The spacious kitchen makes it ideal for entertaining.

The apartment originally crammed four closed rooms and a kitchen and bathroom into 1,000 square feet. After the renovation, it had only one bedroom and a large, open kitchen.

The large, naturally lit kitchen is the heart of the house. Messmate-clad cupboards and huge expanses of glass dominate the space where Angelucci uses the sink, Gorman works at the kitchen island, and Pepa and Hazel look on. Play in the courtyard between the kitchen and garage is easily supervised and enclosed from the alley behind the house.

Where the old kitchen was defined by a confining U shape, new doors now lead to a stair landing and the dining room.

A "before" view of the kitchen.

At a home about half an hour from Lake Tahoe, architect Jack Hawkins and interior designer Cheryl Chenault built a house that would support their clients’ unique requirements in a home that would be 8,000 to 10,000 square feet. In the kitchen, two islands, one in the shape of an L and the other a smaller rectangular island, are layered table over one portion create generous space to spread out. Norman Cherner barstools from Design Within Reach line the island in the kitchen, which is crowned by an open loft office. The faucets are from Dornbracht; the countertops are Caesarstone. Hawkins integrated a steel-clad casual eating nook, at left.

“We wanted as much built-in storage as we could fit in order to maximize the space and not have furniture getting in the way.” —Jonny Bauer, resident

Having the test kitchen in such close proximity to the production floor—literally sharing the same space—allows Henrybuilt to implement improvements quickly and effectively. Though this requires a little extra cleaning, it emphasizes the connection between the people building the product and those actually using it.

Get the whole family involved in the kitchen, whether it be teaching young ones a tried-and-true recipe or exploring a new dish together.

In this kitchen, an exposed brick wall stands out against the milky smoothness of the marble tile floors.

A utilitarian core contains the kitchen, bathroom, closet, and loft ladder. The kitchen’s walls are clad with recycled wooden boards trimmed with horizontal battens that hide the oven and refrigerator from view.

The clients and design team chose to forego an open floor plan in favor of defined, separated spaces. In this scheme, the vertically oriented spaces act as a cinematic "hard-cut" to their horizontal counterparts. The custom hot rolled steel kitchen, one of these vertical transition spaces, receives light from above through a Velux skylight. A GE Profile Induction cooktop and oven and Miele refrigerator complete the space.

Jean-Christophe Aumas’ multihued Paris apartment houses both the highly sought artistic director and the stunning assemblage of furniture he’s brought back from his travels. Aumas designed the kitchen island, which is covered in marble tiles from Carrelages du Marais—the geometric floor tiles are from the same place—and strung the matrix of lights up above it. The barstools by Charlotte Perriand were discovered in a vintage store in Antwerp, Belgium. The green wall is covered in paint from Emery & Cie.

At breakfast, Arthur multitasks while seated at the dining table. He hand-stenciled the pattern on the wall in the background.

Before Images

Exterior before renovation

Before: Living

Before: Living

Before: Entry / Stair

Before: Side Yard

Focusing on products made Stateside wasn’t Danny Seo’s first priority for his kitchen renovation—instead, he had one specific requirement: stainless-steel cabinets to replace the original, musty wood ones.

The original kitchen in the 1950 home was cramped and dingy, forcing architect Janet Bloomberg to reimagine the space and open it up to the rest of the living area.

The pair worked with the existing chunky fireplace and concrete floors.

Here's another before look at the kitchen and dining space. What's most amazing is that Bloomberg didn't move any rooms or alter the footprint of the house during her renovation. She merely modernized the existing layout and refreshed the furniture and fixtures.

Prior to the renovation, the kitchen had a cramped midcentury style.

The test kitchen is outfitted with their Opencase Wall System, configured with two pot racks and a sliding glass wall unit that includes integrated LED lighting. The Backsplash System is constructed of solid white acrylic and features a stainless steel shelf. Finally, the gray walnut island is finished with an impeccable tongue-and-groove paneling, a recent addition to Henrybuilt’s growing range of products.

O’Sullivan designed the ceiling “to have a knitted or woven quality like that of wool or silk.” It dives down over the kitchen and dining area, eventually reaching a point at the entry that is low enough to touch. Here, resident Jes Wood leans against the onyx kitchen island while her daughter Ruby hangs out. Replica Jean Prouvé chairs surround the dining table; a vase by Bruce and Estelle Martin for Kamaka Pottery sits on top. The Reel table under the television is by Atelier Oï for B&B Italia.

Just because your kitchen is on the smaller side doesn’t mean you can’t make it as efficient and effective as possible.

No whiteware here. In this moody apartment in Berlin, multi-toned charcoal gray subway tiles make up the backsplash, which contrasts with the pop of rosy color on the kitchen cabinets.

Make sure your kitchen fits seamlessly with the rest of your home. A good entertaining space should have a look that's consistent with the overall design, so use finishings, colors, and other elements that compliment the rest of the space.

A new kitchen at the front of the house completes the trifecta of reworked rooms on the main level. It fits nicely into the notion of balancing new and old elements throughout the house, with oak detailing married to exposed brick, offset by strip lamps. The Hee bar stools are by HAY, the Caravaggio P3 pendants are by Light Years, and the range oven is from Britannia.

Pros: Concrete countertops are durable, resistant to heat, and can be less expensive than natural stone, especially when completed as a DIY project. Cons: Concrete must be sealed before being used; otherwise, its porous nature means that it will stain very easily.

Their creative confections may ruin our diets, but we’re happy to be their taste testers anytime.

“The client wanted an interior space where you could read the materiality of the building elements like understanding the ingredients in a recipe,” principal architect Elizabeth Webster explains. The extension features distinctly textured materials: an exposed timber ceiling, painted brick walls, and polished concrete floors. Warm lighting by Brinklicht unifies the space.

In this sleek kitchen renovation in San Francisco, the kitchen backsplash is an easy-to-clean glass backsplash that mimics the glossy finish of the surrounding white cabinets. Painters accomplished the high-gloss finish on the cabinets of a kitchen in San Francisco by applying a coat of paint, polishing it with very high-grit sandpaper, repeating the process for each layer, then topping it with three coats of clear varnish. "It’s like an auto body," says builder Jeff King. "It’s incredibly beautiful." The island provides shelving space and storage as well as a second sink, an is topped with pietra grigio marble.

Built-in kitchen cabinets and a monolithic island help keep the space uncluttered. The wall ovens are from Gaggenau.