1. Alder With Glaze
Designer: Caylen Harrison of Janet Brooks Design
Location: Scottsdale, Arizona
Homeowners’ request. “When we designed the home, the client was in love with the idea of using authentic adobe as the primary building material, from a practical energy-efficiency approach as well as for the design aesthetic,” designer Caylen Harrison says. “This decision drove the rest of the design process. We designed a kitchen that felt warm, soft and textural to play off of the natural character of the adobe walls, from the cabinet finishes to the backsplash tile and hood design.”
Wood cabinets. “The kitchen is stained alder cabinets with a glaze,” Harrison says. “The client loved the soft, natural finish of the brown stain — we wanted to keep it a midrange color, not too dark and not too light due to the lower ceiling and the color of the stained concrete floors also being a little darker. We also didn’t want to introduce too many finishes in this space. It was important to us and the client that the kitchen wasn’t visually overwhelming and that it felt functional and understated. To complement the brown cabinets, we went with a lighter natural quartzite countertop material and a textural backsplash tile, also in a lighter colorway.”
Other special features. “To add some additional visual interest, we made a point to focus on subtle detailing, such as the metal banding and angled supports on the island overhang and the zinc straps on the drywalled kitchen hood,” Harrison says. “Both of these accent pieces were custom-fabricated locally.”
Designer tip. “To visually help the flow of the continuous spaces, we decided to proceed with a 48-by-48-inch diamond scoring pattern in the concrete floors,” Harrison says. “This helps make the spaces feel bigger, and the diagonal lines guide you from space to space — instead of a square scoring layout, which would have made the spaces feel more static and confined.”
Backsplash tile: Grove Brickworks in Muslin, Waterworks; island pendant lights: Everly bell with seeded glass, Kichler; wall paint: Crystal Haze, Dunn-Edwards
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Designer: Caylen Harrison of Janet Brooks Design
Location: Scottsdale, Arizona
Homeowners’ request. “When we designed the home, the client was in love with the idea of using authentic adobe as the primary building material, from a practical energy-efficiency approach as well as for the design aesthetic,” designer Caylen Harrison says. “This decision drove the rest of the design process. We designed a kitchen that felt warm, soft and textural to play off of the natural character of the adobe walls, from the cabinet finishes to the backsplash tile and hood design.”
Wood cabinets. “The kitchen is stained alder cabinets with a glaze,” Harrison says. “The client loved the soft, natural finish of the brown stain — we wanted to keep it a midrange color, not too dark and not too light due to the lower ceiling and the color of the stained concrete floors also being a little darker. We also didn’t want to introduce too many finishes in this space. It was important to us and the client that the kitchen wasn’t visually overwhelming and that it felt functional and understated. To complement the brown cabinets, we went with a lighter natural quartzite countertop material and a textural backsplash tile, also in a lighter colorway.”
Other special features. “To add some additional visual interest, we made a point to focus on subtle detailing, such as the metal banding and angled supports on the island overhang and the zinc straps on the drywalled kitchen hood,” Harrison says. “Both of these accent pieces were custom-fabricated locally.”
Designer tip. “To visually help the flow of the continuous spaces, we decided to proceed with a 48-by-48-inch diamond scoring pattern in the concrete floors,” Harrison says. “This helps make the spaces feel bigger, and the diagonal lines guide you from space to space — instead of a square scoring layout, which would have made the spaces feel more static and confined.”
Backsplash tile: Grove Brickworks in Muslin, Waterworks; island pendant lights: Everly bell with seeded glass, Kichler; wall paint: Crystal Haze, Dunn-Edwards
Find kitchen remodelers near you