The challenge could have turned out to be either a designer’s dream or most peculiar nightmare: The owners of this kitchen asked for a new design that would blend with the rest of their house, an updated 1960s, split-level ranch.

The existing kitchen, stylized in a traditional colonial look, didn’t fit the rest of their home’s aesthetic, an eclectic blend of Arts & Crafts details with a heavy Asian influence.

Designer Lesley Sager of Madison, WI-based Architectural Building Arts says meeting her client’s strong aesthetic was both a challenge and a joy.

“She has phenomenal taste. My goal was to create a space where she could feel at home,” says Sager.

With a blend of stark, elegant cabinets from Greenfield and modern appliances from Sub-Zero, Wolf and Fisher-Paykel, the minimal design captures functional space from wall to wall.

The inclusion of an island was critical to the client. Its two-tier construction is topped with a gold-toned quartz from CaesarStone; the raised portion is Brushed Atlantic Black granite.

“The idea of texture is very important in Asian design,” says Sager. Texture plays a part in other details of the room, as well; the hardware on the cabinetry is from Ebony’s Mission line and is a reproduction of an Arts & Crafts-era Frank Lloyd Wright design.

The eye-catching wall color is vintage Arts & Crafts: Roycroft Copper Red by Sherwin-Williams.

It was important to the clients that their new Wolf range would catch the eye immediately, so the designer created a unique enamel backsplash to highlight it.

Additionally, everything in the design is divisible by three: three light fixtures, three cut outs, three repetitions of those squares.
Sager says: “I only wish that every project could be this fun.”

For more about this project, click here.

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