Peek Inside a Desert Home With a Natural Look and Storage Galore

See and read how a designer helps a couple update interiors with durable materials and features for entertaining

Mitchell Parker December 31, 2023

Houzz Editorial Staff. Home design journalist writing about cool spaces, innovative trends, breaking news, industry analysis and humor.

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To update spaces in this desert home, designer Kaitlyn Wolfe took inspiration from tones in the surrounding rustic landscape as well as the boutique-hotel vibe found elsewhere in the house. She mixed those influences with the homeowners’ desire for abundant storage, easy-to-clean materials and features that enhance entertaining. The result is a not-too-precious modern desert style that combines generous amounts of natural white oak and durable stone-look porcelain, concrete-look quartz and terrazzo details. Meanwhile, a large island with seating, a dedicated beverage room, a clever pass-through from the kitchen to a patio bar top and a sleek butler’s pantry enhance the home’s party-throwing potential.

Iconic by Kaitlyn Wolfe

Photos by Kevin Brost

House at a Glance
Who lives here: An empty-nest couple with two dogs
Location: Scottsdale, Arizona
Designer: Iconic by Kaitlyn Wolfe

The kitchen is one of the showpieces of the remodel, and European white oak flooring sets the tone. The material is continued on the lower cabinets with white oak veneer. Putty-colored cabinets elsewhere balance the wood. “If we had done all wood, it would have almost all blended together and you wouldn’t have been able to really appreciate the wood that we do have in the space,” Wolfe says. “So if you put too much of one element, it almost becomes a little bit overwhelming. The putty color almost just softens the look.”

The stone-look porcelain island countertop with waterfall edge adds a natural element in a durable material. “Our clients are heavy users of their kitchen, so they wanted to make sure they had things that were easy to clean, easy to maintain and something they didn’t have to seal over time,” Wolfe says.

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Iconic by Kaitlyn Wolfe

A locally made custom terrazzo vent hood creates a striking focal point in the kitchen. Wolfe and the homeowners selected the aggregate, density and base color for the custom terrazzo blend. “You don’t really know what you get until it’s done because everything is handmade, so it just makes it really special for our clients,” Wolfe says.

The island cabinets feature integrated J-pulls. “What’s nice about that is if you’re walking around an island — a high-traffic space — your clothes aren’t going to get caught on a handle,” Wolfe says. The perimeter cabinets have dark bronze pulls with a curved detail. “We love funky little details,” Wolfe says. “We liked bringing in a softer element because the kitchen is pretty linear, everything is pretty elongated and large in scale, so by bringing in hardware that had a little bit of a softer line, that really played well.”

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Iconic by Kaitlyn Wolfe

Wolfe uses Houzz Pro business software to manage projects. “It’s been great for operationally running the business but also for marketing and getting more clients,” she says.

Iconic by Kaitlyn Wolfe

The perimeter countertops are concrete-look indoor-outdoor quartz. One of the homeowners is tall, so Wolfe raised the counters 2 inches above standard height to make them more comfortable to use. A mitered edge gives them a hefty profile.

The faucet has a vintage nickel finish. Behind it, a window can be pushed outward to create a seamless connection to an outdoor seating area. “Then you have this beautiful countertop that runs outside,” Wolfe says.

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Iconic by Kaitlyn Wolfe

With the window open, the homeowners can easily pass food and drinks to the outdoor bar top and patio.

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Iconic by Kaitlyn Wolfe

This multifunctional beverage room sits off the kitchen in what was once an unused dining area. Wolfe added a door to connect the space to the patio. “Now you have this circulation of space,” she says.

The room features white oak veneer cabinets and drawers, an ice maker, a coffee bar setup, a sink and a full-size wine column (not shown). “It’s a full beverage room, so that could be morning coffee, that could be evening tea or alcoholic drinks,” Wolfe says. “It’s the perfect space to take all of that storage for those items into a separate room.”

For the walls, a local muralist hand-painted graphic black strokes directly onto the drywall, allowing the details to curl around the curved edges of the window and door openings. “With tile you really can’t finish that cleanly,” Wolfe says. “Even with wallpaper you’ll see the different ridges and bumps, so with the hand-painted mural you can go around any shape.”

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Iconic by Kaitlyn Wolfe

In another circulation space, Wolfe created this extensive yet unassuming butler’s pantry. “Most butler’s pantries are like closets in a way,” Wolfe says. “They’re not really a pass-through space like this one is, where the homeowners walk through every day when they come home. Guests are going through this space from the formal dining to the kitchen. It’s highly trafficked, which is why we kept most of it closed. So it’s highly functional but aesthetically beautiful.”

White oak veneer cabinets conceal components, while a black-stained white oak shelving system with built-in LED lighting on the left offers display space and helps break up the cabinets.

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Iconic by Kaitlyn Wolfe

A powder room features a floating sink basin made from the same terrazzo as the kitchen hood and a faucet in the same vintage nickel finish as the kitchen faucet. “It’s nice when you can repeat some materials throughout a home,” Wolfe says. “It feels very cohesive … you don’t have to create a completely different vibe in every space.”

Terra-cotta-colored porcelain tile spans the sink and toilet wall, working with the floating sink to give the appearance of more space.

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