Sunny delight

“Choose one element that you love” and work from there, she recalls interior designer Margaret Morfit telling her. “It can be the flooring or a piece of fabric -- anything.”

Thus began the design of a room that’s as inviting as it is functional and eco-friendly. The kitchen’s sunny personality comes from a yellow shade of ocher that delivers warmth even when Maine skies are gray and the ocean is stormy.

The homeowner focused on a piece of ceramic tile. “When Margaret told me that I needed a jumping-off place for the design, I knew it was this tile by Ann Sacks,” she says. “The sensibility I wanted was that of a warm farmhouse, Italian-influenced, but contemporary,” she continues. “I love rich, saturated colors.”

She and her husband have long vacationed on the southern coast of Maine. When they bought a piece of land there, they seized the opportunity to build the green home they had always wanted. Designed by Portland architect Richard Renner, the house, a five-bedroom contemporary Shingle style, was completed a little over a year ago. Besides dramatic views, it’s situated to maximize solar power and features radiant heat under the floors, triple-glazed windows with UV coating, solar-heated hot water, 9-inch-thick walls for extra insulation, an enclosed bridge/hallway that joins the house to the garage, and a flock of chickens in their own fenced-in yard.

The open kitchen, which has sitting and dining areas at the bottom of the ell, features only minimal overhead cabinets (to make the room feel more spacious), power in the cooking island, and a large pantry. The kitchen’s overall space, including the sitting and dining areas and pantry, measures about 670 square feet.

For the kitchen design specifics, the homeowner turned to South Freeport’s Morfit, who has long collaborated with Renner’s firm. “The homeowner and I began working together at the ideal point in the process: while the house was still in plans,” Morfit says.

The yellow diamond-pattern tile forms the backsplash behind the working counter. The hue is echoed on the wooden cabinets, which are made of birch; the lower cabinets, including those on the island, are painted “Semolina” and the upper ones “Buttermilk” (both paint colors are by Benjamin Moore). A rustic yet sophisticated sensibility informs the kitchen’s other materials: Countertops are made of a dark, honed stone from Walker Zanger known as “leathered granite,” while the flooring is character-rich recycled oak. The reused materials are in concert with the homeowners’ other eco-friendly choices for the kitchen, which include built-in recycling bins.

“There’s plenty of wood color in that beautiful recycled floor,” Morfit says. “It’s hard to compete with that, so we chose to paint the few upper, as well as the lower, cabinets. The location of dining and sitting areas were driven by the view, and we got another pop of the ocher yellow with delightful little high-intensity pendants descending over the island and one section of counter.

“Once you get one thing you love,” Morfit explains, “the colors will translate to the whole.”

The choice of brushed stainless steel for the wall ovens, dishwasher, refrigerator, cooktop and hood, faucets, and drawer pulls gives the space a clean and streamlined -- but not high-gloss -- finish. The furniture in the sitting and dining areas is a happy mix of inherited family pieces and a few new things, and a fireplace shares a wall with a flat-screen TV that the

homeowner watches while she cooks.

She and her husband have now experienced the house through all four seasons, but this room’s design never gets old. “Each time we use the kitchen, we are still surprised by how well everything in the space works,” she says.

Regina Cole is a freelance writer in Gloucester. Send comments to magazine@globe.com.