13 Kitchen Design Tips Inspired by Celebrity Chefs

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There’s a lot to learn from celebrity chefs beyond just their best cooking tips. Sure, your favorite Food Network star has plenty of fan-favorite recipes to divulge — but what about their kitchen design ideas? After all, the same chefs who have cooked in so many different spaces — from professional restaurants to stage kitchens — must also have a lot of ideas about how a kitchen should function. Celebrity chefs have been known to apply their own advice to their home kitchens, designing and remodeling them based on years of culinary experience.

You, too, can benefit from the sage kitchen design advice of your favorite celebrity chefs. Whether you’re following Ina Garten’s rule for designing a kitchen from the ground up or just adding a renter-friendly storage solution inspired by Stanley Tucci, there are so many different design, aesthetic, and storage solutions to love — all of which have been implemented by a variety of food personalities. Here are a few of our favorite kitchen design tips that celebrity chefs have spilled.

Ina Garten, cookbook author and Food Network personality, knows what to keep in mind when she’s designing a kitchen. For her, it’s the layout that’s the most important — and the triangle method is where it’s at. Garten’s triangle method is all about keeping the stove, the refrigerator, and the sink in a triangle shape when building your kitchen layout.

As you work, these are the three areas that you’ll be accessing most often. You need to be able to move fluidly back and forth from each. Keeping them in a line means you’d have to travel further between each station, and you’d likely have a difficult time moving around the kitchen quickly. But when you create a triangle shape with these appliances (for example, placing your stovetop next to your fridge, and your sink across from both of these areas), you can access them all easily while you’re cooking.

This method also prevents you from losing out on precious workspace. Garten points out that creating a triangle shape naturally leaves room for counter space somewhere inside or around this triangle, which means that you’ll never have to stray far from the areas you need to be, whether you’re prepping or cooking.

Julia Child’s kitchen is so well-known, it’s now housed in the National Museum of American History. This includes Child’s iconic kitchen pegboard, which she used to store endless cooking tools. Her husband, Paul Child, created it for her himself, and it’s one of the highlights of her versatile workspace.

On the pegboard, which is painted a cheerful blue color, you’ll find an enormous collection of copper cookware, bowls, measuring cups, and other small utensils. If you struggle to organize your pantry space or just don’t have enough storage in your kitchen, then a pegboard is a must-try solution. It’s especially handy for small spaces, as this pegboard can double as decor.

You don’t have to have a pegboard that encompasses your entire wall like Child does — start small and build up from there. You can purchase a simple hanging pegboard online, station it on a kitchen wall near your workspace, and hang up smaller tools like spoons, spatulas, and tongs. You could even opt to incorporate a pegboard into your backsplash, depending on how much wall space you have to work with. There are endless possibilities, all of which will allow you to create extra storage space seemingly out of thin air.

Giada De Laurentiis keeps her kitchen looking trendy, and a big part of that stylish yet practical feel comes from her pot filler. The former Food Network chef installed a huge gold pot filler on her backsplash above her stovetop. A pot filler is totally worth installing in your kitchen, as home chefs can rejoice at no longer needing to lug pots full of water back and forth from the sink to the stove. A pot filler makes it easier (and safer) to fill your pot without any heavy lifting.

Installing a pot filler can cost anywhere from about $1,000 to $3,000 on average, much of which depends on whether you already have plumbing behind the stove where a professional could install a pot filler. This small remodel might seem costly, but adding a pot filler to your kitchen can also increase your home’s value by up to 3.2%. It’s clear that convenience is key in the kitchen, so if you’re planning on a major kitchen makeover any time soon, you might want to add a pot filler to your renovation list.

If you’re tired of hearing your kitchen utensils roll around in a drawer, Stanley Tucci has the perfect hack for you. Though he doesn’t claim to be a chef, the actor and food show host certainly knows his way around a kitchen. In his own home, Tucci opts to organize all sorts of kitchen utensils on a bar above his stove. This rail, which is typically used to hang pots, is admittedly a versatile option to add to your kitchen.

