My Taste

Stepstone's narrow concrete pavers add a graphic touch to the garden in the Mill Valley home of Dwell founder Lara Hedberg Deam and architect Chris Deam. Photo by Dustin Aksland.

The fluted cherry front door, designed by Scarpa, launches a rippling motif that reappears in furniture and on walls. The Harry Bertoia Bird chair is from Knoll.

“We could lift up very easily the walls, the fittings, the shelves, the light fixtures, everything. You couldn’t have made this with wood or even steel.” —Peter Rose, architect

Offering a completely different look, this svelte version features an exhaust hood and modern hardware.

One trend that Marc Hottenroth, Monogram's Lead of Industrial Design Operations, cites is the disintegration of traditional working zones in the kitchen. Now, the cooking zone, storage zone, beverage zone, and so on are interacting with each other.

The concept, called Vooking, was developed for the growing market of vegetarians, vegans and “flexitarians” (otherwise known as part-time vegetarians) in mind. Comprised of seven units divided into “passive” and “active” cooking zones, the concept kitchen contains a mixture of intriguing components, from a custom spice and built-in mortar/pestle station to an integrated sprout garden. Backed by big-name corporations like Gaggenau, Franke, and Dornbracht, the design team hopes to influence both the meat-eschewing consumer and the kitchen industry at large. Courtesy of Michael Liebert.

The bleachers not only provide a view to the outside, but also serve to define distinct spaces. In the kitchen, benches become food preparation stations and provide seating. The granite-topped cabinets have glass fronts. The refrigerator is from Moffat and the oven is from GE.

The alleyway extends into a full kitchen, where meals can be prepared right beside family gatherings. While the main frame of the home was built with the typical concrete, brick, and steel, the materials for the roof and floor tiles, as well as doors, windows, shelving and interior furnishings, were sourced primarily from demolished Saigon homes.

For their new kitchen, Michaël Verheyden and Saartje Vereecke incorporated a Smeg cooktop, oven, and range hood, stainless steel cabinets from Habitat, and personal accessories like a prototype goblet.

At one end of the L-shaped terrace, interior designer Martine Brisson included room for a full outdoor kitchen so the family could prepare meals without stepping inside during the warmer months.

A high-gloss finish can be achieved by having a local automotive shop repaint the cabinet fronts. The finish will be long-lasting, strong, and shiny.

A consistent wood palette makes the interior feel cohesive.

The open kitchen and dining area.

The architect placed the windows at Sabrina’s eye level so that she’d be able to see her son, Rocco, playing in the yard outside. "You can feel the seasons changing here," says Chiavelli. "I grew up three miles from here, outside in nature. This is a house for experiencing life."

Pros: Concrete countertops are durable, resistant to heat, and can be less expensive than natural stone, especially when completed as a DIY project. Cons: Concrete must be sealed before being used; otherwise, its porous nature means that it will stain very easily.

With clever storage and a retractable skylight, a London apartment designed by metalworker and owner Simone ten Hompel and Roger Hynam of Rogeroger Design Solutions feels larger than its 576 square feet. The team worked in a uniquely collaborative way, with Ullmayer Sylvester planning the space, Hynam creating the built-in storage and the kitchen island, and ten Hompel making models and scrawling on the wall to better envision their proposals. The kitchen island features a compact cooktop by Whirlpool and an integrated drainboard incised into the countertop for easy cleaning.

Wooten anchored the kitchen with a faux-bois coatrack from France. “Since Greg’s furniture is predominantly wood, we chose to make the interior all wood,” says Massie. “We used laser-cut mahogany and cherry plywood with jigsaw edges to make the house more like a cabin—albeit a very modern one. This puzzle piece motif is something that I’ve done in every project before and after this one—it’s a different way of having surfaces come together without having to abide by a modernist rule of panels. We can snap the whole thing together with eccentric uniformity, and it’s really simple.”

A full-service kitchen is nestled under the dome’s loft. Clad in stainless steel, its custom-made cabinets match the appliances and the wine glass holder that hangs over the island. The kitchen’s black marble countertops echo the surface of the dining table.

The “Edited House” was dreamed up by Tsutaya Books together with architects Masataka Baba, Atsumi Hayashi, and Hiroya Yoshizato from Tokyo R Real Estate. The idea is to let used-home buyers redesign their living space with maximum freedom.