It would have been easier to start from scratch, and some professionals might have recommended tearing down this 1,000-square-foot home in historic Webster Groves. But designer Joni Spear and her clients —  a young couple with a two-year-old – share a common zeal for ecological living. “They make their own kombucha, and they care about reducing their carbon footprint — and they desperately needed a functional kitchen,” Spear explains. 

One of Chris and Toni Pagano's oldest traditions is to get theirs sons and daughters-in-law together once a year to make classic Italian Scalili, a tradition that Toni has done every year of her life. It's a real family affair where they come together to cut and roll out the dough on Toni's heirloom cutting board and rolling pin, both of which have been in her family for more than 100 years. They laugh, they reminisce and they revel in their time spent together. That's how it's done at this home on The Hill, and it speaks volumes about the design of their kitchen. 

After enduring a two-year remodeling odyssey of major demolitions, Alex and Melissa Garza quite literally watched their dream home emerge from a pile of rubble. Transplants from Falls Church, Virginia, the couple had scoured the St. Louis listings for months before landing on the one — built, as it turns out, decades ago on a large secluded lot by renowned modernist architect Harris Armstrong.