Tucci stores things like a small strainer, measuring cups, and other little utensils over his stove using S hooks, keeping them within reach at all times. For your own kitchen, think of lightweight yet frequently-used items, such as spoons, spatulas, mugs, whisks, or tongs. Because most of the items you’ll be hanging up are light, you could even install temporary solutions like a tension rod between your cabinets. But unless you’re ultra-confident in your impermanent kitchen railing, you may want to hang it up somewhere that’s away from the open stove.

Open shelving can be a blessing and a curse. Yes, it’s fun to have stylish storage to subtly show off your favorite dishes in your kitchen. But when you’re lacking storage elsewhere, open shelves aren’t the ideal option for things that could be better stored elsewhere (fine china, anyone?). Stanley Tucci, however, is changing the game when it comes to open shelving.

Tucci uses the open shelves in his kitchen to display his pots and pans. By putting these stainless steel beauties out in the open, they’re incredibly easy to access while cooking. Pots and pans are great candidates for open shelves because they can be such a hassle to wrangle free from a tight drawer or cupboard. Additionally, if you have stylish stainless steel, copper, or other sets of cookware, these tools can double as a kitchen display — but don’t be shy about highlighting a mismatched set of your favorite cookware, either!

Martha Stewart has previously divulged that all of her kitchens utilize similar “zones.” These kitchen zones, according to Stewart, include an island, the stovetop, a sink space for washing up, and a seating area. In a typical kitchen, this might look like an island with seating on one side, a sink that has ample counter space around it, and a stovetop.

Following this rule of design doesn’t just help you understand how your kitchen should work fundamentally, it can also help you determine how to arrange things around your kitchen itself. A drying rack, candle, and shelf of cleaning products should be located in the washing-up area, while stools, serving trays, and kitchen decor can be restricted to the seating area.

The idea of kitchen zones can even be helpful when planning out your kitchen’s storage. You’ll likely need to have spare soap bottles, sponges, garbage bags, and cleaning products near the washing up zone. You may want to keep pots and pans close to your stovetop area. Hosting supplies and serving dishes could be stored near your seating area.

Alex Guarnaschelli has admitted to having a lot of outlets in her kitchen. No surprises there — whether it’s a stand mixer or a blender, most modern kitchen appliances rely on a conveniently-located kitchen outlet. But while having a kitchen full of outlets is certainly convenient, it’s not always appealing aesthetically. Thus, many of Guarnaschelli’s outlets are hidden throughout her kitchen. For example, Guarnaschelli has double outlets hidden inside of her countertop. In order to even know they’re there, you’d have to push down on them, at which point they would pop out to be used. This gives her plenty of access to outlets without taking up any counter space.

There are so many ways to hide your outlets and make your kitchen work for you without looking cluttered. Match your outlet color to your paint for a hidden-in-plain-sight look, or pop a few outlets underneath your cabinetry for countertop convenience. Hiding your outlets gives you so many more options for creating workspaces within your kitchen, even in areas where you normally wouldn’t want to deal with an outlet.

Giada De Laurentiis has called out many countertops as being gorgeous in the kitchen, but she opted for marble in her 2024 kitchen remodel. It’s certainly a beautiful choice, but marble also has a bit of a reputation for being difficult to maintain. Marble is easy to stain, often can’t be cleaned with harsh cleaning products, and needs frequent sealing and refinishing. So, why pick it for your kitchen (besides its trendy appeal)?

The truth is, marble stays a whole lot colder than other kinds of countertop materials. Even as you work on it, marble keeps its cool (literally), which makes it perfect for bread makers, pizza lovers, and home bakers. When you roll out your dough on a marble countertop, it will stay colder for longer than it would on, say, granite. Marble countertops literally help your dough keep its structure — a must-have feature for those who love making pasta, pizza, or anything in between. In an exclusive interview with People, Laurentiis said that she prefers organic materials — like marble — for helping to breathe aesthetic life into any kitchen. While picking out the countertops for her brand-new kitchen during her remodel, Laurentiis commented on her Instagram, “A [chef’s] dream…” When it comes to marble, we couldn’t agree more.

