Category: Home & Kitchen

Choosing a paint color for your kitchen cabinets is a decision that will influence the tone and style of the entire space. Stark white kitchen cabinets are giving way to more earthy and organic cabinet colors in 2024 and beyond. Design of the kitchen and the look you want to achieve should determine the color you choose. This color should also reflect your personal preferences and tastes, as well as the atmosphere you hope to create in your kitchen.

There are excellent options for every aesthetic, from warm and cozy neutrals that serve as a backdrop for other architectural elements to bold, vibrant colors that stand out. Browse through these options to find a color that is just right for your space.

Paint Color Trends for Kitchen Cabinets

Experimenting with different colors and taking into account your existing decor are both necessary steps in determining the best color for your kitchen cabinets.

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Green Kitchen Cabinet Colors

Green kitchen cabinets have been trending for several years, but the trend remains strong for 2024 and beyond. Many people attribute the popularity of this trend to the connection between green colors and the natural world. Green produces an organic and calming vibe in the kitchen while also looking modern and vibrant. Green is available in a wide range of hues, including light and dark, moody and bright. Shades of green also look brilliant with hardware. Both dark or light green hues make an excellent contrast with brass or silver hardware.

Consider some of the current favorite green cabinet colors, including Benjamin Moore’s October Mist for a light silvery sage or their Forest Floor, which is slightly darker and has an olive shading. One of their most popular cabinet colors is Oil Cloth, which, though it is sage, has a slight yellow leaning.

Other well-loved shades of green include Sherwin Williams’ Cascades, a rich deep green with an undertone of blue, and Portsmouth, a gorgeous green-blue with a generous portion of gray to calm the color saturation. Farrow & Ball produces a wide variety of greens that work well for cabinets, including Mizzle, a soft gray green, and Green Smoke, a calm but deep green blue.

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Earthy Kitchen Cabinet Colors

Warm and earthy tones such as sand or taupe may appear to be returning to the ubiquitous shades of 1990s beige, but the updated earth tones have richer and more complex undertones. These new, earth-toned shades appear sophisticated yet approachable in today’s kitchens. Sand and taupe are also versatile in terms of complementary tones and hardware, allowing you to tailor these shades to your specific kitchen design preferences.

Some of the best loved earth tones for kitchen cabinets include shades of taupe like Farrow & Ball’s Jitney, Benjamin Moore Pashmina, and Sherwin Williams’ Fawn Brindle. Deeper shades, like chocolate brown, are also becoming trendy for kitchen cabinets. Some of the best deep brown color options are Urbane Bronze from Sherwin Williams, which has a significant presence of gray, and London Clay from Farrow & Ball, which has significant warmth.

If you want a warmer earth tone, consider a shaded pink or an elegant terracotta like Smoked Trout, which is a warm mushroom shade from Farrow & Ball with a noticeable warmth, or their slightly more obvious pink shade, Dead Salmon, which can appear as either an aged pink or brown depending on your light.

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Light Neutral Kitchen Cabinet Colors

Bright white kitchens will always have a place in kitchen design, but many designers are moving away from stark white and toward warmer light neutrals like ivory, cream, and ecru. These warm light neutrals reflect light in a similar way that brighter whites do, but they have a more approachable and welcoming appearance. These also pair well with the organic and earthy greens, blues, and browns that are trending in interior design today.

There is a rich array of warm, light neutrals that look stunning on kitchen cabinetry. Some tried and true options, according to designers, are warm whites like White Dove, a clean and balanced white from Benjamin Moore, and Shoji White, a complex, earthy white from Sherwin Williams.

Light neutrals for cabinets that aren’t white include options like beige and pale gray. Popular beige colors for kitchens include Accessible Beige, a warm beige with gray undertones from Sherwin Williams, and the fresh and sophisticated Manchester Tan from Benjamin Moore. Warm grays or greiges are also still well-loved colors for kitchen cabinets. Common options in these shades include the ubiquitous Revere Pewter, a soothing and elegant greige and Boothbay Gray, a light gray with a hint of blue, both from Benjamin Moore. For a Sherwin Williams equivalent, consider Mineral Deposit, a cool gray with green undertones to warm it.

