Portrait by David Fenton

When they were dating, Deborah and Kevin Malone loved reminiscing about the kinds of houses they had lived in as kids—she in Arizona and he in Virginia. “When we met, we could draw the floor plans for every house we grew up in,” a smiling Deborah admits.

While some might say this house talk was not the usual stuff of courtship, it definitely had a hint of the prophetic.

Today, parents of five and grandparents, the Malones are the force behind JP Malone Construction Inc. The Arizona custom home design/build enterprise has won high praise from local clients and national recognition from the building industry as well. Among its several awards, in 2001 the company was named one of America’s Best Builders by the National Association of Home Builders and Builder magazine.

Kevin had gained a wealth of experience in all phases of construction as a project manager in the commercial building field. He became a framing contractor and founded JP Malone in 1983, and started building custom homes in 1988 after becoming a general contractor. Deborah, who had worked for a title company, came on board in 1991 and is the firm’s chief designer. The two have designed and built 214 homes in Arizona, and construct eight to 10 luxury residences a year.

Theirs is a full-service/one-stop business, in which the Malones work with a client to conceive the architectural design and interiors of a home, right down to the custom cabinetry and hardware, which they create. The all-inclusive process simplifies things for prospective homeowners, the couple notes, and fulfills the Malones’ promise that the houses will be unique and “livable works of art.”
 
Scottsdale resident Sharon Morley has found all of the above to be true. She and her husband, Jeff, had engaged the Malones to design and build a Spanish Colonial-style home, one with a “wow” kitchen. “They listen to their clients. They ooze ideas,” Sharon says of these Masters of the Southwest. “And your home is a work of art, unique. They won’t build another one like it.”

Deborah speaks of the individuality of the residences she and her husband undertake in artistic terms. “The site is the canvas on which we paint the home, and no two canvases are the same,” she offers.

The Malones’ own north Scottsdale residence—a mix of rustic comfort, understated luxury and modern convenience—is an example of both livability and uniqueness. The two call the style of their house Arizona Ranch, and liken it to an old structure that has been rebuilt. “It’s like on a ranch, where they sold off the land and what was left was the barn,” Deborah explains. “We re-created the barn.” Pointing to the room’s beams, Kevin says, “They are hand-planed old-growth Douglas fir and would have gone to a landfill.” The corrugated-metal ceiling came from a Willcox, Ariz., barn.

Such reclaimed materials “bring the character of the old into our new architecture,” Deborah comments. One Scottsdale client, Charles Hikes, who had built a house with JP Malone in the past, is doing so again, and going to great lengths to obtain old character in his and wife Jody’s Arizona farmhouse-style dwelling. “We bought an old barn from Connecticut,” Hikes says. “It’s being shipped to us, and we’ll use the timbers from it inside the house.”

For the Malones, a house must fulfill their objectives of fine craftsmanship reminiscent of a former time—a lost art, they believe—and also a sense of timelessness.

This dwelling or any other the couple may build should be able to answer the following question with a “yes” answer, according to Deborah: “In a hundred years, will people still consider this cool?”

Photo by Michael Woodall Rustic pavers lead to a copper-strap gate and entry courtyard beyond.

Photo by Michael Woodall Instead of a living room, Kevin and Deborah Malone opted for a library. “It’s a quiet place for kids to do homework and for parents to lounge,” Deborah says. The salvaged metal spiral stairway leads to a loft office.