This Arizona Home Fuses Mediterranean Vibes + Modern Glamour

When it comes to architecture, each of us has our own sensibilities. But what happens when the personality of one’s ideal abode stands at odds with its overarching surroundings? That’s the situation in which one transplant couple with plans to build their own Scottsdale home found themselves. Located at the foothills of Pinnacle Peak with panoramic views of the desert, their perfect North Scottsdale neighborhood maintained strict guidelines: All residential exteriors should recall traditional Mediterranean architecture. Think terra-cotta roofs, stucco walls, rich millwork and rugged stone masonry.

The husband and wife, however, craved something “younger and hipper, with very sleek lines and a clean palette,” notes general contractor Anthony Salcito, who with interior designer Ashley Willoughby was tasked by the couple to harmonize this concept with the community’s standards. Their solution was to “blend traditional features with modern, chic elements to create this eclectic, transitional feel,” Willoughby describes.

To establish the home’s twofold balance, the couple turned to architect Scott Carson. Refining the design with team members Adam Kostis and Tom Bell, Carson sought to “create that combination of the old world and the new,” he explains. The final one-story structure’s exterior alludes to the Mediterranean, with its dark clay tile roof and stacked buff limestone walls. Yet the floor-to-ceiling glass windows and doors framed with sharp black metal mullions hint at the sleeker ambience waiting inside. The expanse of glass also “blurs the line between the indoors and outdoors, allowing the landscape to be a part of the interior in a modern way,” Carson notes.

Framing the vistas was paramount. Orienting the house along a true southwestern axis ensured that “Every major room enjoys sunset views, feeding off that southern sun during the winter and spring months,” Salcito describes. The zero-edge swimming pool and cabana became a focal point, where landscape designer Chad Norris cultivated lush beds ornamented with hardy ironwood and mesquite trees alongside specimen cacti like totem poles, organ pipes and Argentine toothpicks. Blending with the desert landscape beyond, it’s a “perfect collaboration of modern Mediterranean and Southwest design,” Norris says.

The couple anticipated many visits from their kids and extended family, so the interior unfurls around a great room into which the rest of the house flows. As such, guests can move effortlessly around the open living room and kitchen, trickling into adjacent social areas like the dining room and the bay-window breakfast nook.

Urbane finishes in stark, neutral hues help paint a visual cohesion throughout these fluid spaces. “Their personal taste was very much black and white, letting the outside scenery be the color,” Willoughby explains, “but we brought in a mixture of textures, so it doesn’t feel too flat.” See the living room’s bleached Douglas fir beams, the black Nero Marquina fireplace mantel and the inky swirls in the large-format porcelain tile that runs throughout the public spaces.

The kitchen’s contrasting surfaces follow suit, pairing ebonized rift-cut white oak cabinetry with high-gloss Nero Tormenta quartzite and white subway tiles. Crisp museum-white walls are swapped for bolder finishes in more private enclaves, like the crinkled-paper wallcovering enveloping the couple’s bedroom. The wife’s home office is the lone colorful outlier, with shades of marigold punctuating the silky metallic wallcovering and floral rug.

These rich textural dimensions continue through the contemporary furnishings. Marquee designs feature a “lot of curvy shapes that play with angles,” says Willoughby, pointing to the sculptural geometry of pieces like the living room’s leather sectional and undulating lacquered coffee tables. Accents of glass, chrome, nickel and lacquered wood glint with a glamorous, polished shine. Meanwhile, upholstery, textiles and rugs include “anything that has an interesting touch to it,” notes the designer, who favored velvets, bouclé, hair-on-hide, and swaths of leather with “specially engraved textures or very subtle patterns.” Above, glass bauble pendants and cut crystal chandeliers highlight the towering ceilings.

Stylish both indoors and out, the couple can now enjoy the best of both worlds—the Mediterranean desert elegance of their neighborhood alongside the sleek modernity of their interior. “They were thrilled with how everything turned out,” Willoughby says. “You could really feel that they were going to live and enjoy their home just as they had imagined.”