Designer Lauren McKay’s clients wanted to build a custom home. But after spending eighteen months interviewing several home builders, the couple couldn’t agree on what they wanted their home to look like let alone who should build it. “The whole process just felt incredibly long and tedious,” the homeowner says. Faced with a crossroads, the couple decided that purchasing an existing home would be the next best step. After looking at a few in the area, one finally caught their eyes. “We saw the potential the moment we walked in,” says the homeowner of the eight-thousand-square-foot home in Durham. “It looks over this beautiful pool and rose garden.”

Despite its great bones, the home still needed a major uplift in key spaces such as the kitchen and master bathroom. The homeowners enlisted the help of builder Doug Greene of Tobacco Road Custom Builders and Twila Heiner of KB Express, who drew the renderings of the made-over kitchen to install updated and more modern spaces. “We’ve always been drawn to all-white kitchens, so we knew that was what we wanted,” the homeowner says.

“But we also love to travel, especially to the Mediterranean, and we wanted that incorporated into the design, too.” Upon Greene’s recommendation, the homeowners hired designer Lauren McKay to help with the interior design of the home, including the renovation of the kitchen and master bathroom. “They sent me a ton of inspiration images and it was easy to see that everything was white, bright, and crisp and airy,” McKay says. “There was no question about what color the cabinetry should be.” Allen & Sons Cabinet Shop designed the custom, streamlined cabinetry with a custom finish, which McKay complemented with maintenance-free quartz counters. The designer, though, wanted to incorporate the Mediterranean aesthetic the homeowners were drawn to, which she did by adding the Moroccan-inspired backsplash accent tile. The laser-cut geometric-wood pattern inlay in Carrara marble tile brings a touch of warmth to the all-white kitchen while also accenting the brass hardware and faucet.

In the master bathroom, the design team continued that same Mediterranean aesthetic with a patterned porcelain floor tile that was reminiscent of what the clients had seen while traveling through Europe. From there, the team complemented with warm, wood accents such as the custom distressed wood vanity with black trim by Allen & Sons and a chandelier with wood accents by Generation Lighting. The grid design on the shower was inspired by images the homeowners had pulled from Pinterest. “We wanted a soft, industrial look to the shower,” the homeowner says.

The overhaul of these two spaces completely transformed and influenced the design of the rest of the home. “We knew what we wanted but just couldn’t pull it together alone,” the homeowner says. “Lauren and Tobacco Road Custom Builders were able to bring it all to fruition and it looks amazing. Better than we imagined.”