Close-up of the built-in buffet.
Wet bar - mid-sized transitional single-wall medium tone wood floor wet bar idea in DC Metro with no sink, quartz countertops and white backsplash

In designing the new layout for the kitchen, we decided to remove the pantry closet and expand into the former eat-in area. This gave us the opportunity to create a beautifully functional island with plenty of seating and prep space for multiple cooks in the kitchen. We were all still in love with the walnut flooring we installed during the first phase of this project and opted to lean into the classic tones and bring them into the cabinetry scheme. To balance all those gorgeous warm grains, we cooled the space down with a spunky hand painted tile that enlivens the space.

Large great room with gas fireplace and built in bar and extensive views of the Draper Area. Cabinets and Countertops by Chris and Dick's, Salt Lake City, Utah Design: Sita Montgomery Interiors Build: Cameo Homes Cabinets: Master Brands Countertops: Granite Paint: Benjamin Moore Photo: Lucy Call

Steve Hall, Dave Burk@Hedrich Blessing, Doug Snower Photography
Mid-sized minimalist hallway photo in Chicago with white walls

Kitchen - contemporary kitchen idea in New York

A colonial waterfront home in Mamaroneck was renovated to add this expansive, light filled kitchen with a rustic modern vibe. Solid maple cabinetry with inset slab doors color matched to Benjamin Moore Super White. Brick backsplash with white cabinetry adds warmth to the cool tones in this kitchen. A rift sawn oak island features plank style doors and drawers is a rustic contrast to the clean white perimeter cabinetry. Perimeter countertops in Caesarstone are complimented by the White Macauba island top with mitered edge. Concrete look porcelain tiles are low maintenance and sleek. Copper pendants from Blu Dot mix in warm metal tones. Cabinetry and design by Studio Dearborn. Appliances--Wolf, refrigerator/freezer columns Thermador; Bar stools Emeco; countertops White Macauba. Photography Tim Lenz. APPLIANCE PANTRY

JPM Construction offers complete support for designing, building, and renovating homes in Atherton, Menlo Park, Portola Valley, and surrounding mid-peninsula areas. With a focus on high-quality craftsmanship and professionalism, our clients can expect premium end-to-end service. The promise of JPM is unparalleled quality both on-site and off, where we value communication and attention to detail at every step. Onsite, we work closely with our own tradesmen, subcontractors, and other vendors to bring the highest standards to construction quality and job site safety. Off site, our management team is always ready to communicate with you about your project. The result is a beautiful, lasting home and seamless experience for you.

Example of a small transitional shiplap wall powder room design in Salt Lake City with shaker cabinets, medium tone wood cabinets, black walls, an undermount sink, beige countertops and a built-in vanity

Expansive master bathroom with 20 foot ceilings, two water closets, his and hers walk in closets, his and hers 120" long master vanities with 6 cm marble countertops and a walk in curb less shower.

