Vote for the Best Kitchen in the Remodelista Considered Design Awards 2014: Professional Category

The phrase “best kitchen” can sound dangerously simple, like choosing the best cookie on a plate. Then you realize every cookie is handmade, architect-designed, and probably has better lighting than your living room. That was the delightful problem facing readers during the Remodelista Considered Design Awards 2014 Professional Category, where five standout kitchen projects competed for attention, admiration, and daily votes.

This was not a beauty contest for shiny countertops alone. The Best Kitchen Professional Category celebrated kitchens with real design intelligence: smart storage, warm materials, careful proportion, respect for old buildings, and enough personality to keep the room from looking like a showroom that forgot humans exist. Remodelista’s readers were invited to vote once a day through August 8, 2014, with winners announced shortly afterward. The finalist group included Medium Plenty, Mandy Graham Interior Design, Elizabeth Roberts Design/Ensemble Architecture, Space Exploration, and Emerick Architects.

Looking back now, the category feels like a time capsule of early-2010s kitchen design at its best. White and gray palettes were big, open shelving was having a major moment, integrated appliances were gaining favor, and designers were learning how to make kitchens feel both modern and personal. In short, the oven was hot, but the design thinking was hotter.

Why the 2014 Remodelista Kitchen Finalists Still Matter

The 2014 finalists show why professional kitchen design is not just about selecting cabinets and hoping the refrigerator behaves. A great kitchen has to solve practical problems while also shaping the emotional life of a home. It must handle chopping, spilling, gathering, homework, late-night cereal, holiday chaos, and the occasional dramatic search for the missing measuring spoon.

What made these Remodelista kitchens special was their restraint. None of the finalists shouted for attention. Instead, they used thoughtful materials, architectural memory, light, and proportion to create rooms that felt considered. That word matters. A considered kitchen is not merely expensive or fashionable. It is edited, intentional, and built around how people actually live.

In 2014, kitchen trends were moving toward cleaner lines, lighter palettes, contemporary and transitional design, quartz and stone surfaces, open shelves, integrated appliances, and better storage. The finalists reflected many of those ideas, but they did not follow trends blindly. They made the trends behave. That is the difference between a kitchen that ages gracefully and one that looks like it was assembled from a “hot ideas” list during a caffeine incident.

The Five Finalists in the Professional Kitchen Category

1. Medium Plenty: Cow Hollow Kitchen in San Francisco

Medium Plenty’s Cow Hollow Kitchen transformed part of a 1906 Edwardian home in San Francisco into a clean, modern space that still respected the older house. The project balanced a traditional architectural shell with a contemporary interior language. That balance is tricky. Go too modern, and the house feels like it is wearing someone else’s sneakers. Go too historical, and the room risks becoming a museum with a dishwasher.

The design used a restrained palette of white, wood, gray tones, steel, and carefully placed open shelving. One of the strongest features was the way the kitchen acknowledged the San Francisco Bay views. A long horizontal window above the work area allowed the scenery to become part of the room. Instead of overdecorating the kitchen, the designers let light, view, and material texture do the heavy lifting.

The kitchen also had a working butcher block at the end of the island, a concealed hood, banked refrigerator and oven storage, and refined steel shelving details. The result was polished but not precious. It felt like a kitchen for an art collector who cooks, not an art collector who orders takeout while admiring the backsplash.

2. Mandy Graham Interior Design: Graham Kitchen in Manhattan Beach

Mandy Graham’s Manhattan Beach kitchen was a study in timeless modernism. The house had a European sensibility, with simplicity, pale wood, integrated storage, and carefully controlled light. The project featured wide-plank Dinesen Douglas-fir floors and Bulthaup aluminum cabinetry, creating a calm and highly edited atmosphere.

One of the most memorable details was the way storage disappeared into tall built-ins. The refrigerator and small appliances were integrated, helping the kitchen flow naturally into the living and dining areas. This was open-plan design with manners. The room knew it was part of a larger home and did not need to clatter visually like a drawer full of mismatched cutlery.

The kitchen’s 14-foot-high skylight brought in natural light from above, giving the space a quiet drama. A single floating shelf and furniture-like cabinetry kept the design from feeling overloaded. For homeowners who love minimalism but still need a place to hide cereal boxes, this project offered a master class in making storage look serene.

3. Elizabeth Roberts Design/Ensemble Architecture: Crosby Loft in New York

The Crosby Loft kitchen proved that small kitchens can have enormous presence. Designed by Elizabeth Roberts Design/Ensemble Architecture, the project used a pink marble counter, backsplash, and integral sink as its visual centerpiece. In a world where many kitchens were still whispering “white subway tile,” this one arrived with a marble flourish and said, politely but firmly, “I have entered the conversation.”

