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"Embarking on a renovation project with your parents could be as comical as Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House -- or you might discover that your clients bear an occasional unsettling resemblance to the Macbeths. So when designer Darryl Carter&amp;#039;s parents, Richard and Jo, asked him to revamp the kitchen of their Georgian-style home in Potomac, Maryland, he recalls, &amp;quot;we had our discussion about how we were going to work together.&amp;quot;  Darryl, a former attorney, had been in business with his dad before. &amp;quot;We have similar personalities, which can be a struggle,&amp;quot; the designer admits. &amp;quot;The good news is he&amp;#039;s very decisive.&amp;quot; As for his mother, &amp;quot;she&amp;#039;s a therapist,&amp;quot; Darryl reports, &amp;quot;so I was cultivated to verbalize things. The pleasure of it is that we can be absolutely candid and openly critical.&amp;quot;  Still, parents and son began with distinctly divergent desires for the 515-square-foot space. &amp;quot;The one thing my father said was, &amp;#039;I don&amp;#039;t want a white kitchen,&amp;#039; &amp;quot; remembers Darryl, who has a predilection for, well, white kitchens. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m also a fan of mixing old and new,&amp;quot; Darryl observes. His parents&amp;#039; tastes, on the other hand, skew more contemporary. (When Darryl suggested vintage glass-domed pendants for the kitchen island, Jo put her foot down. &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s a certain tone in my mother&amp;#039;s voice when I know the matter is non-negotiable,&amp;quot; says the designer.)  So he approached things from the opposite end of the spectrum. &amp;quot;If they didn&amp;#039;t want a white kitchen,&amp;quot; he reasoned, &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d give them a black one.&amp;quot; Translation: white-oak custom cabinetry with an ebony finish. He specified ceiling-to-counter upper cabinets intentionally, Darryl says, because &amp;quot;my mother is a self-proclaimed pack rat.&amp;quot; Appliances now hide behind cabinet doors; a row of small drawers for plugs and miscellany replaces the normally vacant space underneath the overhead cabinetry. Carter fils also built plenty of storage into the prep island and located a small office behind double pocket doors next to the refrigerator. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s an unclutterable kitchen,&amp;quot; he says.  Darryl Carter also converted the kitchen from electric to gas and gained a foot of height by eliminating a dropped ceiling with translucent panels that had diffused overhead light. His &amp;quot;big inspiration,&amp;quot; he feels, was to bisect the kitchen with a wall of French doors. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t really like cavernous spaces, and I like a separate eating area, which feels much more intimate, not as casual as stools at an island.&amp;quot;  To bring texture and warmth to the potentially severe assortment of dark planes and blocky shapes, Darryl used tiny white subway-like tiles on backsplashes. Here, too, filial diplomacy was in order when father Richard decided he wanted gray grout instead of white. &amp;quot;It was such a simple decision, but would have changed everything,&amp;quot; says Darryl, whose choice of white prevailed.   The tiles -- along with the apron-front sink and crown molding -- add a sense of history, subtly referencing a turn-of-the-century restaurant or the grand kitchens of Victorian estates. Counters and island were surfaced with Carrara marble, which &amp;quot;is not for the faint-of-heart. This stone is not the most forgiving,&amp;quot; the designer notes. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s porous and it stains. But over time it gets this wonderful uniformity,&amp;quot; a patina that also enhances the old-world feel.  &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s not always easy with my son, who tends to be very visionary,&amp;quot; says mother Jo, &amp;quot;so the challenge was for him to translate what was in his head for my less visionary comfort. I had an occasional apprehension, but this is what he does for a living. Darryl managed to incorporate our functional needs into a beautiful environment.&amp;quot; What the Pros Know  &amp;quot;I wanted the walls to have a presence but not be overwhelming,&amp;quot; says Darryl Carter, who chose 1-by-4-inch Fiddle Stick &amp;quot;subway&amp;quot; tiles in Bright White. &amp;quot;I happened upon them when I was at Architectural Ceramics,&amp;quot; recalls the designer, who had already specified the standard 3-by-6-inch variety for the kitchen. &amp;quot;I think the appeal is that the smaller tiles feel very artisanal,&amp;quot; he says, &amp;quot;so they lend an authenticity and a sense of age.&amp;quot; The effect, he notes, is &amp;quot;like true porcelain.&amp;quot; The texture of the smaller tiles softens the kitchen&amp;#039;s austere palette and rigorously orthogonal layout. Furthermore, says Architectural Ceramics&amp;#039; showroom manager, Sonia Pinto, while more expensive, the minis are easier to work with because they are mounted on 11 12-by-7 34-inch synthetic mesh. &amp;quot;One application covers more area [than a single 3-by-6-inch tile],&amp;quot; she says, &amp;quot;and there&amp;#039;s less breakage.&amp;quot; Since discovering the tile, Carter has used it on several other projects. Click here to view resources "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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