When a professional athlete and his wife were ready to build a home for their family in Del Mar, they were looking for design partners who could create a space that offered luxurious comforts and quintessential indoor-outdoor living. In came KAA Design and Mark Williams Design, who understood both their vision and how to stylistically connect the interiors to the natural surroundings while designing a durable home that required little maintenance.

Starting with the kitchen, the clients requested an all-white palette that included large-scale tile and stone. However, both KAA and Williams wanted to inject warmer elements that would complement the clean, white slate while bringing more organic energy into the space where the couple planned to entertain often. They achieved this by incorporating a variety of woods throughout, with walnut floors from Carlisle Wide Plank Floors, custom cabinets and more. “With white as the primary background, we chose to design mahogany-faced cabinetry as well as an all-wood waterfall island,” says Williams.

A showstopping custom rectangular kitchen hood stylishly covers a majority of the surface beneath. “We used large- scale white tiles to give a clean look,” says Williams. “Then we banded the edges in stainless steel for both practical and aesthetic appeal.” Moving to the second most important room, the couple requested a master bathroom that transported them to a spa with an indoor-outdoor shower. “By using bi-fold doors, the bathroom and private master balcony became one room, providing easy access to the outdoor shower and private sitting area,” says the designer. “This gave them the openness and tranquility they desired.”