The clock is doing that dramatic movie-trailer thing: ticking loudly, refusing to blink, and reminding every design lover that there is just one day left to vote in the 2017 Considered Design Awards. If you care about thoughtful kitchens, soulful living rooms, clever baths, inviting gardens, and outdoor spaces that make folding chairs feel personally attacked, this is the moment to act.
The 2017 Considered Design Awards, presented by Remodelista and Gardenista, celebrated amateur and professional home and garden projects with a focus on taste, utility, restraint, personality, and smart renovation choices. Voting closed at midnight Pacific time on Friday, August 4, 2017, after a public voting period that ran from July 10 through August 4. Readers were allowed to vote once per category per person per day, which means the final day was not ceremonial. It mattered.
Unlike design competitions that feel sealed behind velvet ropes, the Considered Design Awards invited readers into the process. Judges selected finalists, but the public helped determine winners. That made the contest feel less like a distant industry ceremony and more like a community conversation: Which kitchen actually works? Which bath has the most persuasive “I could live here forever” energy? Which garden makes you want to cancel brunch and learn Latin plant names?
What Were the 2017 Considered Design Awards?
The Considered Design Awards were created to spotlight beautiful, livable, intelligent design across homes and gardens. The word “considered” is doing important work here. It does not simply mean expensive. It means deliberate. A considered room is edited, functional, and emotionally convincing. A considered garden understands climate, maintenance, materials, and the way people actually move through outdoor space.
In 2017, Remodelista focused on interiors and renovation categories, while Gardenista highlighted landscapes, gardens, curb appeal, hardscape, edible gardens, and outdoor living. The awards welcomed both amateur and professional entries from eligible participants in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, excluding Quebec. Entrants submitted photos and project descriptions, allowing the work to be judged not just as a pretty picture but as a design story.
That storytelling element is essential. A before-and-after kitchen is not just about cabinets. It is about budget, restraint, light, storage, daily rituals, and the heroic decision not to install six competing tile patterns because “texture.” A garden is not just plants in the ground. It is drainage, shade, local conditions, seating, privacy, seasonality, and the eternal battle between ambition and weeds.
Why the Final Voting Day Created Real Excitement
“One day left to vote” sounds simple, but it creates urgency because design awards with public voting can shift quickly near the end. When categories are close, a final-day vote can push a favorite project from almost-there to officially celebrated. In 2017, the competition was described as tight, and readers were encouraged to vote across the open Remodelista categories and also visit Gardenista to support outdoor projects.
The final day also mattered because voting was limited to once per category per person per day. That rule gave dedicated readers a reason to return, but it also kept the process from turning into a wild digital stampede. In other words, enthusiasm was welcome; robot-like button smashing was not invited to the dinner party.
Which Remodelista Categories Were Open for Voting?
Remodelista’s public voting categories in 2017 centered on three major interior spaces in both professional and amateur divisions. These were the rooms where daily life tends to reveal whether design is merely photogenic or genuinely useful.
Best Professional Kitchen
Professional kitchen projects were judged by more than surface beauty. A strong kitchen must balance proportion, workflow, storage, materials, lighting, and atmosphere. In a design competition, the best kitchens tend to look effortless, which is deeply unfair because effortlessness usually requires a frightening number of decisions.
Best Amateur Kitchen
Amateur kitchens often carry a special charm because they show how homeowners interpret design principles in deeply personal ways. In 2017, one standout winner was Zachery Leung’s “Rustic & Refined” kitchen in Toronto, a black-and-white renovation that mixed modern and traditional details. It showed that a limited palette can feel expressive when the shapes, materials, and contrasts are handled with confidence.
Best Professional Living/Dining Space
Living and dining rooms are social spaces, but they are also mood machines. A winning project in this category needed to make furniture, architecture, light, and circulation feel connected. Professional designers often shine here because they understand scale: the difference between “generous sofa” and “why is there a yacht in my living room?”
Best Amateur Living/Dining Space
Amateur living and dining spaces are fascinating because they often reveal the owner’s habits, collections, and personal history. The 2017 amateur winner, Ana Guadalupe Rodriguez’s “Casa de Castillo” in Hawaii, demonstrated how a room can feel layered and individual without losing coherence.
Best Professional Bath
A professional bath project is a small-space test of courage. Bathrooms have strict functional demands, but the best ones still feel elegant. In 2017, CCS Architecture’s Glen Park Powder Room in San Francisco stood out as a dramatic professional bath winner, proving that compact spaces can carry major design presence.