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Sunny Kitchen Cabinet Colors

Designers and homeowners are becoming more daring in their use of color throughout the home. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the growing trend of using yellow paint for kitchen cabinetry. Yellow comes in a variety of shades, from creamy yellow to rich gold and ochre. Even a small amount of yellow cabinetry can brighten up a kitchen.

Pale and buttery yellow paint colors for kitchen cabinets are available from Farrow & Ball. Some of these include Farrow’s Cream, which is a light cream with a touch of black to soften the brightness of the hue, and Hay, a dusty yellow that looks lighter in bright rooms and more yellow in darker spaces.

Dark yellows can also look stunning on kitchen cabinets. Popular yellow paint options for cabinets include Vintage Gold from Sherwin Williams and India Yellow, a rich ochre, from Farrow & Ball.

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Blue Kitchen Cabinet Colors

Blue kitchen cabinets remain a well-loved kitchen trend because shades of blue have a stylish but classic look that few other colors possess. Light blue cabinetry has long been prevalent, but homeowners are increasingly exploring richer and deeper shades of blue for their cabinets.

Some common light blue options that designers are always returning to are Parma Gray and Light Blue from Farrow & Ball. Parma Gray is a cool, mid tone blue, despite its name. Light Blue is lighter and more silvery, with a touch of green.

There is a wide range of gorgeous deep blue colors that you can choose from for kitchen cabinetry. Hale Navy from Benjamin Moore is deep and rich, as is Van Deusen Blue, which is a true blue that works well in historic and modern spaces. Gale Force is a lovable Sherwin Williams blue. This is a deep and moody blue with cool gray green undertones.

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Dark Neutral Kitchen Cabinet Colors

People who want to create a dramatic kitchen design with minimal color should consider dark neutrals such as charcoal or black. These dark, moody hues will continue to be popular in kitchen designs in 2024, but dark neutral cabinets will always look classic. These colors have a wide range of undertones that you need to consider when choosing your perfect cabinet color. As a general rule, colors that lean toward blue or purple have a cool undertone and work well as a complement for cooler shades. Dark neutrals that have green or brown undertones pair best with warm colors.

Dark gray tones are complex, and their undertones will be more or less apparent depending on the available light. Downpipe, a rich, deep gray with blue and green undertones, is a favorite color from Farrow & Ball. This color is cool, but it is balanced enough to work well with warm color accents as well as cool ones. Peppercorn, from Sherwin Williams, is commonly used on cabinets because it is well-balanced and also works with warm and cool accents. One of the best warm, dark grays on the market is Chelsea Gray from Benjamin Moore. The brown undertones of this color mean that it works well with rich, earthy colors.

Black remains a common choice for kitchen cabinets in 2024. Tricorn Black, from Sherwin Williams, is a true and balanced black, which makes it a stand-by for kitchen designers. Railings, a more nuanced black from Farrow & Ball, has a slight blue shading, which can appear more blue or black depending on the lighting.

Harnessing soft whites and gently curving plaster forms, interior designer Johanna Amatoury has brought a holiday-house feel to this apartment in the peaceful Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.

The duplex belongs to a couple who work in real estate and their three young children – a globetrotting family with a particular love for the Greek islands.

Amatoury designed their apartment as a homage to the region’s vernacular architecture.

“Because of their love for this part of the world, we arrived in this apartment and imagined a holiday house feeling, using warm and textural materials – very unlike typical Parisian apartments,” she told Dezeen.

“We worked with mineral materials, textures and raw colours in the apartment to provide depth and achieve the desired ambience.”

The design of the home was also shaped by its layout, arranged over the ground and first floors of a large 1980s building that opens onto a small garden.

This encouraged Amatoury to model the apartment on a single-family house.

“We wanted to imagine it as a house, to create a more outside-in atmosphere, increasing all the size of the windows,” she said.

“The apartment is on the garden level, so my guideline was to open as much as possible to the outside and the planting there.”

The apartment’s whole floorplan was reworked in order to create a living room, dining room and kitchen that all look onto the gardens outside.

The staircase was relocated to a more logical location close to the entrance, while upstairs the space was completely reconfigured to create four bedroom suites.

As a homage to Greek island architecture, Amatoury used Roman plaster to soften the forms within the apartment, particularly in the entrance hall.

