The owners of this Napa Valley home decided to move from the East Coast and turn what had been a vacation property into their primary residence.  They moved their young family into one of two guesthouses on the property designed by San Francisco’s Backen, Gillam & Kroeger Architects and engaged the firm to build a new 12,000 square foot home. Designer John K. Anderson was working at the architectural firm at the time and became the project manager and interior designer for the project. “The clients wanted a design that was clean and modern but also rustic,” says Anderson. “They wanted the kitchen to be pretty but not precious; it’s definitely a kitchen that gets used.” Anderson chose painted wood cabinets to contrast with the reclaimed fir used in the construction of the room. Handmade matte-finished tiles reflected the beautiful colors of the vineyard setting. “They also were in keeping with antique quilts collected by the homeowner,” says Anderson.  A local metal fabricator made the two focal points in the room—the beautiful bronze hood and the pot rack that hangs over the butcher-block topped central island. “The pot rack has an industrial quality about it and helps create intimacy in a room where the ceiling peaks at over 20 feet,” says Anderson.  Special attention to the lighting in the room also helps the scale of the room.  “Lighting this high, dark space was tricky but essential,” says Anderson, “it created just the warmth we needed in an otherwise dim cavity.”