Best Amateur Bath
Amateur bath renovations often involve budget discipline, spatial problem-solving, and the kind of patience normally associated with assembling flat-pack furniture while hungry. Julie Feehan’s Hudson Valley Farmhouse Bathroom Remodel won the amateur bath category, showing the appeal of honest materials, farmhouse character, and a calm visual rhythm.
Gardenista’s Outdoor Categories Added Fresh Air
Gardenista’s side of the awards broadened the conversation beyond walls and ceilings. The 2017 Gardenista categories included amateur gardens, professional landscapes, UK gardens and landscapes, outdoor living spaces, hardscape, curb appeal, and edible gardens.
That range matters because outdoor design is not merely decoration. A successful garden must negotiate climate, soil, maintenance, water use, privacy, wildlife, sunlight, and human behavior. Outdoor design is where beauty meets weather, and weather is not known for taking design notes politely.
Among the 2017 Gardenista winners, Boxhill Design’s “Desert Geometry” in Tucson won Best Hardscape. The project used contemporary materials, architectural lines, shade, a pool, patio elements, and desert-aware planning to create an outdoor living environment that responded to place instead of pretending Arizona was secretly England.
Under A Tin Roof’s “Sustainable Kitchen Garden” in Kalona, Iowa, won Best Edible Garden. That category is especially compelling because edible gardens combine beauty and production. A vegetable bed can be practical, but when planned with structure, repetition, paths, and seasonal intelligence, it can also become one of the most rewarding design features on a property.
The Judges Behind the Finalists
The 2017 finalists were selected by a panel of respected design voices: Sheila Bridges, Sam Hamilton, Deborah Needleman, and Rita Konig. That mix brought together interior design, editorial judgment, retail and product sensibility, and a strong understanding of livable style.
Having judges choose finalists before public voting helped create balance. It meant projects first passed through a professional filter, then entered the court of reader opinion. This structure is useful because design awards can otherwise drift toward pure popularity. The 2017 format asked two questions: Does the work meet a high design standard? And does it connect with the people who actually care enough to vote?
What Made a Project “Considered”?
A considered project does not scream for attention. It earns attention. In interiors, that might mean a kitchen where the storage is invisible but generous, the island is useful but not oversized, and the materials age gracefully. In gardens, it might mean hardscape that directs movement, plantings that suit the climate, and outdoor rooms that feel usable rather than staged for a magazine shoot and abandoned forever.
The best projects in the 2017 Considered Design Awards tended to share several qualities: clarity, restraint, strong material choices, practical function, and a sense of place. They did not all look alike. Some were rustic, some modern, some lush, some minimal. But the strongest entries felt resolved. Nothing looked random, even when the style was eclectic.
Why Reader Voting Matters in Design
Public voting adds a human layer to design recognition. Experts can evaluate craftsmanship, composition, and innovation, but readers often respond to emotional usefulness. They vote for the room they want to cook in, the bath that feels like an exhale, the garden that makes them think, “Yes, I would absolutely sit there with iced tea and ignore my inbox.”
This does not make reader voting less serious. In fact, it makes it more revealing. The projects that win public support often communicate quickly and honestly. They show that design does not need a manifesto taped to the wall. It needs to make sense in a glance and reward deeper looking.
Lessons from the 2017 Finalists
The 2017 Considered Design Awards offered several practical takeaways for homeowners, designers, and garden enthusiasts. First, constraints can improve design. Many winning and finalist projects were not about unlimited budgets. They were about smart choices. A small bath, a compact kitchen, or a difficult outdoor site can become stronger when every decision must justify itself.
Second, classic palettes still work when handled with freshness. Black and white kitchens, natural wood, marble, plaster, stone, and restrained plantings appeared again and again because they provide structure. The trick is not to copy a trend but to understand why certain materials and contrasts endure.
Third, outdoor space deserves the same design attention as interiors. Gardenista’s 2017 winners showed that a patio, edible garden, or hardscape plan can shape daily life as powerfully as a living room. Outdoor living is not an afterthought; it is a room with sky for a ceiling and occasional squirrels for critics.
How to Vote Well When There Is Only One Day Left
If you were voting on the final day of the 2017 Considered Design Awards, the best approach would have been simple: review every finalist before choosing. The prettiest first image is not always the strongest project. Look for the story. Did the designer solve a real problem? Does the space suit its location? Are the materials appropriate? Does the room or garden feel like it will age well?
