Contemporary Style Warms Bay Area Home

Sausalito, CA— The famed hills of the San Francisco Bay Area have a new jewel.

Constructed of glass, steel, stone and redwood, this contemporary home’s floor-to-ceiling glass panels provide a spectacular view of the majestic Pacific Ocean.

Though Dave Kaplan has renovated 16 homes during the course of his career, this project was different. Not only was it the first home he commissioned as a new construction, it was the entrepreneur’s personal dream home.

Kaplan worked with architect Michael Stankus of Michael Rex Associates in Sausalito, CA to create the three-story, 2,100-sq.-ft. home. Embedded into the side of a hill, the home features an abundance of natural light, as well as spectacular views from nearly every room.

The open floor plan lends itself to entertaining and accommodating large groups of people, ideal for the upcoming events expected to take place in the home.

For what he has dubbed his “art project,” Kaplan worked with the design team from Waypoint Living Spaces, a newly introduced cabinet line from American Woodmark Corp. More than 50 cherry cabinets in a Shaker style are used in the home, all of them stained and glazed to a deep chocolate shade to provide continuity throughout the space. Waypoint also provided the medium bar pulls in satin nickel included on all of the cabinets.

The attention to detail and desire to include distinctive elements throughout the house are what makes this home truly a dream house, according to Kaplan. From fixtures to lighting to furniture, nothing is average – including the whole-house automation system, which enables control of items such as lights, heat, appliances and locks from an iPhone.

Stainless Statements

One of the unique details incorporated into the home’s design is the custom-stained poplar suspended ceiling in the kitchen. The darker wood warms the space and joins it visually with the living and dining area beyond.

Meeting the ceiling in the kitchen is an upper tier of cabinets that follows the room’s L-shape. The design team stacked two rows of 24"-high wall cabinets – several finished with frosted glass doors – and separated them with a band of solid stainless steel. “We wanted to give a different and interesting look to the wall cabinet arrangement,” explains Connie Edwards, director of design for Waypoint Living Spaces in Winchester, VA. The band acts as a contrast to the warmth of the wood, tying into the stainless steel appliances and playing off the abundance of steel used throughout the home.

“There was a steel structural column located on the edge of the kitchen, and it became part of this urban industrial look that was created using construction materials of steel and concrete, juxtaposed against the cherry cabinetry,” explains Edwards.

The base cabinets are finished in the same Cherry Chocolate glaze used in the rest of the home, and are topped with a custom made concrete countertop from Concreteworks. The highly functional Karbon faucet from Kohler is paired with a Kohler stainless steel sink on the back wall, along with a stainless steel dishwasher and drawer microwave from Viking Range Corp. A beverage center and trash compactor, also from Viking, are included in the kitchen.

The Ledger Stone Sunrise Gold backsplash is a neutral-toned rough stone that provides a rustic touch to this contemporary space.

Organization is significant to the design of this kitchen, and the cabinets are equipped with a number of storage elements. Built-in silverware trays, tiered shelves and storage units on the insides of doors are among the extras.

“We filled up the cabinets with lots of interior storage options so that every space was utilized to the max,” Edwards comments.

Looking to the details, the bottoms of the cabinets were finished “so they would be attractive from all viewpoints,” notes Edwards.

Along the shorter wall, a refrigerator/freezer sits next to wall ovens, all from Viking and finished in stainless steel.