The island and open shelf above the sink were built from the same wide-plank boards used on the loft floors, helping connect the kitchen to the surrounding architecture. Stainless steel surfaces and a Corian countertop added contrast and practicality. The combination of marble, wood, steel, and compact planning made the kitchen feel glamorous without wasting space.

This finalist is especially useful for anyone designing a city apartment kitchen. It shows that scale is not destiny. A smaller kitchen can still feel luxurious if the materials are chosen carefully, the lines are clean, and every surface earns its keep. The secret is not adding more. The secret is making fewer moves, then making those moves excellent.

4. Space Exploration: Schoolhouse Loft in Brooklyn

Space Exploration’s Schoolhouse Loft kitchen ultimately won the Best Professional Kitchen award, and it is easy to see why. The loft had once been two classrooms in a Williamsburg school building, complete with dramatic ceiling height and historic character. The challenge was to create a kitchen that felt intimate and practical inside a very tall, open volume.

The design used black cabinetry, gray countertops, open shelving, vintage furniture, and a long light fixture to bring warmth and scale to the space. Instead of fighting the room’s height, Space Exploration used it. The kitchen became grounded at the base, lighter toward the top, and visually connected to the loft’s classical details.

The winning design also had serious cooking credibility. The kitchen was created for a young family, and one family member was an avid cook. Custom millwork, durable surfaces, and a well-worn Garland stove gave the room a professional, lived-in spirit. This was not a kitchen pretending to be useful for a photo shoot. It was a kitchen built to work, gather, cook, and survive the beautiful mess of family life.

5. Emerick Architects: Old Salty in Seaside, Oregon

Emerick Architects’ Old Salty kitchen may have been the most charming underdog in the group. The project centered on a 1910 beach cabin in Seaside, Oregon, once considered nearly a teardown. Instead of erasing its history, the architects rescued its character with beadboard, vintage finds, native-fir shelves, a farm sink, brass details, and a garage-sale stove that looked as if it had been waiting decades for its comeback scene.

The kitchen embraced secondhand and vintage elements, proving that professional design does not have to mean sterile perfection or wallet-emptying extravagance. A Craigslist vintage refrigerator, open shelves, reclaimed details, and a careful palette gave the room an authentic coastal personality. It felt sunny, efficient, and easy to use.

Old Salty offered a lesson that remains relevant: sometimes the best kitchen design starts by listening to the building. The cabin did not need a sleek urban kitchen dropped into it like a spaceship. It needed repair, warmth, and a respectful sense of play. The result was a room with soul, and soul is one kitchen feature that cannot be ordered overnight.

What Readers Were Really Voting For

At first glance, readers were voting for a favorite kitchen. But in a deeper sense, they were voting for values. Did they prefer the artful restraint of Medium Plenty? The polished minimalism of Mandy Graham? The compact glamour of Elizabeth Roberts? The architectural warmth of Space Exploration? The vintage rescue mission of Emerick Architects?

Each project represented a different answer to the question: What should a modern kitchen be? For some, the answer was calm and invisible storage. For others, it was material richness in a small urban footprint. For others, it was adaptive reuse, historic sensitivity, or clever budget-minded restoration. That variety is what made the category interesting. There was no single formula, no universal “best,” and thankfully no requirement that every kitchen include a bowl of lemons staged with suspicious perfection.

Design Lessons from the 2014 Professional Kitchen Category

Let the House Speak First

The strongest finalists responded to their buildings. Medium Plenty respected an Edwardian home while opening it to modern living. Space Exploration worked with the drama of a former schoolhouse. Emerick Architects restored the beach-cabin feeling of a 1910 structure. A kitchen remodel succeeds when it does not treat the rest of the house as background noise.

Use Trends Carefully

Open shelving, gray tones, white palettes, integrated appliances, and clean-lined cabinetry were all popular in 2014. The finalists used these ideas, but with discipline. Open shelves appeared as part of a broader storage strategy, not as a dare to display every mug ever purchased. Gray and white were warmed by wood, brass, marble, vintage pieces, or natural light.

Make Storage Beautiful but Ruthless

A kitchen can look airy and still work hard. Mandy Graham’s tall built-ins, Medium Plenty’s organized appliance wall, and Space Exploration’s custom millwork show that storage is not the enemy of elegance. In fact, smart storage is often what allows elegance to survive Tuesday dinner.

