Transforming Tradition in Award-Winning Kitchen

When asked to create a kitchen for House Beautiful’s Whole Home 2023 project in a Chicago suburb, the designers at McCroskey Interiors knew they needed a Carlisle wide plank floor. House Beautiful’s annual Whole Home projects showcase the latest trends, innovations, styles and ideas in home design and construction.  Collaborating with lead builders, architects, designers and brands, the magazine builds or renovates a house each year to highlight new materials, color schemes and technology trends that promote thoughtful living and sustainability.

For its sixth annual project in 2023, the magazine chose a 13,000-square-foot home in Hinsdale, Illinois. Built by David Adler, an early 20th-century architect known for his traditionalist work in and around Chicago, the house needed a renovation to accommodate a contemporary lifestyle while honoring its historical bones, European roots and quirky charm.

House Beautiful partnered with Julie Laux and her build-design team, J. Jordan Homes, to lead the renovation and selected 13 women-led teams from around the country to handle the renovation. McCroskey Interiors was one of them. The designers doubled the size of the kitchen by removing two walls separating the kitchen from the pantry and a window-filled hallway to add natural light and create a bright, airy, welcoming space.  Two showstopping islands provided stunning visuals and highly organized cooking areas.  A Gothic-inspired arch above the cooking area framed a backsplash of Calacatta Turquoise Antique Marble, veining in plum and gold.

“Once we added the Calacatta Turquoise Antique Marble to the mix, we knew we needed a timeless and beautiful floor,” said the Mcroskey designers. They opted for an engineered White Oak wide plank floor from Carlisle.  “When selecting a floor, one can never go wrong with a White Oak.  It’s a timeless, beautiful solution that fits the entire space and enhances our design.”. Carlisle craftsmen prepared 863 square feet of Heirloom grade engineered White Oak floorboards in 8″ widths and random lengths of 2′ – 12′ with 3/4′ thickness.  The boards were crafted with soft edges and a smooth, clear extra matte finish.  Carlisle’s White Oak is NWFA/NOFMA certified to ensure our clients that we are producing flooring to industry-specific guidelines.

The 11-layer construction of Carlisle’s engineered flooring provided the durability the McCroskey team desired. Carlisle’s hands-on production process produces higher-quality boards, and a thicker wear layer on the surface of each plank can be refinished several times, just like solid hardwood floors.  Carlisle engineered floors are certified refinishable by the NWFA Engineered Wood Flooring Refinishable Program.
 
Designer: McCroskey Interiors
Design Build:  J. Jordan Homes
Photographer:  Nate Sheets
 
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