Refined Oak & Stone kitchen renovation, nestled near Rancho Santa Fe. This stunning kitchen features rift-cut white oak cabinets, sleek black accents, and timeless Taj Mahal quartzite countertops and backsplash. Perfect for those seeking a modern yet refined aesthetic, this design blends natural warmth with sophisticated elements. The spacious layout and meticulous craftsmanship make it an ideal example of luxury kitchen design in San Diego. If you’re looking for inspiration or a high-end kitchen remodel, the Refined Oak & Stone project is a showcase of excellence in materials and design. Whether you want custom cabinetry, premium stone surfaces, or a sleek, contemporary feel, this kitchen renovation highlights the best in modern kitchen design.

The clients, a young professional couple had lived with this bathroom in their townhome for 6 years. They finally could not take it any longer. The designer was tasked with turning this ugly duckling into a beautiful swan without relocating walls, doors, fittings, or fixtures in this principal bathroom. The client wish list included, better storage, improved lighting, replacing the tub with a shower, and creating a sparkling personality for this uninspired space using any color way except white. The designer began the transformation with the wall tile. Large format rectangular tiles were installed floor to ceiling on the vanity wall and continued behind the toilet and into the shower. The soft variation in tile pattern is very soothing and added to the Zen feeling of the room. One partner is an avid gardener and wanted to bring natural colors into the space. The same tile is used on the floor in a matte finish for slip resistance and in a 2” mosaic of the same tile is used on the shower floor. A lighted tile recess was created across the entire back wall of the shower beautifully illuminating the wall. Recycled glass tiles used in the niche represent the color and shape of leaves. A single glass panel was used in place of a traditional shower door. Continuing the serene colorway of the bath, natural rift cut white oak was chosen for the vanity and the floating shelves above the toilet. A white quartz for the countertop, has a small reflective pattern like the polished chrome of the fittings and hardware. Natural curved shapes are repeated in the arch of the faucet, the hardware, the front of the toilet and shower column. The rectangular shape of the tile is repeated in the drawer fronts of the cabinets, the sink, the medicine cabinet, and the floating shelves. The shower column was selected to maintain the simple lines of the fittings while providing a temperature, pressure balance shower experience with a multi-function main shower head and handheld head. The dual flush toilet and low flow shower are a water saving consideration. The floating shelves provide decorative and functional storage. The asymmetric design of the medicine cabinet allows for a full view in the mirror with the added function of a tri view mirror when open. Built in LED lighting is controllable from 2500K to 4000K. The interior of the medicine cabinet is also mirrored and electrified to keep the countertop clear of necessities. Additional lighting is provided with recessed LED fixtures for the vanity area as well as in the shower. A motion sensor light installed under the vanity illuminates the room with a soft glow at night. The transformation is now complete. No longer an ugly duckling and source of unhappiness, the new bathroom provides a much-needed respite from the couples’ busy lives. It has created a retreat to recharge and replenish, two very important components of wellness.

Modern kitchen with rift-cut white oak cabinetry and a natural stone island.
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Photo © Scott Hemeway Custom cabinetry is Ash with Walnut accent counter tops.
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Open concept bathroom and walk in closet area. Rift Cut oak cabinets support the large quartz waterfall return countertops. The backsplash is fully recycled tile material.

Interior Design By Designer and Broker Jessica Koltun Home | Selling Dallas Texas
Example of a trendy kitchen design in Dallas

photographer: Marcell Puzsar brightroomsf.com
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Our homeowners were looking for a very contemporary look for this remodel to match the appliances they had picked out and the features they were planning to include. We worked directly with the clients to design and remodel their entire kitchen to meet their visual appeal and even suggested some unique and functional features they could use. To create the illusion of space within the 8 foot ceiling space, we ran the grain of the light, rift-cut, oak veneer vertically to draw attention to the height of the cabinets. We included an appliance lift for their juicer to maintain surface space, and added a special drawer for their dog's food, a pullout pantry for easy reach and depth, and extra storage space on the back of their island for functionality. Additionally, we added a custom table to coincide with their theme and aesthetic details, even helping them find a unique metal base to match perfectly.

These homeowners were looking for a complete overhaul and we were delighted to help them achieve it. We worked with them as they gutted and remodeled their first floor - impressively, doing much of their own work. They had a general idea of what they were looking for so we collaborated ideas to ensure we were designing exactly what they were envisioning their dream kitchen to be. We used blackened rift cut oak on slab doors with a dull rub finish to create the stark contrast between the cabinets and white countertops, walls and tile backsplash. To add extra contrast we used frosted glass doors with aluminum frames. Special features like the 2" thick matching, floating shelves, waterfall countertop, stainless steel toekick and farm sink ensured that this kitchen was entirely unique to our clients.

Less is more with this clean contemporary setup in a Chicago high-rise. Push-to open doors and drawers deliver on a sleek, distraction-free look. Matte white fronts contrast well with the rift cut white oak island. Sliding island doors yield utility in a tight space and enable the shelving on the inside to double as a display, when open. Pantry garage features proximity sensed lighting and tucks away the most commonly used small appliances. 3/4" quartz counters continue onto the back splash for a unified look.

Less is more with this clean contemporary setup in a Chicago high-rise. Push-to open doors and drawers deliver on a sleek, distraction-free look. Matte white fronts contrast well with the rift cut white oak island. Sliding island doors yield utility in a tight space and enable the shelving on the inside to double as a display, when open. Pantry garage features proximity sensed lighting and tucks away the most commonly used small appliances. 3/4" quartz counters continue onto the back splash for a unified look.