“We used warm, textural materials including lots of softly curving and tactile plaster finishes that give the space a sculptural look,” she said.

“Roman plaster is a very ancient technique that has a mineral appearance with a smooth, soft and slightly glossy finish, which catches the eye and dresses the wall through classic mineral colours while also embracing brighter nuances.”

In the kitchen, smoked walnut timber cabinetry is paired with splashbacks and worktops made of Navona travertine.

Set in an otherwise open-plan space, the area is enclosed in glazed panels.

“The family entertains a lot and cooks a lot, both the parents and the children,” Amatoury said. “As a result, it was necessary to be able to close off the kitchen while maintaining this visual openness.”

Much like a window, the glazed panels feature curved grilles and are set on an oak base that creates a visual link with the built-in oak banquette upholstered in white boucle wool.

“We create a lot of benches because they’re so practical, incorporating storage chests, but most importantly for their cosy appeal,” Amatoury said. “Benches introduce a mix of fabrics and through these fabrics, the space becomes more welcoming.”

For Amatoury, the furniture edit was a balancing act between creating a “harmonious yet eclectic atmosphere” that blends sophistication and comfort.

Taking a central role is the curving sofa in the living room, which is upholstered in off-white linen and paired with monolithic Violetta marble tables.

“Its design not only provided a focal point but also added a touch of elegance and softness to the space,” she said.

“The curving shape offered a sense of flow and organic grace, enhancing the room’s visual appeal. The choice of off-white linen contributed to a serene ambience here, promoting a feeling of openness and lightness.”

Amatoury, who has worked on several residential and commercial interiors across Paris, says she was tasked with the project after the owners admired a home she had completed for friends of theirs.

“They liked our work and especially the warmth we bring to our projects, almost like a cocoon,” she said.

Other residential interiors in the French capital that have recently been featured on Dezeen include a loft apartment in a former textile workshop and a Haussmann-era flat that was restored to its “former glory”.

The photography is by Pierce Scourfield.

The storied location of this brasserie in Paris inspired interior studio B3 Designers to fill the restaurant with tasselled chairs, disco balls and other flamboyant decor.

Brasserie des Pres is set in Paris’s Latin Quarter, which was a hub of creativity throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, its cafes filled with artists, publishers and prominent writers including Ernest Hemingway and Jean-Paul Sartre.

London-based studio B3 Designers aimed to infuse this same buzzy ambience into the quarter’s latest eatery, undeterred by its awkwardly narrow interiors.

“Brasserie des Pres has a very unique floor print and we’ve used the existing architecture to create layers of dining experiences,” the studio said. “We’ve created a feeling of community and delight, a welcoming backdrop to the great food served here.”

Lush with greenery, the exterior of the restaurant features a striped orange awning and classic Parisian terrace seating.

Once guests step inside, they find themselves in a large dining room with red-panelled walls, inset with mirrored shelves that display an assortment of shapely glass vessels.

Decorative tiles depicting limes, lemons and oranges are incorporated at the top of each panel.

Tables throughout the room are dressed with white linen cloths and bijou brass lamps, nodding to the table set-up of the Latin Quarter’s traditional eateries.

Guests also have the option to sit at a high marble counter that directly overlooks Brasserie des Pres’s bustling kitchen or enjoy a drink at the bar, which is fronted by velvet-lined orange stools.

More dining space is provided on the first floor, where the shelves along the walls are filled with antique books and candelabras to mimic the worldly look of a cabinet of curiosities.

Finally, on the top floor of the restaurant is a lounge-style space where guests can relax while selecting tracks from the brasserie’s vinyl record library.

A curtained partition can be drawn back to reveal a secret bar, complete with a mirrored ceiling. From its centre hangs a cluster of disco balls, enclosed by a circular neon sign that spells the word groovy.

A plush, crimson banquet winds around the periphery of the space, accompanied by matching tassel-backed chairs and marble tables.

Even the toilets at this level are finished with eccentric details including a pearl-laden chandelier that droops above the washbasin  and surreal gold-framed paintings that depict the eyes of “unsung Parisian anti-heroes”, according to B3 Designers.

Paris’s rich culinary scene is constantly expanding.

