What’s better than a house with one great kitchen? A house with four, obviously.

“One of the most common questions we’ve been asked about this home is if the house has four kitchens,” laughs Alanna Dunn, a senior designer at Calgary firm Reena Sotropa In House Design Group, who helped tackle the design of an ultra-luxe, 8,761-square-foot, six-bedroom custom estate for developer Maillot Homes. While the short answer to the kitchen-count query would be ‘yes,’ the truth is slightly more nuanced than that: there’s one formal kitchen, one pantry kitchen, one butler’s kitchen and a bar kitchen.

But whatever way you slice it, there’s plenty of room here to cook up a storm. Here are our biggest design lessons from this unique, multi-kitchen home.

A large kitchen with luxe bronze light fixtures and a grey wood island
Phil Crozier

1. Get splashy with the backsplash

In the main kitchen, stone has been installed with a unusual sloping, scalloped edge, drawing the eye upward to the industrial-glam custom hood vent.

The butler's kitchen includes black cabinetry and a gold bar cart
Phil Crozier

2. Storage can be beautiful

In the butler’s kitchen, there are dozens of cabinets and drawers for storage. But while it’s a highly functional space, this area still gets a hit of glamour thanks to refined gold hardware and crisp white countertops.

Close up on the blue decorative tile in this kitchen
Phil Crozier
This kitchen is full of decorative tiles in shades of blue
Phil Crozier

3. Pair punchy, patterned tile with soothing neutral millwork

The cool matte grey cabinetry is a modern, neutral contrast to the ornate counter-to-ceiling tile-work in the secondary kitchen.

Gold light fixtures are the fixture of this kitchen
Phil Crozier

4. Shake up the lighting

Pendant lights and cabinet underlights are the usual go-tos in kitchen design, but here, the Reena Sotropa team employed gold sconces, too, to add another sophisticated layer of light.

This kitchen features herringbone cabinetry and a mirror behind the counter
Phil Crozier

5. Magnify light with a mirror
In the bar, mirrored panels act as a backsplash to help amplify the light (and help your favourite home-barflies catch the game via the reflected TV).

Photos by Phil Crozier.