Kitchen

Cabinetry maker Forest Designs used birch plywood to craft the U-shaped kitchen island, which is topped with quartz from Floform. The Ziro floor tiles in Gris are from Navarti and the contemporary metal edge pulls are from Richelieu. The appliances are from Whirlpool.

In their query letter, Ben and Sarah were clear that they wanted a home that could accommodate all of life’s messes. “We don't want a white display kitchen that only looks good when it's clean and not in use. We want our kitchen to be able to work hard. We love to cook and when we do, there are usually lots of things on the go and a mess being made.”

Note Mansawataphaiboon cooks something up.

Rice is a must for the family's meals. The rice cooker comes out onto the counter when it's time to cook.

Kitchen and dining area, Maison JJ Joubert

"Anthony and Sherry love to entertain, so they wanted something that felt a little more austere from the street and then became warm and cozy on the interio,” says architect Eric Hughes.

Harry designed the kitchen to feel like furniture rather than cabinetry. The mosaic tiled backsplash (Nagoya Mosaic-Tile Co from Academy Tiles) and the dropped overhead cabinet's rattan inserts are a nod to midcentury style.

Inside the 1,930-square-foot structure, which is their full-time residence, con-crete floors and pale woods mimic the outdoor palette. A sliding glass wall from Fleetwood opens to an expansive patio and perfect sunset views.

Whereas others might look at a board-formed cement wall in a basement and see, well, a concrete wall, Jess and Jonathan Taylor, the design duo behind the L.A.-based firm Taylor + Taylor, were inspired. The couple had purchased a virtually untouched 1952 house in east L.A. and that concrete wall became the backdrop for a new guest kitchen in the basement. "It was really the starting point of the whole design," says Jess Taylor. "As designers, our goal is to always try to incorporate the existing surroundings whenever possible, utilize them in practical ways, and be inspired by them."

Oversized windows look out onto up-close views of the neighborhood's most iconic sights, including Brooklyn Bridge park and the Brooklyn Bridge itself.