Other spots that have recently opened up around the city include Citrons et Huîtres, an oyster bar that’s designed to resemble a fishmonger, and Chinese restaurant Bao Express, which has a retro interior informed by Hong Kong diners of the 1970s.

The photography is by Vincent Remy and Joann Pai.

The Malin has designed its work-oriented member’s club in Nashville, its first outside of New York City, with an earthy colour palette and a mix of vintage and contemporary furniture to give it a hotel-like feel.

Located in the Wedgewood Houston neighbourhood, The Malin is one of a number of creative businesses within the Nashville Warehouse Co, which claims to be the city’s “first large-scale mass-timber building”.

The building’s timber structure is highly visible throughout the interiors, and the pine ceilings and deep beams add to the warm, earthy palette of the various work areas.

Designed by The Malin‘s in-house team, the club encompasses 16,000 square feet of space that encompasses 48 dedicated desks, seven private offices, five meeting rooms and two libraries.

All of these rooms feature rich colours and an eclectic mix of vintage and contemporary furniture, intended to feel more like a hotel than a co-working space.

“We’re in the hospitality business, so we carefully tailor each location of The Malin to fit the needs of the neighbourhood and professional community,” said The Malin founder and CEO Ciaran McGuigan. “Not only are we providing the highest level of hospitality, but we’re doing it in a refined and beautiful space that contributes to a productive workflow.”

The design team decorated The Malin Wedgewood Houston with deep-toned Benjamin Moore paints, Schumacher wallpapers and glazed zellige tiles, while bespoke millwork is executed in dark walnut and white oak.

A variety of formal and casual seating areas are available for members to utilise as desired, either for individual or group work, or entertaining guests.

Large communal tables accompanied by cushioned tubular metal chairs, sofas and armchairs with brightly coloured velvet upholstery, and cafe tables beside leather banquettes are among the options available.

Surfaces of limestone, travertine and multiple varieties of marble – including Giallo Siena, Irish Green, Onice Brecia and Aresbecator Oribico – complement the wood tones and colourful furniture.

Members also have access to an acre of outdoor community park space for hosting events, and receive discounts and perks at several neighbourhood hotspots.

“The Malin is committed to providing an environment equipped with personalised services and high-touch amenities,” said the team. “In catering to a tight knit community with a finite number of members, The Malin is able to provide tailored lifestyle management services while offering both the comforts of a home and the resources of an office.”

The Malin’s first location in Manhattan’s Soho, which opened in 2022, was longlisted in the small workspace interiors category of Dezeen Awards 2022.

The company has since added spots in Williamsburg and the West Village to its portfolio, making The Malin Wedgewood Houston its fourth.

Long-known for its thriving music scene, Nashville is now quickly growing as a destination for other creative industries.

Recent openings in the city include an outpost of members’ club Soho House – just down the street from The Malin – and a multi-venue dining and drinking destination designed by AvroKO and owned by Sam Fox and Justin Timberlake.

The photography is by Sean Robertson.

Local design studio Hauvette & Madani drew on the Haussmannian history of this Paris apartment to create a gallery-like interior for its occupant’s vast art collection.

Located in the city’s historic Triangle d’Or, the dwelling previously featured minimalist marble surfaces and gilding leftover from a recent renovation.

Hauvette & Madani “re-appropriated” the apartment, originally designed as part of Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s famed reconstruction of the French capital during the mid-19th century, to reflect its architectural past.

“The challenge was to completely revamp the apartment, which had just been refurbished,” said studio co-founder Samantha Hauvette, who designed the dwelling with Lucas Madani.

“We carried out meticulous research to find the right motifs and decorations to restore the place to its former glory and Haussmannian charm,” she told Dezeen.

The designers recreated delicate white cornices and mouldings – hallmarks of Haussmannian design – within the apartment, which had been previously stripped of these details.

This created a considered but neutral backdrop for the resident’s eclectic collection of artwork and a curated selection of furniture “mixing eras and styles,” according to Hauvette and Madani.

Visitors enter at a small round vestibule clad in straw marquetry – a “common thread” that also features on a pair of curved sofas and a sleek coffee table as well as sliding doors, the main bedroom’s headboard and the dining table.

The light-filled living room is characterised by sculptural furniture and art pieces, including rounded vintage armchairs finished in a dark green hue and metallic base.

