30 Great Kitchen Design Ideas (2024)

Highlighting designer Annie Brahler's Dutch heritage, the kitchen in her Jacksonville, Illinois, house has a fireplaces adorned with 17th- and 18th-century Delft tiles and bluestone columns from Breda. The zinc architectural finial (at left), double-door cupboard, and bronze chandelier also come from Holland, where gray-painted floors like this are traditional. Brahler treasure the worn upholstery of her 18th-century French armchair. She beefed up a vintage demilune chest by adding rear cabinets and a marble top to create the central island. Stainless-steel range and hood by Thermador.

This tiny New York City kitchen has a place for everything, says designer Stephanie Stokes. "After designing so many kitchens for other people, I knew exactly what I needed and what I wanted," she says. A mirrored backsplash, an electric cooktop that doubles as countertop, and simple cabinetry help give the illusion of grandeur.

This modern-meets-maritime New York City kitchen designed by Anik Pearson uses a unique combination of wood, concrete, and metal to create its sleek and urban, yet nautical look. The wall to the right of the cooktop was angled to match the doorway — now this kitchen is shaped like a boat, with the cooktop at the prow. A crown ceiling painted white, with Harbor lights from Urban Archaeology casts a glow over the island.

Susan Ferrier designed the kitchen in this tranquil Alabama townhouse. "You don't want the eye to stutter in a small space," Ferrier says. "You want it to move naturally from one thing to the next, from similar color to similar color, from shape to shape."

The owner of this Napa Valley house is very involved with the arts, according to designer Erin Martin. In the kitchen, architecture and applied ornament conspire to make the the room lighthearted and a touch theatrical. Artist Michael Duté's blue and white design brings walls and even the barrel-vaulted ceiling to life.

Salvaged wood, raw steel, and glazed brick give a St. Helena, California, kitchen designed by Dan Doyle a sturdy, industrial look.

For decorative detail in this Nantucket kitchen, designer Gary McBournie studied vintage boating posters and old photographs. The wooden grills of the kitchen cabinets were taken from an old photo of a 1920s yacht.

In this bright kitchen in New York City designed by Incorporated Architecture & Design, contemporary materials evoke the spirit of 19th-century England.

In a 1920s Santa Monica, California, hacienda, David Dalton added hand painted Talavera tiles form Mission Tile West and a glass pendant from Global Views to brighten the kitchen, whose centerpiece is a 12-foot-long walnut-top island.

Designer Caitlin Wilson wanted to clean up and let in more light in this Gibbsboro, New Jersey, kitchen. Swirling grays and gleaming brass warm up the space.

In her Long Island, New York, house, Ellen Niven based her kitchen cabinets on Belgian cupboards. Her grisaille palette, with walls in Benjamin Moore Aura in Pike's Peak Gray, offers a subtle contrast to bright colors elsewhere in the house.

This New Jersey kitchen has a Zen simplicity, with watery green marble counters and handcrafted wood cabinets modeled after traditional Japanese storage pieces. "When you arrive, you open a gate and walk through a courtyard to get to this very compact one-story house, where all the rooms flow into each other," designer Marguerite Rodgers says. "The spirit of the place reminded me of a Japanese teahouse.

Rich woods in clean shapes, dark hues, and burnished surfaces play up the warm side of modern style in this New York City kitchen designed by Elena Frampton of Curated.

In Dianne Bernhard's Westport, Connecticut, kitchen, Plain & Fancy cabinets with Nantucket-style doors and blue-toned Caesarstone on top pick up the colors of the water just beyond the deck. "We really do live out here during the summer," Bernhard says. Ceiling is painted Benjamin Moore's Blue Springs.

In a Northern California mountain getaway designed by Will Wick, limestone countertops from exquisite surfaces were hand-distressed to give the space a lived-in look. A La Cornue stove and custom hood with copper accents command attention in the kitchen. Fiddlestick tiles by Ceramic Tile Design.

There's no rule that says a kitchen has to be just about cooking. This New Mexico kitchen by Judith Espinar, Jim Deville, and Scott Robey is painted in a cheery, sunbaked yellow that's a perfect backdrop for pottery and folk art.

Her New York City kitchen may be on the small side, but designer Sheila Bridges didn't let that cramp her style. An elegant silvery-blue wallpaper adds some unexpected excitement to a tiny space.

In a Manhattan apartment designed by Miles Redd, the kitchen is small, but owner Tom Mendenhall has no trouble making braised short ribs for eight in it. Cabinets are lacquered in Bamboo Leaf by Fine Paints of Europe, as was the roller shade by Manhattan Shade & Glass, which erases an exhaust unit. Even the Sub-Zero refrigerator is painted green.

In a Lake Michigan house designed by Martin Horner, the kitchen backsplash, from Urban Archaeology, is beautiful and practical. Open shelves for display break up the cabinetry in the kitchen. Blue mercury-glass pendants from Gallery L7 pick up the color theme. English sabre-leg counter stools from the Sterling Collection.