Meet our esteemed panel of Kitchens of the Year judges: 

Julie Baum, BaumHouse Design, LLC

Alspaugh Kitchen & Bath and Johnson Design collaborated to design a three-room kitchen suite for a serious cook with a penchant for food as entertainment and hosting large gatherings. Contemporary finish materials and details combined with meticulous panel alignment and sizing result in a perfectly balanced and clean transitional design. The kitchen suite consists of a kitchen, butler’s pantry and dirty kitchen. The design is unified by the 9-foot high, warm gray-stained, rift white oak cabinetry with split-panel drawer fronts.

The design for the kitchen in this new home was to be bright and fresh with unique details. The homeowners built the home with the intention to be their last home. Early planning with the architect and kitchen designer Gegg Design & Cabinetry was crucial to make all the pieces come together. The island is front and center and finished in a bold green gloss paint. The green was based off a European paint produced in Holland. The island seats four with chairs in coordinating fabrics. The perimeter cabinets were kept simple in a white painted finish.

This newly built home follows a classic architectural form with formal spaces and lasting details. The kitchen design was to coordinate with the style of the home with plenty of wall space. Because the space was so large, designer Gegg Design & Cabinetry divided the kitchen space so that it didn’t feel too open. A new and separate butler’s pantry was added between the kitchen and dining room. This reduced the size of the kitchen but added separation from the formal dining room.

A Webster Groves home had a new addition that added square footage to the house but lacked flow and left the kitchen with little space for storage. Thick, cumbersome walls were added as part of the addition. The homeowner worked with Karr Bick Kitchen + Bath to create a new design that would better fit her needs. The new design moved an old window up so that the perimeter could extend further and offer new sink placement under the window instead of in an island. The designer chose soft white cabinets and a distressed walnut top for the island to accent the white farmhouse shaker sink.

Alspaugh Kitchen & Bath designed this beautiful 440-square-foot kitchen and personalized it perfectly to the owner’s request. The clients wanted a fully appointed kitchen that incorporated seating, accommodated multiple cooks and had interior accessories such as pull-out spice storage, pull-out trash and recycling, tray dividers, large drawers for pots and pans and cutlery dividers for silverware. The biggest challenge in the design was the large scale of the space and the demand for a large focal point.