Balance Function and Feeling

The best kitchens are technical and emotional at the same time. They need good work zones, durable surfaces, lighting, ventilation, and appliance placement. But they also need mood. A kitchen should feel good at breakfast, during dinner prep, and during the mysterious midnight moment when someone stands in the glow of the refrigerator considering cheese.

Why Space Exploration’s Schoolhouse Loft Won

Space Exploration’s winning kitchen combined difficulty, beauty, and usefulness. The room had unusual proportions, a historic shell, and a real family brief. Rather than flattening those conditions, the design turned them into strengths. The black cabinetry gave the room a grounded base. Gray counters provided durability and restraint. Open shelves added lightness. Vintage furniture and a long fixture brought the ceiling height back into human scale.

The result felt modern but not cold, historic but not nostalgic, and practical without becoming plain. That is a rare balance. Many kitchens manage two of those qualities. This one managed all three while making a former classroom feel like the heart of a home. No wonder readers responded.

How to Apply These Ideas in Your Own Kitchen Remodel

You do not need a Brooklyn loft, a San Francisco bay view, or a 1910 beach cabin to learn from these kitchens. Start with the bones of your space. What is already good? Light? Ceiling height? Old floors? A window? A weird corner with potential? Build from there.

Next, decide what the kitchen needs to do daily. A family kitchen may need durable counters and hidden storage. A compact apartment kitchen may need one strong material moment instead of many small decorative gestures. A vacation cottage may benefit from open shelves, vintage fixtures, and simple finishes that can handle sandy feet and relaxed weekends.

Finally, edit. The Remodelista finalists were not impressive because they had everything. They were impressive because they knew what to leave out. Good design is often the art of saying no before the room starts looking like a catalog had a garage sale.

Experience Notes: What This Award Category Teaches About Living with a Kitchen

When thinking about the Vote for the Best Kitchen in the Remodelista Considered Design Awards 2014 Professional Category topic from a real-life experience perspective, one thing becomes clear: people do not fall in love with kitchens because of one expensive finish. They fall in love with how the room behaves. A kitchen that looks perfect but makes cooking awkward is like a gorgeous chair you cannot sit in. Admire it if you must, but do not invite it to dinner.

One practical experience many homeowners discover during a remodel is that storage decisions matter more than they expected. Open shelving looks relaxed and editorial, especially when it holds handmade bowls and not six plastic water bottles from three different sports seasons. But open shelving works best when there is enough closed storage elsewhere. The 2014 finalists understood this balance. They used open shelves as accents, not as punishment for people who own snacks.

Another lesson is that lighting can completely change the personality of a kitchen. Natural light from a skylight, a horizontal window, or tall loft windows can make simple materials feel rich. Artificial lighting also matters. A dropped pendant or long fixture can visually lower a tall space and make it feel more intimate. Under-cabinet lighting can save dinner prep from becoming a shadowy guessing game called “Is This Basil or Spinach?”

Materials also tell stories. In the Old Salty kitchen, vintage and secondhand pieces created instant character because they carried a sense of history. In the Crosby Loft, pink marble introduced glamour and individuality. In the Schoolhouse Loft, darker cabinetry and durable counters helped the kitchen feel grounded inside a soaring room. The experience here is simple: choose materials not only for how they photograph, but for what they say about the home.

For anyone voting on kitchens, studying kitchens, or planning a remodel inspired by the Remodelista awards, the smartest approach is to look beyond first impressions. Ask how the kitchen handles cooking, storage, cleaning, gathering, and aging. Does it fit the architecture? Does it invite use? Does it have a point of view? A truly great kitchen does not need to scream. It can speak in a lower voice and still win the room.

That is why the 2014 professional category remains valuable years later. It reminds us that the best kitchen is not always the biggest, newest, brightest, or most expensive. Sometimes it is the one that solves the hardest problem with the most grace. Sometimes it is the one that lets an old building breathe again. And sometimes, gloriously, it is the one with a vintage stove that can still cook Thanksgiving dinner like a champ.

Conclusion

The Remodelista Considered Design Awards 2014 Best Kitchen Professional Category offered more than five attractive kitchen projects. It presented five different philosophies of professional design: preservation, minimalism, compact luxury, adaptive reuse, and character-rich restoration. Space Exploration’s Schoolhouse Loft took the winning title, but each finalist delivered lessons worth stealing respectfully.

For readers, designers, and homeowners, the enduring message is clear: a great kitchen is considered from every angle. It honors the architecture, supports daily life, edits visual clutter, and adds just enough personality to feel memorable. The best kitchen is not the one that tries hardest to impress. It is the one that makes you want to cook, gather, linger, and maybe finally organize that drawer of mystery utensils.