Not long ago, while photographer Scot Zimmerman and I were shooting a home’s spectacular chef-style kitchen, we couldn’t help but marvel at the enormous La Cornue range. A behemoth of stainless steel and gleaming brass, it had the turn-on factor (and matching price) of a racing-red Ferrari. I couldn’t help but ask the homeowner how she enjoyed cooking on the magnificent machine. “My husband is the cook,” she told us, “and he only does that in the butler’s pantry. We wouldn’t dare mess up this room.” Whoosh! Talk about a zero-to-60-in-four-seconds letdown. Instantly, the kitchen had stalled out. It’s absolutely true what designer Brenda Laurel said, “A design isn’t finished until someone is using it.”
I’m happy to report that this issue of Utah Style & Design is packed with “finished” rooms, homes and, yes, even a barn. All are enthusiastically “driven” by their owners, all of whom personally created their projects or played a large part in doing so. Builder and designer Ezra Lee constructed a home in Lehi for his young family. It teams fun and functionality with confident, contemporary design. In her updated Federal Heights home, Marilyn Kalbach worked with designer Michele Dunker to prove livability and luxury can easily, and stylishly, coexist. Builder Lane Myers filled his family’s new Midway home with comfort, honest materials and modern farmhouse style. And in Pleasant Grove, Page and Brian Westover enlisted talented pros to help them create a new working farm replete with greenhouses, gardens and a surprisingly multi-purpose barn that anchors the property with purpose and iconic beauty.
Looking for more engaging spaces and inspiration? Check out our lineup of sensational laundry rooms, bold floral designs, a remodeled Avenues kitchen, and savvy decorating, cooking and entertaining ideas.
