Last Look, Now and Zen
When Cambria made plans to open a new 4,000-square-foot Design Center in Palm Desert, Calif., it was no surprise that sales director Candice Knox selected up-and-coming local interior designer Christopher Kennedy, 33, to contribute a kitchen and bathroom design to the showroom.
When Cambria made plans to open a new 4,000-square-foot Design Center in Palm Desert, Calif., it was no surprise that sales director Candice Knox selected up-and-coming local interior designer Christopher Kennedy, 33, to contribute a kitchen and bathroom design to the showroom. In the process, Kennedy adhered to three favorite principles, all of which have broad applicability to kitchen design in general, to wit:
don’t be afraid to mix materials
“I like designing spaces that have a livable kind of luxury and a warm, textural modernism,” he says. “So, I put in two different kinds of exotic wood, mixed copper tiles with the stovetop’s glass backsplash, mixed the island’s raised glass countertop with the stainless steel poles, and then added the dramatic Cambria stripes.”
pay attention to the details
“Much like in many private homes, the island is one of the first things you see as you approach the kitchen space and I didn’t want to leave the back of it untreated, and I also wanted to inspire the consumer to think about how to use this material [Cambria] differently,” Kennedy explains.
be bold in smaller spaces
“Playing off unexpected materials or doing something graphic with them, like the horizontal quartz stripes, these kinds of ideas can really translate well in a small room or a space with less natural light,” Kennedy notes. “It gives you a wonderful opportunity to take risks that you might not otherwise take in a larger space.”
In Kennedy’s kitchen design, he centers the Zen-like space with a sleek, contemporary island, the sides of which he has wrapped in eight-inch-wide bands of Cambria quartz. His innovative solution satisfies both form and function, adding interesting horizontal detail to an otherwise imposing monolith of vertical wood grain, while also building in an extra layer of protection against dings and kicks.
Christopher Kennedy, an acclaimed LEED-accredited designer who favors using environmentally sustainable products in his work, has been featured in prominent publications like the Los Angeles Times and Architectural Digest.