Award-Winning Design for Kitchen and Dining Room

For the second year in a row, I have the privilege of being named HGTV Designer of the Year, winning Editor’s pick for a kitchen and dining room I revamped from boring to glamorous in the Boston area.

Here’s the story behind the project. My client was a single mom turned empty-nester who was finally ready to have a kitchen that was an exciting place to entertain. But she was on a budget. Undeterred, we found design solutions to turn her ‘80s kitchen with a dropped ceiling into a sexy setting for dinner parties. 

First, we kept the existing cabinet boxes, had new solid, flat doors made, and painted it all light gray. We demolished a wall of cabinets and instead made the existing pantry (shown below) more functional, brought some of the upper cabinets into that space for extra storage and used (less expensive) open shelving. We also found budget-friendly cabinet hardware, Urban Modern by Emtek.

The big splurge in the space was on the island: the stone, a white soapstone marble and the gold tile by Ann Sacks as well as the Tom Dixon Beat pendant lights. Here we are deciding the layout of the different pendants.

In the dining room, my client kept her Ikea table but who cares when you’re looking at the gorgeous gold ceiling, the Jonathan Adler chandelier, and the Gubi Beetle chairs, which are my favorite because they’re comfortable and can be customized in any fabric or color. We saved money on the affordable rug by Loloi and recovered the Danish couch in Black Edition by Romo fabrics. There was no need for window treatments because the home is in a private area.

In the breakfast nook, we dressed it up with Christian Lacroix fabric butterfly parade -- a real wow with butterflies.

All of which is to say…you don’t have to splurge on everything to have an award-winning design. Thanks, HGTV and Boston Globe Magazine for featuring this gorgeous project.