At the centre of a large rural home in Northland, the kitchen was always destined to be both the family hub and the heart of entertaining — the visual anchor for the wider design.
Like the home itself, the space is generous, with a high stud and a layered, nuanced design language. “It needed something grounding,” says interior designer Katie Scott of Sticks + Stones Design. “A feature with presence, one that could balance timeless elegance with a contemporary edge.”
The answer lay in stone — specifically, an Alaska leathered quartzite from CDK Stone. “I had a rough idea of what I wanted to achieve. We briefly considered porcelain, but nothing compares to the authenticity of natural stone. When my client and I saw this slab, we instantly fell in love.”
The quartzite’s surface tells its own story: deep, icy blues flowing into inky blacks, shifting to lighter tones that, in certain lights, verge on mauve. The effect is one of movement and depth, evocative of glacial lakes and rivers.
Katie used the stone expansively: on the island benchtop, across the rear wall rising to the high ceiling, and to clad the oversized rangehood for maximum impact. To temper the drama, a fluted concave detail softens the island’s base, its curve echoing the arched form of an adjacent bar where the same stone sits against matte-black cabinetry.
Above, four brass Code Kilo pendants by Nightworks bring warmth and contrast, their glow offsetting the quartzite’s cool tones. Tapware in aged iron from Plumbline continues the stone’s smoky greys, tying the palette together with subtle precision.
In this kitchen, every element flows from the defining features of the quartzite, creating a space that commands attention while evoking the majesty of its glacial inspiration.