It makes sense that busy chef Bobby Flay prefers his kitchen islands to have multiple uses. This versatility is easy to incorporate into your own kitchen. Essentially, Flay uses his kitchen island as a workspace when cooking, but he also uses it for seating and casual eating. Lastly, when entertaining, he uses it as a serving station.

Having an island that functions as a workspace and a serving area is really just about how you decide to use the countertop, but adding in a seating area is a key way you can utilize your island without much extra spending. Flay’s home kitchen in New York City has a large island with empty space underneath it, perfect for holding lots of barstools. If you host a lot, you could consider an island extension that would allow you to store seating underneath.

However, it’s even easier to simply add barstools to one side of your kitchen island — or just keep a few folding stools in a nearby pantry or linen closet. This will allow you to use your island as a hosting space when needed.

Gordon Ramsay believes one of the most important parts of a kitchen is having room for prep space. It’s true that a large workspace makes cooking ten times easier. But what if you have a small kitchen? Ramsay actually has a clever solution there, too. When renovating the kitchen of his group executive chef, he added an extending countertop — perfect for those whose kitchens are too small to have large permanent counters, but who may have a little bit of extra central space to add a pullout countertop.

For a slightly smaller scale renovation, you could take more inspiration from Ramsay and add a pull-out cutting board. This will give you a bigger prep space to work with, even in a kitchen that’s too cozy to allow for much more countertop space.

Jamie Oliver’s secret kitchen weapon is a chest freezer. One of Oliver’s culinary passions has long been helping busy families find easy ways to eat healthier. To make that easier, Oliver believes that large freezers are a must-have. He explained that big freezers allow people to batch-cook meals rather than cook single portions. Not only does this help busy families meal prep for the week ahead, but it can also save you a lot of money, as the cost of your meal per plate goes down when you can bulk buy and freeze it for later.

Besides meal prepping, there are a lot of bulk ingredients you can store in a chest freezer that will help you to save money. Oliver uses meat as an example; Rather than purchasing individual portions from the grocery store, buy whole animals or bulk meat locally and store it in your freezer. In the end, this will be much cheaper than a grocery store shopping trip, and you’ll still have space for plenty of pre-planned meals to boot.

If you’ve got a small freezer with no room to add a larger one, you might consider putting in some functional freezer storage. Stacking shelves, snap-together containers, and vacuum-sealed bags can help give you extra space.

Ree Drummond (aka The Pioneer Woman) has an airy but rustic kitchen, perfect for her cozy, country style of cooking. At home, she utilizes a unique backsplash technique that helps her kitchen look taller and brighter: She carries the quartzite from her countertops straight up her walls, using it as backsplash.

Not only is this single, flat-surface backsplash easy to clean, but it also helps her space flow much better. Both the countertops and the backsplash look bigger, the light color of the countertops brightens up the space, and her kitchen island feels more connected and cohesive. This technique would work well in small kitchens that need to feel taller and more open.

The main downside of this design is that you would have to be able to purchase enough countertop material for both your counters and your backsplash. It would also be more difficult to change out your countertops in the future, because you’d need to either change out your backsplash along with it, or focus on finding new countertops that don’t clash. But you might still find the look worthwhile.

Daniel Boulud didn’t just design his home kitchen; he engineered it. For Boulud, everything is about practicality and efficiency while working. The little details are some of the biggest highlights in Boulud’s kitchen. He advises those who are designing their own kitchens to try utilizing pullouts and lazy Susans in their cabinetry; this can help you store your kitchen tools and small appliances more efficiently, thus creating more kitchen countertop space.

Additionally, Boulud recommends utilizing drawer fittings for even more storage. The British chef prefers to keep absolutely everything — including appliances — off his countertops when not in use, to help free up more working space. Doing this creates a completely practical and clutter-free kitchen — and if you want to follow in his footsteps, you need to create functional storage solutions that allow you to clear your counters without just shoving everything in a cupboard willy-nilly. You might consider solutions like an appliance garage, corner drawers, and pullout shelves to add extra kitchen storage.