Late last year, my friends Carrie and Kari bought a really great contemporary tri-level in SW Portland.

From the outside, it’s unassuming, but once you’re inside, it feels like a tree house because the floor-to-ceiling windows look out on to an undeveloped, forested area.

While the bones of this house were awesome, the aesthetics were straight out of 1988.

The first room we needed to tackle was the kitchen. It was dark, the oak cabinets dreary and a soffit ate into the space’s already low ceilings. On our punch list:

Remove the soffit
Add recessed can lights
Replace cabinets
Replace backsplash and countertops
Get new fixtures and appliances

For the cabinetry, we chose glossy slab front white uppers for their reflective value. The room would never get more natural light, so we needed to trick the eye. The lowers are a darker, woodgrain. They not only help to ground the space, they will also hide any splashes and spills.

The countertops we chose are quartz and look like patinaed concrete. They are durable, heat resistant and helped to tone down the gloss of the upper cabinets just enough.

The piece de la resistance, however, are the tiles we selected for their backsplash. Unlike the slickness of the cabinets, these tiles made by local company, Z Collection, are perfectly imperfect. If you were to run your hand across one, it undulates. Each of the tiles is a slightly different color of blue/green, creating a ton of organic visual interest.

Also worth noting, is the sink. Sinks aren’t usually very exciting, but this one is! The Ideal Workstation 3 by The Galley purchased from Chown Hardware. This handmade sink is custom made in the US and has upper and lower tiers, including a built-in cutting board. It’s perfect for people who like to cook and entertain, as Carrie and Kari and now their Jake, do.

Big thanks to Color Map Painting and Construction for GCing this project, to Contractors Furnishing Mart for the tiles and counters and Chown Hardware for the sink and cabinet pulls.