An amorphous ceiling work by Austrian artist Erwin Wurm was suspended above the sofas, while a deep blue painting by Swiss practitioner Miriam Cahn adds a bold hue to the room.

“It’s a real living space, where the homeowner shares a lot with her artist and designer friends,” said the designers. “All the pieces have a strong identity.”

For the dining room, American artist Sarah Crowner created a striking turquoise fireplace, which was clad in a blocky mosaic of geometric tiles and positioned alongside a burnt orange vintage egg-shaped chair.

“We wanted to take the codes of classicism and break free from them,” explained Hauvette and Madani, who aimed to balance traditional interior details with more contemporary colourful touches.

Continuing this theme, the designers sandwiched a bright green stove between more subtle, light pink cabinets in the kitchen, which includes a patterned feature wall.

Blocks of light-coloured timber were stacked by French furniture maker Hervé van der Straeten to create a singular lumpy leg for the kitchen table as well as the base of a drinks bar elsewhere in the apartment.

Hauvette and Madani also constructed an in-house sauna for the home, finished in dark wooden slats and tucked behind a bespoke green-hued daybed, made by the designers themselves.

“We have a strong belief that everything that you love independently will work perfectly once put together,” said Madani, who highlighted the power of trusting your instincts when curating eclectic interiors.

Summarising the overall look and feel of the apartment, the pair declared, “it’s Paris Haussmannian style, with a hint of craziness!”

Hauvette & Madani is not the first studio to renovate a traditional Parisian apartment with contemporary touches.

Local studio Uchronia recently filled a home for jewellery designers with multifaceted furniture pieces crafted to mirror the appearance of precious stones. The studio also previously added a wine-red kitchen to an otherwise neutral flat in the French capital.

The photography is by François Coquerel. 

What makes us “ooh” and “ahh” when we walk into a kitchen? You guessed it: Countertops! This part of the kitchen is a great way to represent your style and personality. The kitchen is also one of the most customizable areas of the home, from the layout and the cabinetry to the decor and more! If you’re wondering what kind of countertops will find the spotlight in 2024, we’ve got you covered. Check out some of our favorite styles going into the new year! 

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New York-based Crosby Studios has utilised gold accents and rich-red fabrics and lights informed by director David Lynch for the interiors of Silencio nightclub in Manhattan.

Silencio NYC is located between Times Square and Hell’s Kitchen and is the second location for the club, whose Paris flagship was designed by Lynch.

Crosby Studios founder Harry Nuriev wanted to respect Lynch’s original design while fusing the “essence of French flair into the character of New York City,” according to the studio.

Evoking the same mystery and allure as Silencio’s first Paris location, Nuriev has created sumptuous interiors that are saturated with Lynch’s signature hue.

“Being the next designer for Silencio, Harry wanted to have a dialogue with the director through the movies he grew up on,” said Crosby Studios.

“The signature red colour of [David Lynch] was heavily used to capture the true essence of modern-day New York. Harry wanted to create a space that felt sexy and as if you were in a movie.”

The newly opened space is situated near the former location of iconic nightclub Studio 54, which also informed the design of New York’s Silencio.

Expected to face a strict door policy, those who make it over the threshold will experience a series of spaces where the walls and floor are covered in plush red carpet.

Thin strips of glowing red lighting follow the outlines of the rooms, framing doorways and openings to a variety of small lounge spaces.

These raised private areas are lined entirely in golden metal panels and surfaces including curvy built-in seating.

“In New York, as in Paris, Silencio tunes into the ambient air,” said the club’s team. “Its agenda celebrates the moments that make the city pulse; the club becomes a nighttime landmark.”

“Inside, you will find Silencio’s signature universe – minimal and contemporary – expertly reimagined by the aesthete Harry Nuriev,” the team added.

Red velvet curtains can be drawn across to conceal those desiring privacy, but when open, the gold nooks reflect the cinematic red lighting elsewhere. The same gold was used for the dance floor.

In the main room, mirrored walls create the illusion of more space and upholstered benches allow guests to rest their feet if needed.

A larger niche is positioned behind the minimal DJ booth, offering an area for VIPs to party during music performances from local and international talents.

