Burke, VA – Kitchen Transformation
White Shaker cabinetry, New Calacatta Laza Quartz with full height backsplash, matte black pulls, and a dedicated coffee bar designed for a client who loves to host
Featured Materials
When we first met with our Burke, VA client, she shared that the biggest limitations of her existing kitchen were a lack of storage and countertop space. Her L-shaped kitchen simply didn't provide enough room to store and display her kitchen essentials and small appliances. As someone who loves to host family and friends, she also wanted a kitchen that would give her more space for serving and entertaining guests.
Our team at Grace House Studio designed the new kitchen with both functionality and entertaining in mind. We incorporated additional cabinetry and countertop space throughout the room, including a dedicated coffee bar that provided a designated area for her coffee essentials and small appliances while helping keep the main kitchen counters organised.
For the finishes, our client selected our popular White Shaker cabinetry and wanted a countertop that felt modern and sophisticated, with enough movement to create contrast and visual interest against the white cabinets. New Calacatta Laza Quartz was the perfect choice. Its bold veining added just the right amount of drama while maintaining the bright, timeless look she wanted.
To create an even more cohesive design, the client chose to continue the New Calacatta Laza Quartz from the countertops up the walls as a full height backsplash around the perimeter of the L-shaped kitchen. Matte black Gibson cabinet pulls completed the design, providing a striking contrast against the white cabinetry.
By the end of the project, the kitchen had transformed from a darker, more confined space into a bright, inviting, and highly functional kitchen with significantly more storage and countertop space. Most importantly, our client now has a kitchen designed not only for everyday living, but also for doing something she loves, hosting and entertaining.
“A kitchen designed for how someone actually uses it is worth more than one that only looks good in photographs. This one does both.”
Project Gallery
Before
After
When we first met with our Burke, VA client, she shared that the biggest limitations of her existing kitchen were a lack of storage and countertop space. Her L-shaped kitchen simply didn't provide enough room to store and display her kitchen essentials and small appliances. As someone who loves to host family and friends, she also wanted a kitchen that would give her more space for serving and entertaining guests.
Our team at Grace House Studio designed the new kitchen with both functionality and entertaining in mind. We incorporated additional cabinetry and countertop space throughout the room, including a dedicated coffee bar that provided a designated area for her coffee essentials and small appliances while helping keep the main kitchen counters organised.
For the finishes, our client selected our popular White Shaker cabinetry and wanted a countertop that felt modern and sophisticated, with enough movement to create contrast and visual interest against the white cabinets. New Calacatta Laza Quartz was the perfect choice. Its bold veining added just the right amount of drama while maintaining the bright, timeless look she wanted.
To create an even more cohesive design, the client chose to continue the New Calacatta Laza Quartz from the countertops up the walls as a full height backsplash around the perimeter of the L-shaped kitchen. Matte black Gibson cabinet pulls completed the design, providing a striking contrast against the white cabinetry.
By the end of the project, the kitchen had transformed from a darker, more confined space into a bright, inviting, and highly functional kitchen with significantly more storage and countertop space. Most importantly, our client now has a kitchen designed not only for everyday living, but also for doing something she loves, hosting and entertaining.
Design Decisions
01
Additional cabinetry and countertop space, solving the brief before selecting a finish
The client's core problem was not aesthetic. It was functional: not enough storage, not enough counter run, a kitchen that couldn't keep up with how she used it. The first design decision was to add cabinetry and countertop space throughout the room before anything else was specified. Getting the layout right meant the new finishes would have something real to work with. A beautiful kitchen with the same storage limitations as the one it replaced is not a renovation, it is a reskin.
02
Dedicated coffee bar, designed to organise rather than just accommodate
A coffee bar is not just a place to put a coffee maker. Designed well, it relocates a category of items, the machine, the cups, the pods, the accessories, from the main countertop to a dedicated zone that keeps them accessible without letting them compete for prime counter space. The built-in barn door cabinet above and open shelving below give the coffee bar its own visual identity while integrating with the rest of the kitchen cabinetry. This is the detail that makes the kitchen work for someone who hosts, because it keeps the main counter clear when guests are over.
03
White Shaker cabinetry, the foundation that made everything else possible
White Shaker was the right choice for a kitchen that needed to feel brighter, larger, and more modern than what it was replacing. The dark oak cathedral door cabinetry was absorbing light and making the L-shaped layout feel compressed. White Shaker reflects light, reads as current without being trend dependent, and gives the bold Calacatta Laza countertop and backsplash the neutral backdrop they needed to make an impact. The cabinetry is not the statement. It is what makes the statement possible.
04
New Calacatta Laza Quartz, the surface that gives the kitchen its character
New Calacatta Laza is an engineered quartz with bold, sweeping grey veining on a pure white ground, a surface that reads as natural Calacatta marble at a glance and performs without marble's maintenance demands. Against the white Shaker cabinetry, the veining provides exactly the contrast and visual interest the client was after: dramatic enough to be the room's defining material, restrained enough that the kitchen reads as bright and timeless rather than busy. It was the clear choice for a client who wanted sophistication without sacrificing practicality.
05
Full height quartz backsplash, extending the countertop material up the wall
Running the New Calacatta Laza Quartz from the countertop surface up the wall as a full height backsplash was the decision that made the kitchen read as a complete, cohesive design rather than a collection of well chosen elements. The same bold veining that runs across the counter continues up the wall, which eliminates the visual break that a tiled or painted backsplash would have introduced and makes the kitchen feel larger and more intentional. It is also a practical choice: a full height quartz backsplash is easier to clean and more durable than tile in a kitchen that gets real use.
06
Matte black Gibson pulls, the hardware finish that completed the palette
Matte black pulls against white cabinetry and white quartz is a high contrast combination that has earned its place in modern kitchen design because it works: the black reads as sharp and considered without being heavy, and it provides the visual punctuation the kitchen needed to look finished rather than plain. The Gibson pull profile specifically has a clean, architectural quality that suits Shaker cabinetry and a quartz backsplash better than a more decorative or ornate alternative. Hardware is the last decision and often the one that brings everything else into focus.
Before & After
The same room. A completely different impression.
A kitchen designed for how you use it is a kitchen worth spending time in.
We design and build kitchens across Northern Virginia for homeowners who want more storage, more countertop space, and a kitchen that works as well as it looks.
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