Silestone Ugly Kitchen Contest Winners Announced

Close to 400 kitchen entries vied for judges attention in Cosentino North Americas first national Silestone Ugly Kitchen Contest. The competition, which ran from July 1, 2009 to March 30, 2010, challenged designers to transform ugly kitchens into beautiful, inspiring spaces using their talent, technical know-how and Silestone countertops from the Zen, Life, River or Mountain series.

Designers competed in three categorieslarge, medium and small kitchenwith a grand-prize winner and runners-up chosen in each. This year, the grand-prize-winning large kitchen (shown above) was designed by Tamar Chang, of Pedini/Thurston Kitchen and Bath in Denver, while taking the top prize in the medium kitchen category was Jan Rutgers, of V6B Design Group in Vancouver, BC, Canada (a winner in the small kitchen was not chosen).

Both will receive a five-day all-expense-paid trip to Barcelona, Almeria and Maceal, tour Silestones manufacturing center.

According to Lorenzo Marquez, VP of marketing for Cosentino North America, the entries were judged by a panel consisting of six architecture and design professionals who sit on the companys design council. As to criteria, he noted, They were looking at square footage, of course, and the use of color, as well as innovative design, which includes the edge style selected and clever combination of colors.

When asked if anything surprised him about this years inaugural run, Marquez mentioned the relationship between the size of the kitchens and the countertops chosen. In the larger projects, designers seemed to be going toward more solid colors with not a lot of movement, he said. And in the smaller kitchens, people are using countertops with more patterns and movement.

Given the tremendous response, the contest will continue next year, said Marquez. Look for a call for entries to be announced on the Silestone website in September.

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Silestone Ugly Kitchen Contest Winners Announced