Silencio also recently opened a beach house in Ibiza, and a second Paris outpost in Saint-Germain-des-Prés on the Left Bank of the Seine.

Its original address is on Rue Montmartre in the second arrondissement of Paris and was opened in 2011 by Arnaud Frisch and Antoine Caton.

Silencio offers a membership program for those wishing to enjoy all of its locations, and gain access to cultural offerings and events that include concerts, performances, talks, screenings, exhibitions, dinners, private tours and more.

“Resolutely multidisciplinary, Silencio fosters free movement of ideas and the birth of new projects,” the club said. “Its curious and eclectic programming generates a unique energy in confidential venues.”

Nuriev has risen to prominence through collaborations with brands like Nike and Balenciaga and has previously designed hospitality spaces such as a Moscow restaurant where gleaming sheets of pink corrugated metal contrast with rough plaster walls.

The designer also added his “signature boldness” to his own NYC apartment, which features tiled walls, purple carpeting and leathery cabinets.

The photography is by Pauline Shapiro.

Kitchen Design in 2024, so far, has been exciting to say the least. We’ve seen trends that have been alive and well for some years now continue to dominate the industry while also seeing a blend traditional styles as well as new, ever-evolving practices coming to the forefront. And this conversation takes us to today’s featured remodel, a gem comfortably nestled in Allentown, Pennsylvania. 

Upon first impression, you can tell there’s this serene, traditional feeling to the space. White kitchens are here and they’re here to stay. A staple in kitchen design, white cabinetry perfectly blended with other assorted white elements brings a traditional aesthetic to life in this space. And while some may thing traditional means “old”, that’s not inherently the case. Traditional means paying homage to a long lineage of kitchen history, perfectly faceted against the location of such a kitchen, a city deeply rooted in its historical past. 

However, there’s multiple elements at work here that bring this kitchen into the 21st century and make it a prime example of where we’re at in 2024 kitchen design.

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Toronto-based Studio Paolo Ferrari has created cinematic interiors for a restaurant in the city’s Downtown area, combining influences from filmmakers that range from Stanley Kubrick to Nancy Meyers.

Unlike a typical restaurant layout, Daphne unfolds as a series of rooms with distinct identities, each borrowing references from different cinema styles.

Studio Paolo Ferrari intended each space to offer a different experience for guests, and custom-designed all of the furniture and lighting for the restaurant to make it feel even more unique.

“Daphne is an elevated and exceedingly creative take on the American bistro, fusing the nostalgia of New England prep with wonder and eccentricity,” said Studio Paolo Ferrari. “At once intimate and grand, eccentric and sculptural, convivial and experimental, the deeply imaginative space is reminiscent of a great residence that’s evolved over time.”

Guests arrive into an intimate space that features a transparent full-height wine cabinet, which offers glimpses of the dining area beyond.

They then move through to the Great Room, a cavernous room framed by a dramatic vaulted ceiling and decorated in a warm neutral palette.

Through the centre is a line of dining tables, each paired with a rounded striped sofa and two boucle-covered chairs.

The open kitchen is fully visible through the arches on one side, while a darker, cosier dining area coloured a burnt orange hue runs along the other.

“The grand space is reminiscent of the warmly luxurious spirit of a Nancy Meyers film, with custom furnishings that are deeply residential in feel and varsity-inspired checkerboard tiling,” said Studio Paolo Ferrari.

The Drawing Room beyond continues the burnt orange colour, fully enveloping the walls, ceiling and seating upholstery to create a monochromatic space.

Cove lighting is installed behind louvres that cover the upper walls, adding texture and shadows as well as hint of “Cape Cod Americana”.

The bar area is reached via a long corridor that’s mirrored from floor to ceiling along one wall, and is lined with a hand-painted landscape mural across the opposite side.

This verdant rural scene continues across the wavy surfaces in the bar room, above green banquettes that follow the flow of the wall.

“Daphne is a world unto itself, awaiting discovery,” the studio said. “Stepping into the bar is almost akin to stepping into an exquisitely-designed film set.”

The snaking glass-topped bar counter is illuminated from within, as a nod to the bar in the fictional Overlook Hotel from Stanley Kubrick’s movie The Shining.

