Blessing in Disguise

A designer learns you can't always turn your dreams into reality—but what you end up with might be even better.

- BY KATE MCGREGOR

LAUREN GARDNER of Canyon Collected Design was set on having double islands in the kitchen of her 1894 Victorian vernacular home. But as the gut renovation took shape, it proved difficult to fit them into a functional layout. Instead, she added a butcher block table to the end of a quartzite island.