Customize a Spec Kitchen

After: Sensational and Subtle

Architect Mark Maresca gave the kitchen a pleasing verticality by removing the soffit above the old cabinets and extending the new cabinets to the ceiling. Dark cabinets with cinnabar-red interiors give the kitchen more character.

"Kitchens are the rooms that become dated the quickest," Maresca says. "Nothing in this kitchen screams that it's the latest and greatest. That timelessness is more pleasing, more sophisticated, and elegant with a sense of reserve."