Kitchen finishes we like

The kitchen island and cabinets at this Melbourne renovation are made of recycled timber, taking cue from the wooden bookcase that designer Kim Kneipp installed during the home’s first restyling.

“Lydia and Ian both have great taste and a deep appreciation of quality design,” says Agnello; the couple describe their style and aesthetic as “James Bond meets Barbarella.”

The kitchen features white oak cabinetry and an island topped with Caesarstone in Rugged Concrete. The Torii stools are from Bensen and the Compendium pendant is from Luceplan, while the oven is by Wolf and the faucet is by California Faucets. The long white wall was meant for hanging art but so far remains bare. “It feels like a gallery that was ransacked,” jokes Jim, “but we’ve grown attached to the clean expanse.”

Terrazzo flooring replaced the existing porcelain tile floor. "The terrazzo floor is about coming up with this lovely texture that wasn’t just polished concrete," explains Carter.

The dairy’s northern facade sits toward the rear the residence, where the dining room, kitchen, and casual meals area are located. An original window, now with acoustic glazing, connects the music studio located within the dairy with the casual meals area.

Modern cabinet finger pulls in bright and shiny chrome dot the drawers in this sleek kitchen in Venice, California.

A peninsula is lined with Form barstools from Simon Legald.

The round island was another opportunity to play with materials: the wood cladding adds a unique texture.

Not only do built-in appliances keep kitchens tidy, but they also improve coherence between it and the rest of your home, creating a more fluid experience.

The firm then combined a palette of steel, concrete, and oak in the elegant, double-height rear addition.

Custom cabinetry in a soft blue hue picks up the gray wash of the bamboo accents, which also balance the wood floors.

The budget was nearly as tight as the space in this cheerful renovation of a 516-square-foot flat in Bratislava. The centerpiece of Lukáš Kordík’s new kitchen is the cabinetry surrounding the sink, a feat he managed by altering the facing and pulls of an off-the-rack Ikea system. The laminate offers a good punch of blue, and in modernist fashion, Kordík forwent door handles in favor of cutouts. “I wanted the kitchen to be one simple block of color without any additional design,” he says.

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.

The backsplash is composed of Fireclay tile, the floating shelves are from Semihandmade, and the light above the island is by Andrew Neyer. The Virgin of Guadalupe painting that the couple picked up in a flea market in Mexico City is an ode to the home’s Catholic rectory past.

The oak floors are new but are typical of the original Spanish-style bungalows.

“The home wasn’t an inexpensive house to build,” says architect Peter Tolkin. “At the same time, it doesn’t have very fancy interior finishing. We wanted to design a modern house with a certain kind of spirit, and we didn’t think that the interior materials needed to be overly fancy. The two places where we really splurged—I think to great effect—were on the tiles in the bathrooms and kitchen, and the copper cladding, which protects the house but also has a very strong visual component to it.”

To avoid the sight of dirty dishes, the sink is on the side rather than in the island, where instead an induction stove from Bora (with a cleverly designed down-draw exhaust system) makes the kitchen “really social,” says Kate. “One of us can be cooking while the other can sit and have a glass of wine.”

The architect delivered: Most kitchenware and, with the exception of a Miele range, even the major appliances are concealed by cabinetry. Mariflore was keen on retaining

In preliminary conversations with architect Stéphane Rasselet about the redesign of her busy family kitchen, Mariflore Véronneau asked for plenty of hidden storage and smooth surfaces that wouldn’t trap dust or grime.