contrast sharply with the more industrial stainless steel island. The kitchen island incorporates a stove top and storage, and benefits from natural light from the skylight overhead.

Mark Fekete and Viviana de Loera, co-founders of interdisciplinary design firm MARK + VIVI, happily took on the challenge of building their dream home in a transitioning Montreal neighborhood. The couple's kitchen is an exercise in both sustainability and creativity. The island is wrapped with reclaimed scrap wood uncovered from the house during demolition. Chalkboard walls provide a whimsical canvas for graphic images and notes. Stainless steel was selected for the kitchen countertops, and the pair relied on a local industrial sheet metal fabricator to help them prepare the material for residential application. The mix of warm and cool adds depth and dimension to the space.

Custom kitchen cabinets designed by Pulltab and fabricated by Maciek Winiarczyk hold mostly vintage ironstone that Geiger has found at flea markets and estate sales over the past 20 years. "I love white," she says, "because I think food always looks better on it." She also collects vintage wooden cutting boards, shown resting against the marble tile backsplash from Stone Source.

The idea for Simon Pillard and Philippe Rossetti’s Lego kitchen island in Paris sprouted when Pillard put 500 blocks and a day’s worth of work into building a Lego-legged chair. They covered their kitchen island—a simple wooden block—with 20,000 Lego pieces.

The kitchen is composed of stainless steel, from the cabinetry fabricated by Barcelona company Timblau, to the counters and backsplash, the latter given a mirror polish for contrast to the former’s patina on the surfaces. The boxes were brought in on a crane and then the group put them together in place. “The kitchen shouldn't be a closed dirty area of the house,” says Jon. “But [rather] the heart.” Fitting, as social life in the Basque culture revolves around eating together.

The kitchen includes top-of-the-line stainless steel appliances, custom floor-to-ceiling cabinetry, countertops in French Blue de Savoie marble, and a Pullman rolling ladder.

Despite their dark color palette, black and white kitchens can still feel bright. This tiny kitchen perfects the art of chiaroscuro with white shiplapped walls, custom-built open shelves and dark concrete floors. The owners selected sleek faucet fixtures by Santec and a sink by Blanco to complement the white laminate countertops. The stainless steel appliances include a Bertazzoni oven, Fisher & Payel refrigerator, and Thermador dishwasher.

Make sure your kitchen fits seamlessly with the rest of your home. A good entertaining space should have a look that's consistent with the overall design, so use finishings, colors, and other elements that compliment the rest of the space.

The upstairs guest bath includes a salvaged 19th-century soaking tub wrapped in stainless steel. Givone also installed a hand-chiseled sink made of 17th-century marble quarried from the hills outside of Rome.

The primary bath includes double sinks, a freestanding tub with jets, and a walk-in rain shower.

“Off the kitchen is the 1,000-square-foot great room with an oversize woodburning fireplace, original wide-plank floors, custom wainscoting milled from trees on the property, and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the creek and waterfall,” says the listing agent.

“The wall's latticed steelwork was hand-bathed in acid over many months to achieve its uniquely rich patina, as was the floor-to-ceiling, sculptural steel tower opposite with built-in wood burning pizza oven at its base,” says the listing agent.

“The enormous kitchen includes 20-foot vaulted ceilings with massive hand-hewn beams, radiant polished concrete floors, and a soaring ‘curtain wall’ of glass and steel,” says the listing agent.

The designers painted the exposed brick in the attic white to match the walls and bedding, and also restored the original hardwood floors.

In the master bath, a West Elm dresser was converted into a double vanity.

"We splurged on Anthropologie hardware for the cabinets, and don’t regret that ever," adds Claude.

An Italian marble backsplash complements the open shelving made from reclaimed wood purchased from local Amish shops.

Almost everything in the kitchen was torn out (save for the original hardwood floors) and replaced. The drop ceiling was also removed to create a more airy atmosphere.