It may be as easy as adding a few opposites to create  a new feeling in a room.
Everyone has heard the phrase “opposites attract,” but applied to a kitchen?  Mixing the old with the new, the sleek with the chic, the hard with the soft, the dark with the light… well, you get the idea.
A [...]

There’s a lot to say about this highly individual, 4-year old kitchen by Baltimore architect Charles Bohl, but my first question was “OMG, what’s that floor?” Practicality aside, the color and texture makes everything appear to float on a shimmering lake – evoking water as a vital element  – with stunning effect.
That the floor upstages [...]

Know how it is when you’re clearing out piles of old magazines and suddenly something looks so familiar it stops and makes you think? That’s what happened when I spotted the charming, big jade-green shelving unit over the sink of Laura Robinson’s “back kitchen” a wall housing a sink, dishwasher, dish cabinets, refrigerator drawers, and [...]

Not long ago, finding purple paint in a house was one of those “what were they thinking?” moments – a remnant (sometimes hidden behind wallpaper) of the psychedelic Sixties and the last time violet (as the hue is properly named) was seen extensively. Though plum made a brief appearance in 2001, purples are shown frequently [...]

Light reflecting surfaces–white and brushed stainless steel–help a space-challenged kitchen look large and cool even when a staircase occupies valuable real estate.
It’s also clear that every inch matters when a Wolf wall oven gets installed under the stairs as a supplement to a 48-inch range just a few steps away. The presence of two [...]

Sleek, spacious and consistent in its concept and color scheme, this contemporary black and white kitchen has elegant details that merit study. Despite considerable drama produced by the contrast of black and white surfaces, careful planning has produced a surprisingly serene overall effect.
Anyone who knows my particular bias against upper cabinets — which I feel [...]

With mimosa designated as “color of the year” and catalogs arriving with yellow décor on the covers, it’s only natural to take a closer look at the way a bright mottled yellow is used in this kitchen by designer Linda Applewhite. Usually, color is defined by cabinets. Here, the big effect comes from using it [...]

Look closely to see how an old grand piano was cut down for use as the base of the marble-topped island in the Greystone Court mansion kitchen in Yonkers, N.Y. While it may look authentic, the kitchen actually was a gut job (the house is rented out for movies and photo shoots). The marble [...]

Mixing cabinet and island colors is a popular way to bring variety into a kitchen. Dark brown on the island with white stone on top, plus teal perimeter cabinets covered by black counters (inset with a white farm sink) has a nice country feeling (which means it’s warm) while the crisp white woodwork and horizontal [...]

I became intrigued with an antique tile stove I noticed in an auction. Another one turned up three months later.  Then, recently, I received an email from Bruce M with the story of his green Belgian tile stove! Bruce had recently listed his stove on Craig’s List, which may be one we also had discovered, [...]

It’s surprising not to see more French bistro mosaic tile floors – complete with dot patterns and borders – in home kitchens considering the “Wow!” factor this high-contrast brown-and-white beauty delivers. What helps put it over is the lack of competition from other colors or patterns. Wood-tone cabinets coordinate with the chocolate-hue tile and the [...]

Contemporary kitchens are always sleek and elegant but so often earnest we feel they could use a little bling. The the Italian vent hood manufacturer, Falmec, supplies that with the aptly named Natura Gold. Other range hoods in the Falmec Mirabilia line have patterns, too — zebra, star, striations, and Manhattan skyline. They’re serious, too, [...]