Stunning white inset kitchen cabinetry with rift cut oak island. X panel ends make a great visual
Kitchen - transitional kitchen idea

Stunning white inset kitchen cabinetry with rift cut oak island. X panel ends make a great visual

Three level island... The homeowner’s wanted a large galley style kitchen with island. It was important to the wife the island be unique and serve many purposes. Our team used Google Sketchup to produce and present concept after concept. Each revision brought us closer to what you see. The final design boasted a two sided island (yes, there is storage under the bar) 6” thick cantilevered bar ledge over a steel armature, and waterfall counter tops on both ends. On one end we had a slit fabricated to receive one side of a tempered glass counter top. The other side is supported by a stainless steel inverted U. The couple usually enjoys breakfast or coffee and the morning news at this quaint spot. Photography by Juliana Franco

Mid century modern feeling in a beach house kitchen. I opened up a wall to give a light and bright feeling to the kitchen. The counter tops are white and the back splash is white marble with blue stone accents. It is reminiscent of a european cafe. I love the mix of textures, styles and color. The floors are reclaimed teak. The cabinets are riff cut white oak stained a golden tone. Don Anderson

Stunning Rift Cut Oak and Black kitchen framed by two expansive arched windows. A black reeded hood compliments the thin shaker design of the kitchen The popular hidden pantry cabinet doors is hard to find in this beautiful kitchen.

## Spatial Composition & Architectural Volume This is a kitchen conceived less as a service zone than as a precisely calibrated architectural volume, resolved through an L-configuration of full-height cabinetry that terminates against a monolithic island set on an intentional diagonal to the orthogonal grid of the herringbone flooring. The island's waterfall treatment — a slab returning to the floor in a single unbroken plane — functions as both a peninsular counter and a piece of quasi-sculptural infrastructure, its overhang generating a shallow banquette-adjacent seating zone without resorting to a conventional breakfast bar. Above, a coffered soffit executed in flush drywall with a continuous cove-lit reveal establishes a datum line that both compresses and defines the working core, while the adjacent tray ceiling reads as a distinct volume, spatially decoupling the kitchen from the living room beyond. That threshold is the composition's most disciplined gesture: a wide cased opening framed in mitered rift-cut oak paneling, its architrave articulated as a shadow-gapped reveal rather than applied trim, drawing a deep enfilade sightline through to the window wall, its Roman shades, and the mid-rise cityscape beyond. Millwork here performs structurally as well as visually — the oak-clad pilasters and the fluted, hand-carved textural panel at right operate as pseudo-columnar elements, organizing the plan into legible bays. ## Materiality, Color & Texture The palette is constructed on a deliberate dialectic between two wood registers. The envelope employs a pale, quarter-sawn white oak with a honeyed, faintly amber undertone, its figure suppressed and its finish matte, functioning as a luminous neutral ground. Against this, the cabinetry deploys a deeply fumed or ebonized ash — likely a heavily lacquered, open-grain veneer — where the cathedral figuring is exaggerated into near-graphic striation and the high-gloss sheen produces a lacquered, almost Art Deco lustre. This contrast of value (blonde against bitter chocolate) and of sheen (matte against specular) is the project's principal tension. Mediating between them is the stone: a white quartzite or dolomitic marble with soft grey-taupe veining and a distinctly warm, cream-adjacent field, book-matched across the full-height backsplash and repeated on the island slab, its subtly honed surface refusing the glare of a polished finish. Metallic accents are restrained and consistently warm — satin brass on the pendant canopies and stool footrails, blackened bronze on the hardware, glazing frames, and the stools' slender tubular frames. Textiles introduce a low-frequency counterpoint: nubby bouclé upholstery on the sectional, a striated woven sheer at left, ikat-patterned cushions, and a tonal blue-grey geometric rug that supplies the only chromatic departure from the room's ochre-to-espresso spectrum. ## Lighting, Atmosphere & Style Profile The lighting scheme is layered with unusual rigor. Daylight is admitted obliquely, filtered through the plaid-toned Roman shades of the adjacent living room, so the kitchen receives it secondhand — soft, directional, and already warmed. Artificial light works in three tiers: the recessed cove uplighting that grazes the soffit and dissolves the ceiling's edges; concealed under-cabinet illumination that renders the stone backsplash as a glowing plane; and the pair of spun-brass disc pendants suspended on slender blackened stems, whose downward-facing diffusers deliver a controlled pool of task light while their polished undersides register as small suns in the composition. The absence of visible downlight clutter is notable and disciplined. The resulting atmosphere is enveloping and low-glare — cosseting rather than clinical — with a distinctly residential, almost salon-like decorum reinforced by the framed genre painting hung casually on the oak paneling, a curatorial gesture that domesticates the kitchen decisively. Stylistically, the project reads as **Warm Modernist Luxe**, drawing on the vocabulary of high-craft European cabinetry and mid-century Milanese interiors: the grain-forward veneers, brass discs, and slender bronze seating carry a whisper of 1970s Italian sophistication, while the flush detailing, shadow-gap reveals, and rigorous suppression of ornament situate it firmly in contemporary practice. It is tailored rather than austere — a demonstration that minimalist discipline and material sensuality need not be adversaries.

Rift cut white oak vanity, natural lacquer, his and & her sinks, chunky stone countertop and honey bronze hardware
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