Ask a kitchen designer in Chicago which countertop question comes up most and you will hear the same answer: white or off-white quartz, and which shade. Homeowners walk into showrooms with a photo saved on their phone, usually a bright, veined slab from a magazine spread, and leave an hour later realizing there are a dozen versions of that same look. The confusion is not about taste. It is about the fact that "white quartz" covers a huge range of patterns, undertones, and price points, and nobody explains the differences before the sale. Older bungalows and newer builds alike are getting stripped of their dated laminate and butcher block in favor of quartz, and the reasons are practical rather than trendy. Quartz does not need sealing, resists the kind of staining that granite can suffer over decades, and holds up to the freeze-thaw humidity swings that Chicago basements and kitchens go through every year. Once a homeowner commits to quartz, though, the real decision starts: which white, and does the pattern justify the difference in cost. This piece walks through three specific slabs that keep showing up in Chicago renovation projects, why designers reach for them in different rooms, and what actually separates a flat white surface from one with real depth. None of this requires a design background to follow. It is mostly about paying attention to how a slab behaves under kitchen lighting, how busy the vending gets, and how it photographs versus how it looks in person. Why White Quartz Took Over Chicago Kitchens Ten years ago, granite dominated Chicago kitchen remodels almost by default. It was durable, it looked expensive, and every fabricator in the metro area carried a wide range of colors. Quartz has since taken over that position, and the shift happened faster than most contractors expected. Engineered stone gave homeowners a more predictable surface, since natural granite varies slab to slab while quartz is manufactured to a consistent pattern batch after batch. The other driver is light. Chicago winters are long and gray, and a lot of kitchens, especially in older two-flats and courtyard buildings, do not get much direct sun. A dark granite countertop in a dim kitchen can make the whole room feel smaller. White and light-toned quartz reflects what little natural light comes through the windows, and it makes a galley kitchen or a north-facing space feel noticeably brighter without touching the cabinetry or the layout. There is also a resale argument that local real estate agents bring up constantly. White quartz photographs well for listings, reads as updated and low-maintenance to buyers touring in person, and does not compete visually with whatever cabinet color the next owner might prefer. It is a safer bet than a bold veined marble look or a colored quartz that might feel dated in five years. Arctic White and the Cost Question Among the flatter, more uniform whites, arctic white quartz price comes up constantly in budget conversations because the slab sits at a more approachable point than the heavily veined Italian-marble-inspired patterns. It reads as clean and bright without the busy movement that some homeowners find overwhelming in a small kitchen. Fabricators in the Chicago area tend to keep it in stock precisely because demand stays steady across both new construction and remodel projects. Part of what keeps this slab affordable relative to its heavily patterned cousins comes down to manufacturing complexity. A quartz surface with minimal veining and a consistent white base is simpler to produce at scale than one that mimics the irregular, high-contrast movement of natural Calacatta marble. That production difference shows up directly in what a homeowner pays per square foot, and it is worth asking a fabricator to walk through that pricing before assuming every white quartz costs the same. Homeowners planning a full kitchen, including an island, backsplash, and perimeter counters, often use a flatter white like this specifically because it lets other elements carry the visual interest. A patterned tile backsplash or a bold cabinet color reads more clearly against a calm countertop than against one already fighting for attention with heavy veining. Designers frequently pair simpler whites with statement lighting fixtures for exactly this reason. What Makes Calacatta Patterns Different Calacatta refers to a family of marble originally quarried in Italy, known for a bright white background broken up by bold, often gold-toned veining that moves in thick, dramatic streaks rather than thin gray lines. Natural Calacatta marble is soft, porous, and expensive to maintain, which is exactly why quartz manufacturers spent years developing engineered versions that replicate the look without the upkeep headaches. The challenge with any Calacatta-style quartz is getting the veining to look organic instead of printed. Early generations of engineered stone struggled with repetitive patterns that gave away the fact the slab was manufactured rather than cut from actual marble. Modern digital printing and layering techniques have closed that gap considerably, and the better Calacatta-inspired quartz lines now vary the veining across each slab batch so two counters in the same kitchen do not look identical. Chicago designers gravitate toward Calacatta patterns for kitchens that function as the visual centerpiece of an open floor plan, which describes a large share of the gut renovations happening in neighborhoods like Lincoln Park, Roscoe Village, and the North Shore suburbs. When the kitchen island is