“Let’s challenge the expectation and help people expand their thinking,” he says. “Shoes, handbags, even steering wheels are leather—it’s a hard-wearing luxury material— why not use it in the kitchen; it only gets better with age.” These and some dramatically oversized panel fronts in copper and titanium finishes will be shown at KBIS, the annual kitchen and bath show in Las Vegas early next year.

The latter is favored by designers as both novel and a no-brainer. Kitchens can accumulate many surfaces, materials and finishes quickly; visually, that can be jarring. Repeating the backsplash tile on the hood provides both consistency and visual pow. This approach is especially useful in a smaller kitchen and easy to execute by running the tiles directly over an insert hood.

This move maximizes beauty by offering continuity of the chosen aesthetic. Larger kitchens can create a dramatic feature with this idea—think about the hand-painted scenics and tile murals seen in Mexican and Mediterranean kitchens. Even applying a single artful field tile opens up a world of options beyond metallic finishes.