Photo by Werner Segarra

IDEA FILE

Some people travel south of the border and bring back vanilla beans and recipes for enchiladas. Stephanie Vujovich brought back food for thought. An interior designer, she was inspired by an old Mexican kitchen tradition, and adopted it for use in the Hacienda-style home she and husband Joe were building in north Scottsdale.

Many traditional Mexican cocinas had arched and open areas under their cooktops, she says. They were necessities in homes that did not have running water, often holding containers of water, and they also were used for storing cookware, she adds. In the Vujovich kitchen, a tiled arch set beneath the cooktop is home to a collection of copper pots.

Joe created a hanging rod from recycled wrought-iron for several pots and their covers, and a rack for others to sit upon. “I love the idea of architectural authenticity, plus the accessibility of the pans,” his wife reports.

The tiled niche does serve a utilitarian storage purpose. “I have no upper cabinets,” she explains, and where one might have installed cabinets—at the sides of the arch—there are ovens instead.

So, this solution killed three birds—display, storage and accessibility—with one stone, so to speak. Its charm is a bonus.

GETTING THE LOOK:
1. Cooktop 
2. Mexican Talavera tiles 
3. Copper pots and lids suspended from "S" hooks 
4. Wrought-iron rack