visible from the living room and dining area, a dramatic veined surface becomes part of the home's overall design language rather than a purely functional work surface. Calacatta Arno Under Kitchen Lighting One of the more popular options in this category, calacatta arno quartz, balances a warm white base with soft gray and gold veining that avoids looking too stark under the cooler LED lighting common in newer Chicago builds. Homeowners touring showrooms sometimes make the mistake of judging a slab entirely under warm incandescent lighting, then get surprised when the same surface looks slightly different once installed under their kitchen's actual fixtures. What separates this particular pattern from flatter competitors is how the veining clusters rather than spreading evenly across the slab. That clustering mimics the way real quarried marble forms, with denser mineral deposits in some sections and cleaner stretches in others. Fabricators cutting a large island slab from a single piece will often orient the pattern intentionally so the busiest veining lands somewhere visually interesting rather than getting cut off at an edge. Because the background reads warmer than a stark white, this pattern tends to pair well with brass or matte gold hardware, a combination that has been showing up repeatedly in Chicago kitchen remodels over the past few renovation seasons. Cabinet painters report a similar trend, with more clients requesting warm white or greige cabinet colors specifically because they complement this kind of veined quartz better than a cooler, blue-toned white would. Silestone's Version of the Calacatta Look Manufacturers compete directly in this Calacatta-inspired category, and silestone eternal calacatta gold represents one brand's specific take on the pattern, distinguished by richer gold veining set against a brighter white base than some competing slabs in the same family. Silestone has built a reputation around anti-bacterial surface treatments in addition to the standard quartz durability, a detail some homeowners specifically ask about for kitchens used heavily by families with young children. The veining in this particular slab tends to run in longer, more continuous lines compared to the clustered pattern found in some other Calacatta-style options, which gives large island surfaces a sense of visual flow from one end to the other. Fabricators working with bigger islands, the kind increasingly common in open-concept Chicago remodels, often favor patterns like this because there is less need to worry about seams interrupting a busy, disconnected pattern. Price positioning for this slab tends to sit toward the upper end of the engineered quartz category, reflecting both the brand's manufacturing process and the complexity of replicating that continuous gold veining consistently across production batches. Homeowners weighing this option against other Calacatta-style quartz should ask their fabricator directly about batch availability, since premium patterns sometimes have longer lead times than standard stock colors. Living With Quartz Day to Day Beyond how a slab looks in a showroom or a listing photo, the daily experience of owning quartz countertops matters more once the renovation dust settles. Quartz resists scratching far better than laminate and holds up to the acidic spills, hot pans, and general abuse of an active kitchen without the sealing maintenance that natural stone requires every year or two. That low-maintenance reputation is a large part of why quartz overtook granite in the first place. Heat resistance is a detail that gets less attention than it should. While quartz handles moderate heat well, manufacturers generally recommend using a trivet or pad for very hot pots straight off the stove, since sudden temperature shock can occasionally cause stress marks in the resin binder that holds the engineered stone together. This is a minor precaution rather than a major limitation, but it is worth mentioning to anyone assuming quartz is entirely indestructible. Cleaning routines stay simple across almost every pattern in this category. A damp cloth and mild soap handle daily messes, and the nonporous surface means wine, coffee, and tomato-based sauces do not soak in the way they can with unsealed granite or marble. Homeowners moving from an older stone counter often mention how much less they worry about everyday spills once quartz is installed, which is a quality-of-life change that rarely makes it into the initial design conversation. Choosing Between the Three There is no single correct answer among these three slabs, and that is exactly why they keep coming up together in the same design conversations across Chicago renovation projects. A flatter white with minimal veining suits kitchens where other elements need to carry the visual interest, while a bolder Calacatta-inspired pattern makes sense when the countertop itself is meant to be the centerpiece of an open floor plan. Budget matters too, and it is worth having a direct conversation with a fabricator about where each option lands before falling in love with a specific slab in a showroom. Lighting, cabinet color, and how the kitchen connects to the rest of the home all play into which pattern will actually look right once installation is finished rather than just in a photo. Whatever direction a homeowner leans, seeing a full slab in person under actual kitchen lighting remains the single most useful step before signing off. Photos only go so far once the countertop is sitting in the room it will live in for years.

