The kitchen is often the heart of the home—where people not only cook and eat but also work and entertain. These winning designs are functional, beautiful, and innovative. Take a look at the full list of winners here, and view the 2025 Sunset Western Home & Design Directory here.
Heidi Caillier Design: Best Moody, Low-Light Kitchens
Photo courtesy of Haris Kenjar
Washington-based Heidi Caillier has become one of America’s most in-demand interior designers because of her confidence with pattern mixing and unique details, from elaborate millwork to rare Italian tile to antique carved marble sinks. Before she moved to Tacoma, Caillier lived and worked in San Francisco, which made her an absolute expert in fixing one tricky type of room that can stump other less intrepid designers: a kitchen with tiny windows. Instead of fighting against the lack of light, she embraces the dark side with rich Old World colors, unique marble, and excellent directional sconces and pendants.
Audrey Scheck Design: Best Western Kitchen
Photo by Karissa Widder
Scheck, who is based in Austin, Texas, has a way with fieldstone, shiplap, and classic hardware, details essential to timeless kitchen design. Like the rest of her work, this West Lake Hills kitchen feels earthy and grounded without leaning too “country”—a combination that will withstand the test of time.
Mandy Cheng Design: Best Outside-the-Box Kitchen
Photo by Madeline Tolle
Cheng refuses to treat where we prepare and eat food as sterile, function-before-form spaces. “I love to entertain, and I know that everyone always ends up in the kitchen at my house. Why shouldn’t it be just as vibrant and fun as the rest of the home?” While the seasoned L.A.-based designer specializes in full-house remodels and understands the impulse to default to white quartz counters and steel appliances, she encourages clients to embrace a more playful approach with more temporary elements.
Heliotrope Architects: Best Masterful, Minimal Kitchen
Photo by Kyle Johnson
Seattle-based Heliotrope is a champion of midcentury-inspired simplicity. You won’t find a single wasted gesture or superfluous detail in any of its work, which includes restaurants, retail, and residential projects around the Pacific Northwest. Heliotrope’s kitchens, however, are a master class in restraint and flow, prioritizing low, under-counter storage to preserve unobstructed views. Its work is heavy on concrete, brick, and stone, but the effect is never cold. And the firm embraces indoor-outdoor space, installing generous windows and glass doors that slide open to remove the barrier between the two.
Ali Henrie Design: Best Classic Kitchen
Photo courtesy of Katie Perkes Photography
Utah-based Ali Henrie creates the kind of light-filled, generous spaces that people like to spread out and get cozy in, and her kitchens really highlight her attention to detail and comfort. Generous custom cabinetry, plenty of seating, and a palette of soft neutrals like cloud gray and celadon green are some of her secrets to keeping kitchen chaos to a minimum.
