Mandy Cheng is nothing if not versatile. She has designed homes, offices, and retail stores across the country (not to mention movie sets and music videos), and has trained her discerning eye on every room a home could possibly contain.
Right now, however, she has a lot to say about kitchens.
As a member of the 2026 National Kitchen & Bath Association Design Council, a panel of trendspotting top designers who help the NKBA identify emerging design directions and who serve as ambassadors for the association at design events throughout the year, she’s uniquely positioned to offer insights into the evolution of kitchen design—and the benefits of bringing on an NKBA-certified designer for your own potential project. We asked her to walk us through a few of her designs to share her expertise.
When Cheng was enlisted to design a residence in Los Feliz, CA, for a young family, the brief was to modernize without sacrificing the Old World feel of the 1920s Spanish-style home. In the kitchen, where she oversaw a full-on gut renovation, she achieved that balance in part by housing the hood of the updated stove and cooktop in a plastered arch that evokes an adobe aesthetic. “I didn’t want it to just be a contemporary rectangle,” she says. Terracotta tiling on the backsplashes continues the effect.
Read more: https://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/a71431455/kitchen-insights-from-a-top-designer/