With their children off to college, the Johnsons found that their existing kitchen did not suit the next stage of their family’s life. They took the opportunity to reinvent the heart of their home, improving on the past and looking ahead to the future. They wanted their new kitchen to provide a cozy, effortlessly elegant space that would accommodate both their love of cooking as well as frequently hosting their family and friends.

LeBlanc first replaced the floors in the entry, hall, kitchen, and formal dining room with solid red oak flooring, topped with a custom stain. Our designer developed a kitchen solution using the Lynden door style from locally made Canyon Creek Cabinets in classy-yet-rustic java stained maple around the perimeter and hand-burnished, ebony stained maple the island. The countertops are Cambria’s Brittanicca Warm quartz, which blends softer colors with dramatic veins to create a casual, natural impression. These elements reflect the wood ceiling and oak floors splendidly.

To serve their large and still-growing family’s needs, the kitchen was expanded by shifting one of the walls 15” into the generously sized living room, and the large sliding patio door was replaced with a smaller, Dutch-style door. This created room for their new center island as well as a built-in bench with storage drawers and custom upholstered cushions.

The kitchen walls do not extend all the way up to the vaulted ceiling, affording a luxurious view of the lit upper display cabinets from the stairs. A pocket door near the stove was replaced with an attractive wood beam, creating better flow from the kitchen into the dining room.