40 WINTER 2026 BELOW THE BRIGHT, T R A D I T I O N A L KITCHEN PAIR S S I L E S T O N E COUNTERTOPS A N D BACKSPLASH W I T H A DEKTON CHE C K E R B O A R D FLOOR, ALL S O U R C E D FROM COSEN T I N O . The space sets the stage for what’s yet to unfold throughout the home: traditional moldings, light-filled rooms and an elevated mix of vintage pieces and historic New Zealand artwork. Photographs of M ā ori women greet guests upon entry, while ancestral portraits of the husband’s family hang on the living room walls. The infusion of the husband’s art continues with a Charles Frederick Goldie painting of M ā ori chief Te Kamaka atop the coffee table and two carved door jambs from a M ā ori assembly house serving as sculptural guardians flanking the window wall. On either side of the room, glass bifold doors create a flexible plan, closing in to an intimate cocoon or opening to link it with the library, kitchen and den. “The idea was that it could shift from quiet rooms to a grand loft, simply by opening the doors,” the architect explains. Steimberg took this open-plan concept one step further in the kitchen and den, removing the wall between the cooking space and former library to create a generous family hub, intentionally keeping it very bright and white. Custom cabinetry climbs to ten-foot tin ceilings, reached by a rolling ladder. A gray-and- white-checkerboard floor grounds the space in classical style while still feeling fresh. In the den, a marble antique fireplace brings a jewel-box moment of European classicism. “By making this space all one room, it becomes a beautiful working place,” Steimberg notes. “But it’s also cozy and luminous.”