Dueling Kitchens from Design Star Challenge 2

By Vern Yip

For the second Design Star challenge, the designers had to remodel a kitchen. They were separated into two teams, each having 28 work hours and a budget of $10,000 to complete the project. Kitchens are widely considered the most difficult room to renovate, especially within the context of budget and time. Unfortunately, kitchens also happen to be one of the rooms that homeowners use most often, which increases the importance of designing and executing smartly and with skill. As one of the judges, here are my tips for some things the teams did right and wrong and how you can apply them to your space.

The Sturtridge kitchen and associated eating area that Neeraja, Josh J., Kim, Adriana and Scott were assigned possesses some great elements, including wonderful cabinets, a decent layout and an interesting feature wall composed of large-scale stones.

The main and dominating existing issue is the dated salmon-hued countertops. This team chooses to tile over the perimeter countertops with small black, square tiles. Tiled countertops can offer a smart and cost-effective alternative if they are done properly and with a minimum of grout exposure. This team had a major issue with execution within the the time given and because of the number of small tiles they had to lay. Since countertops are often considered the workhorse of the kitchen, it's important they function well. With very small tiles on your countertops, you’ll have a large number of grout lines, which are difficult to keep clean and germ-free due to their porous nature.

This team also chooses to re-tile the backsplash, taking something beautiful and original and making it a bit of an eyesore through poor execution. In any project, it's always important to recognize strengths and weaknesses and this team instantly realizes how beautiful their cabinets can be, but fails to preserve the great backsplash.