For kitchens, voters could consider workflow, storage, lighting, and how naturally the design supports cooking and gathering. For baths, the key questions might include proportion, durability, mood, and whether the materials make a small space feel intentional. For living and dining spaces, scale and comfort matter. A room can be beautiful, but if every chair looks like it was designed to punish the spine, perhaps keep browsing.
For gardens and outdoor categories, voters could think about climate suitability, maintenance, movement, shade, and the relationship between built elements and planting. A compelling outdoor project should not feel pasted onto the property. It should feel rooted in it.
The Bigger Meaning of the 2017 Awards
The 2017 Considered Design Awards arrived during a period when homeowners were increasingly interested in personal, practical, and editorially refined design. Social media had made home inspiration wildly accessible, but accessibility brought a new problem: too many ideas, too many trends, and too many rooms that looked like they had been assembled by an algorithm wearing linen.
The awards offered an antidote. They reminded readers that the best design is not merely shareable. It is livable. It pays attention to how people cook, bathe, read, gather, garden, and move through space. It understands that a home is not a showroom. It is where keys disappear, dogs nap in inconvenient places, and someone eventually spills coffee on the “perfect” surface.
Experience Section: What This Topic Teaches About Design, Voting, and Real Homes
Looking back at the phrase “one day left to vote” from a practical design-lover’s perspective, the real experience is not only about a deadline. It is about attention. A final voting day asks readers to slow down, compare projects, and decide what kind of design deserves recognition. That process can be surprisingly useful even if you are not renovating anything at the moment. It trains your eye.
When browsing award finalists, I find it helpful to look beyond the most dramatic image. A kitchen with a cinematic marble island may win the first five seconds, but the better question is whether the room makes daily life easier. Where does the coffee maker live? Can two people cook without performing a polite but awkward dance? Is the lighting warm enough for dinner and bright enough for chopping onions without adding personal danger to the menu?
Bathrooms reveal even more. A great bath is not always the largest or most luxurious. Sometimes the best one is the room where every inch is calm, useful, and durable. Good storage, flattering light, quality fixtures, and a material palette that does not go out of style by next Thursday can matter more than a dramatic gesture. Powder rooms can be bolder because nobody has to live in them for long, which is why a small, theatrical bath can succeed beautifully.
Living and dining rooms require another kind of judgment. They must feel welcoming without becoming cluttered. The best examples usually have a clear focal point, thoughtful seating, natural flow, and enough personality to avoid looking like a rental staging package. Books, art, textiles, inherited pieces, and travel finds can create warmth, but only when edited. Otherwise, “collected” can quickly become “the closet exploded and gained confidence.”
Gardens and outdoor spaces teach perhaps the most important lesson: context wins. A desert hardscape should not imitate a damp cottage garden. A shady urban courtyard should not pretend to be a vineyard. The strongest outdoor projects respect their region, sunlight, soil, and water realities. They also create reasons to go outside, whether that means a dining terrace, a quiet bench, a productive kitchen garden, or a path that makes the whole property feel larger and more intentional.
The 2017 Considered Design Awards also show why public voting can be meaningful. Design professionals may notice technical excellence, but readers bring lived imagination. They ask themselves, often instantly, “Would I want to be there?” That question is powerful. It cuts through jargon. It makes design human again.
For anyone planning a renovation, the final-day voting mindset is a useful exercise. Compare options. Study what lasts. Notice which rooms feel calm after repeated viewing and which ones rely on novelty. Save ideas, but do not copy blindly. A winning project worked because it fit its owner, site, budget, and purpose. Your home deserves the same respect. The goal is not to recreate an award finalist like a museum exhibit. The goal is to borrow wisdom: edit carefully, choose honest materials, solve real problems, and let personality appear without shouting through a brass megaphone.
Conclusion
With one day left to vote in the 2017 Considered Design Awards, readers had a rare chance to help celebrate design that was not just stylish, but thoughtful. The awards highlighted kitchens, baths, living spaces, gardens, hardscapes, edible landscapes, and outdoor rooms that demonstrated how beauty and practicality can cooperate like civilized adults.
The lasting appeal of the 2017 awards is that they treated home design as a series of meaningful choices. A considered home does not need to be enormous, expensive, or aggressively photogenic. It needs to work. It needs to feel grounded. It needs to make life better in ways both visible and quiet. That is why the final vote mattered: it gave readers a voice in honoring spaces designed not only to impress, but to be lived in.
Note: This article is a historical, editorial-style rewrite based on publicly available information about the 2017 Remodelista and Gardenista Considered Design Awards, including the voting period, categories, judges, finalists, and announced winners.