black quartz, concrete floor, geometric wallpaper, clerestory window, walnut vanity
Powder room - small contemporary concrete floor and gray floor powder room idea in Edmonton with flat-panel cabinets, quartz countertops, medium tone wood cabinets, multicolored walls, an undermount sink and black countertops

Small kitchens are such a challenge, but sometimes those special space dilemmas create the opportunity for an even more optimal solution! The original walls were very thin at 3" in this modern kitchen renovation. You cannot put plumbing in that! So we built out the kitchen wall out in order to run wires and pipes behind the wall. Then we used gem-like green glass mosaic tile to tie it in visually. It's a perfect pairing with Okite's beautiful Frosty Carrara Quartz Countertop and our custom Shaker style island and cabinets in a white satin finish. Stainless steel appliances finish off this urban dream kitchen, like the the Liebherr Refrigerator, but it required a 10 inch clearance to open the door. The answer was to create a great custom pantry next to it. In the end it is a much better use of space! In order to accommodate plumbing on the window side wall, we designed the pantry door to open over the window sill.

Example of a mid-sized classic 3/4 white tile and subway tile marble floor and gray floor corner shower design in New York with furniture-like cabinets, white cabinets, a wall-mount toilet, beige walls, an undermount sink, marble countertops and a hinged shower door

This country kitchen is accented with detailed tiles, brass light fixtures and a large butcher block. Greg Premru Photography
Example of a mid-sized country u-shaped dark wood floor and brown floor kitchen design in Boston with shaker cabinets, white cabinets, tile countertops, white backsplash, subway tile backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island and a drop-in sink

Measuring 118” x 59” x 6mm, Calacatta ThinSlab Porcelain marble-look slabs are ideal for residential and commercial installations – kitchen counters, vanity tops, shower surrounds and floor & wall applications. Unlike natural marble, ThinSlab Porcelain does not require sealing and will retain its polished or honed finish under all types of high-use conditions.

Out with the Old and in with the New In the first three pictures you will see the old kitchen. Old cabinets, old appliances, old sink, old wallpaper, old floor. You get the picture. It’s old. So, an update is in order. First, the clients chose to have their “still good cabinets” to be refaced. They chose a creamy white and the doors and drawers were replaced. If you aren’t familiar with refacing, the other wood on the cabinet is covered with a thin veneer making the entire cabinet look new. Countertops – Not wanting granite with its swirls and shiny surface, the clients opted for quartz. At the time of this renovation, quartz was a rather new concept. The quartz pattern is Sonora Gold which is in the textured category of Silestone. They wanted a warm inviting kitchen and the tan/orange undertone fit the bill. Next, Sink – Of course, as almost everyone who renovates their kitchen, they wanted an undermount sink. They chose a double granite undermount sink with an oil rubbed faucet set to go along with the drawer pulls and black trim in the kitchen. After that, flooring was installed. This is a vinyl that looks like stone. Not wanting the cold feel of stone and the hardness on the ol’ knees, this was a good choice. The vinyl picked up the colors of the countertops and paint along with a few flecks of black. Good choice! A custom made island was installed. This has a black base and the quartz countertop. When this was made, the installer said no, an island will not fit in this kitchen. You need the cabinets to open with 3’ clearance. I measured and put down paper in the shape of the island to simulate where the island would be. It fit nicely and as you can see, added not only storage but another surface on which to work. Appliances were added and the client wanted top of the line so GE Profile with its good reviews and quality, were installed. We went with white to contrast the white cabinets but overall give the kitchen a brighter feel. The paint chosen is Sienna Sand on top which blended well with the countertops as both have orange undertones and played nicely together. The bottom half of the oak chair rail was painted Pencil Point black to go with the island and faucets and drawer pulls. The finished look is an unexpected kitchen with warmth and comfort along with plenty of storage and working areas. The clients were very happy with the finished project. Out with the old and in with the new!

This showroom kitchen truly gives you plenty of space to prep, cook and hang out. The large stainless steel hood is similar length to the long thin kitchen island. Plenty of room to have a get together in the kitchen.

SJC Dramatic Remodel
Inspiration for a contemporary kitchen remodel in Orange County