Kitchens with Flair

With eye-catching details such as colorful tiles and leathered countertops, these four kitchens are big on style and personality

August 22, 2016 9:00 a.m.

Clean Lines


Photos by Morgan owarth; Courtesy of Anthony H Wilder Design/Build

When David and Brenda Friend bought their 1950s split level in American University Park in 2014, they knew they wanted to drastically alter the kitchen but stay true to the home’s Mad Men-era roots. “The house was very compartmentalized, with an original kitchen that was small and secluded from the rest of the space,” says Keira St. Claire, an interior designer at Anthony Wilder Design/Build in Cabin John who, with architect George Bott, helped the Friends reimagine their kitchen as a space for entertaining and relaxing.

To break up the original warren of rooms on the first floor, St. Claire and Bott essentially gutted the space, tearing down seven walls and adding windows in the kitchen area to bring in more natural light. The only enclosed room is a dining area/office, separated from the kitchen via a frosted glass pocket door.

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The cabinets are a mix. Up top, they are fronted in frosted glass and walnut; below, they are made from elmwood and painted in a custom-blended Benjamin Moore blue in a satin finish. Several other elements keep with the midcentury-gone-modern look, including handblown glass pendants accented with walnut, open shelving in the great room, and a floor-to-ceiling fireplace façade in stacked manufactured stone.  “By combining color with walnut, we’re nodding to the house’s original era,” St. Claire says.


 Photos by Morgan owarth; Courtesy of Anthony H Wilder Design/Build

The Friends’ new 556-square-foot kitchen-cum-great room is ideal for hosting friends for a glass of their favorite Oregon pinot noir, which they store in the wine fridge on the far side of the kitchen island. That island is covered in white Silestone, which wraps around the end in a waterfall style. “We’ve had quartz counters in the past, and the Silestone is so much easier to maintain,” Brenda says. “It’s this nice white with little flecks of color, which is inviting.”

Since one side of the island is open, there’s room for stools, creating an area to eat and socialize. “It’s such a conversation space,” Bott says.

Warm and Woodsy


Photo by Stacy Zarin Goldberg Courtesy of Bostick

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A tree stump sounds like an unlikely focal point for an elegant kitchen. But for Anne and Rick Rudman, a chunk of bleached cypress tree lends support—and a flash of rustic glamour—to the island/table in their recently remodeled Potomac home. “We were trying to find something different for the base of that island,” says interior designer Don Bostick, who worked on the project. “I found that wood piece in Philadelphia, and it’s so organic.” The tree trunk supports a wooden tabletop that connects to the kitchen island, which is wrapped in a one-of-a-kind piece of natural quartz.

Throughout the project, Bostick and kitchen designer Hedy Shashaani of Rockville-based Jack Rosen Custom Kitchens looked for ways to combine the practical with the pretty. One of the biggest challenges was incorporating the 4-foot by 4-foot pizza oven. “The only thing Rick cared about was getting a pizza oven in our new kitchen,” Anne says. “It’s the star.” Recessed into the wall, the pizza oven is fronted in aged brass and steel, materials that also show up on the range hood and above the stone fireplace in the adjacent dining room.

Etched marble tiles—the elegant cousins of all those colorful cement tiles out there—form the backsplash. “Don and I went to Architectural Ceramics to look for tile, and they were the thing I loved most,” Anne says. “They’re delicate and fine.” And also as durable as iron or wood, which is a good thing since, Anne says, “We’ve got four kids and we’re pretty hard on our stuff.”


Photo by Stacy Zarin Goldberg Courtesy of Bostick

Bostick added painted white wood planks to the ceiling of the kitchen and dining room, which brighten the space. The floors are an antiqued bluestone laid in a herringbone pattern.

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Photo by Stacy Zarin Goldberg Courtesy of Bostick

The classic white oak Shaker-style cabinets (some with glass fronts) are paired with “leathered” granite countertops—a brushed matte finish that gives them a more natural, rugged look than standard granite, which is typically glossy and polished.

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