The counter front is fluted in reverence to Beaux-Arts architect Henry Bacon, while reflective stainless steel across the back bar matches the circular tables and chair feet in the room.

A dilapidated building adjacent to the restaurant was demolished to make way for an expansive outdoor Garden Terrace with a dining area and bar.

Sandwiched between two brick structures, this exterior space features comfy yellow and white-striped seating surrounded by plants, and a row of tall trees in the centre – continuing the botanical theme from inside.

A separate entrance from the street leads guests between tall columns clad in dark blue-purple iridescent tiles into the alley-like space.

“It was important that the space had depth and a quality of experimentation,” said Paolo Ferrari, founder of his eponymous firm. “Daphne is truly an active experience of discovery, where guests can uncover thoughtful and innovative details throughout.”

The designer’s earlier projects in Canada have included a lake house with wood and granite interiors, and a showroom for a development in Ottawa that appears more like a home than a sales gallery.

Other recent additions to Toronto’s dining scene include Prime Seafood Palace, which features a vaulted-wood interior by Omar Gandhi Architect.

The photography is by Joel Esposito.

Brooklyn-based Home Studios has turned a conference centre in Northern California back into a luxury hotel, as originally intended by the property’s founder: the inventor of the radio.

The Lodge at Marconi sits on a 62-acre site next to Tomales Bay, within the picturesque Marconi State Historic Park – a 1.5-hour drive up Highway Route 1 from San Francisco.

Designed for Nashville-based company Oliver Hospitality, the hotel occupies a historic property that was first built by Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian physicist who invented the radio in 1896.

“Home Studios found inspiration in the property’s storied history – particularly in the pioneering spirit of Guglielmo Marconi, who worked with a New York-based engineering company to build the property’s initial building, a luxury hotel, in 1914,” said the design team, led by Oliver Haslegrave.

It took 17 months to overhaul the complex of blackened-wood buildings, which are topped with mono-pitched roofs of different heights and opposing directions.

The architecture is similar to that of The Sea Ranch Lodge further up the coast, which reopened in 2022 after its own extensive renovation.

Home Studios looked to the iconic site – famed for its modernist style and sensitive land planning – for cues when developing the Lodge at Marconi’s 45 guest rooms and suites, which occupy freestanding buildings across the wooded site.

“Borrowing design language from Sea Ranch’s ‘living lightly on the land’ credo, the rooms blend into the environment and boast a tranquil and peaceful atmosphere,” the team said.

The hotel complex is made up of eight indoor and outdoor spaces, laid out “like a summer camp” to accommodate different activities in each area.

In the reception block, guests arrive to a series of lounges and other communal spaces that create a more informal setting than a traditional hotel lobby.

A check-in counter is fronted with oxblood-coloured tiles by Heath Ceramics, which was founded in nearby Sausalito.

More of the company’s tiles, this time in blue-green hues, line the lower walls of the restaurant known as the Redwood Dining Hall.

Red bricks are laid in a basketweave pattern across the floor, contrasting with the bright blue bases of the custom dining tables, while warm cedar panels and beams cover the ceiling.

A mural comprising four-panel linen screens and a series of wood cubes mounted on a wall was made in collaboration with California-based artist Lukas Geronimas Giniotis.

The guest rooms are bright and airy, with the colours of the natural surroundings subtly reflected in the furnishings.

Some have cosy loft spaces, while larger suites feature a dedicated workspace and sitting area.

“Northern California’s rugged environment served as a design influence, and is reflected in the natural woods and earth-tone textiles that adorn each room and weave together a cohesive connection throughout the property,” Home Studios said.

“Three guest room bathrooms feature original tile dated to the 1960s when the hotel served as a rehabilitation facility known as Synanon.”

Across the property, the indoor spaces are afforded scenic views of the forest and the water through large windows.

A variety of gathering and event spaces are available to guests both inside and out, including wooden chairs positioned around fire pits among the landscape designed by Bay Area firm Dune Hai.

This is Home Studios’ third hotel project, following the Mediterranean-influenced Alsace hotel in Los Angeles and the boutique Daunt’s Albatross motel in Montauk.

The firm’s other recent projects include a revamped bar and restaurant on Nantucket, an Italian eatery close to Harvard University and a townhouse renovation in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

The photography is by Brian W Ferry.