Kitchen

The previous galley-style kitchen was dark and closed off from the rest of the house. For the remodel, Sammie requested high ceilings, no upper cabinets, and U-shaped drawers. Simple white-painted upper shelves display a collection of ceramic dishes.

Husband-and-wife ceramic artists, Dear Human, baked x-shaped decals into store-bought Olympia Tile before arranging them in the kids’ bathroom. The tub is by Bette and the sink, set in a Corian countertop, is by Duravit.

A shallow built-in bathroom shelf.

“I got rid of the bathtub because I like the idea of a big shower,” Pozner explains. But to achieve a comparable effect, he installed a teak bench from Waterworks on the rear shower wall. “One of the things I like about a bath is that you can soak. Here I can sit and have the water pound on me—it’s a hybrid shower and bath.”

The kids’ bathroom features bold, colorful stripes and Gym Hooks from the Danish Design Store.

A kitchen backsplash idea that will never go out of style is a slab of marble that matches your countertop. In this home, the stone counter and backsplash cut from the same slab of Vermont marble, achieving a continuous graphic pattern.

The kitchen island was handcrafted with 30-millimeter Tasmanian Oak half-round dowels. "The [curved form] became a real feature of the house which was mimicked in details such as the timber island and doorway threshold," explains Peake. The countertop is Carrara marble from Avant Stone.

Calacatta marble dramatically extends from the counter and sink to form a backsplash and floating shelf.

Carrara marble countertops and backsplash add a luxurious feel, as does the dark green leather upholstery on the bench seating which, in a space-saving move, is essentially part of the kitchen island. The Highline linear pendant light is from Archier.

Though only two feet deep, the Ikea cabinet Azevedo bought for the guest bath didn’t quite fit, so she sliced off eight inches with a table saw. “It might be unorthodox, but it was just easier, faster, and cheaper to do it myself,” says the former furniture designer.

Full-height, black sliding glass doors connect the interior spaces to the rear courtyard and enable indoor/outdoor living.

This Denver kitchen sets a marble backsplash, that continues up the wall as the backsplash for a display shelf, against walnut cabinetry and countertops of an alternate gray material.

By using color, wood, and polished concrete floors, this apartment in Berlin is full of personality. In the kitchen, polished statuario marble covers both the island's countertop and the backsplash in the custom kitchen cabinet block. PSLAB designed the light fixtures, and the island has open shelving incorporated into it for easy access to cookbooks and other reading material.

The shelving is composed of simple, Mondrian-like color blocking.

"For every new project, I try to find the best solution. If a round island is the best solution, then we will design more round kitchens," explains Otten. "But I prefer to be on a continuous search and [in a constant state of] evolution."

"When we started the design process, the space was empty, a white canvas. There were only the wooden floors and the double high windows adding character to the room," says Otten.

The kitchen, which is meant "not to look like a kitchen" is composed of art deco-inspired shapes, such as this bold, red circular form that Otten created to wrap an ordinary range hood. Even the oven is hidden behind the custom cabinets.

"We added a different finish to every function," explains Otten. "In this way, we tried to suggest that the different parts of the kitchen are dating from different building periods and the construction had been growing continuously."