Christie Brinkley’s kitchen showcases bold blue cabinets paired with neutral tones, a cozy fireplace decorated with seashells, and French doors that open to stunning nature views. Located in her historic 1891 Hamptons estate, this celebrity kitchen design combines eclectic style with practical family functionality that has served as her domestic space for over 20 years.
The supermodel’s culinary space proves that bold color choices can work beautifully when balanced with smart design decisions. Her space offers countless lessons for homeowners who want to create a kitchen that feels both stylish and livable. From her signature blue kitchen cabinets to her unique lighting choices, every element tells a story of personal style mixed with practical family living. This residential interior perfectly embodies the warmth and hospitality that makes any house feel like home.
Layout, Flow & Spatial Features
Christie’s cooking area flows seamlessly between cooking, dining, and relaxation areas within her Tower Hill compound. The open design connects directly to a cozy sitting area and opens through French doors to outdoor terraces.
The kitchen layout centers around real family life. Christie designed this functional space to handle her busy household of six people plus three dogs who all gather in this central hub. The culinary hub flows into a sitting area with a fireplace, making it easy to cook while staying connected with family and guests. French doors lead directly to stone terraces, creating an indoor-outdoor connection that floods the space with natural light throughout the day.
The space also features built-in bookshelves filled with gardening books, making the kitchen perfect for both cooking and quiet reading time. Christie calls this welcoming area the heart of her home, where everyone naturally congregates during meals and holidays. The open floor plan allows easy movement between different zones while keeping the cook connected to conversations and activities happening throughout the adjoining dining area.
Christie Brinkley Kitchen Color & Cabinet Strategy
Christie’s blue kitchen cabinets use an intelligent color approach that makes them unforgettable without overwhelming the space. She painted both upper and lower cabinetry in a soft, muted blue while keeping walls and backsplash in neutral tones.
The secret to her cabinet success lies in color balance. While the blue cabinets serve as the main focal point, Christie kept surrounding surfaces in soft neutrals like whites and creams. This creates breathing room that lets the blue color shine without making the space feel cramped or dark. The custom cabinetry includes both glass-fronted and solid doors, adding visual texture while maintaining the cohesive blue theme.
Interior designers praise Christie’s approach because it allows bold color to work in a timeless way. The blue tone she chose has both warm and cool undertones, making it flexible enough to work with different lighting conditions throughout the day. According to design experts, “the best blue kitchens are those designed in a way that allows the color to breathe” and Christie’s supermodel residence provides the perfect example of this principle in action.
Decorative Elements: Fireplace, Table, Windows & Views
Christie’s cooking space features a stunning fireplace decorated with seashells and stones she collected herself, plus colorful chandeliers and panoramic nature views. The space includes a marble dining table perfect for family gatherings and wine sessions.
The fireplace integration serves as both a practical heating source and artistic statement piece. Christie explained: “Mrs. Gardiner, like me, loved shells and rocks, and she did the fireplace in the living room. So when I was renovating this house, I thought ‘then I should do the fireplace in the kitchen.'” This personal touch connects her renovation work with the home’s original character while adding her own artistic flair to this rare attribute of kitchen design.
Multiple chandeliers hang throughout the kitchen area, each featuring colorful grape clusters that add whimsical charm without being too formal. The kitchen’s most treasured feature sits just outside the windows: a centuries-old giant maple tree that Christie has strung with environmentally sensitive lights. “It’s so gorgeous at dusk, I can’t even tell you. You have the sky lights, and then you have those lights go on. And the wind moves that tree around. It’s all like magical – magical fairy lights all dancing on the wind, in the branches,” she describes. When the French doors open in summer, the tree branches practically enter the culinary space, creating a magical connection between indoor and outdoor living.
Lighting, Materials & Finishes
The kitchen combines multiple chandelier styles with natural light from large windows and French doors. Christie chose durable material finishes including marble counters and painted wood cabinets with both glass and solid fronts.
Kitchen lighting design plays a crucial role in making the blue cabinets work beautifully. Christie installed several different chandeliers that fit a cohesive theme: “They’re all slightly different, but they fit into a theme. I have two chandeliers over the kitchen counter and one in the dining room, which is all purple grapes, but the ones in the kitchen are colorful grapes.” These fixtures provide both task and ambient lighting needed for cooking and entertaining in this celebrity home.
The marble surfaces include both countertops and a dining table that serves as a central gathering spot for family meals and entertaining guests. The cabinet hardware appears to be in brushed or antique finishes that complement the blue cabinetry without competing for attention. Glass-fronted cabinets on some uppers create visual lightness and display opportunities for dishes and glassware, while solid doors provide concealed storage for everyday items.
The combination of natural materials like marble and wood with painted surfaces creates depth and interest throughout the space. Christie’s choice to mix different textures and finishes prevents the room from feeling flat or one-dimensional, even with the dominant blue color scheme in this family room.
Maintenance, Longevity & Year-2025 Updates
Painted kitchen cabinets require regular maintenance, but Christie’s choice of quality durable finish and neutral-friendly blue helps the space stay current with 2025 trends. Blue cabinets remain one of the most popular colors this year.
Maintenance painted cabinets involves regular cleaning with mild soap and occasional touch-ups where high-use areas show wear. Christie’s blue cabinet color aligns perfectly with 2025 kitchen trends, where blues are “emerging as the second most popular choice for kitchen cabinets, closely trailing behind the perennial favorite – whites.” This means her cooking area feels completely current even after decades of use.
Current celebrity kitchen design trends favor exactly Christie’s approach: bold color balanced with neutral elements and natural materials. The 2025 trend toward sustainable materials and connection with nature matches Christie’s philosophy of bringing outdoor elements inside through her French doors and nature views. Her eclectic interior style mixing antique chandeliers with modern functionality represents the personalization trend that dominates 2025 kitchen design. This approach transforms a simple cooking space into something far more meaningful—it serves as both the practical heart of the home and its emotional center.
Interior designers now recommend Christie’s exact strategy: using one bold color choice as an anchor while keeping other elements neutral and timeless. This approach ensures the kitchen won’t look dated in a few years, making it a smart investment for any homeowner considering a kitchen update.
How to Adapt Her Style to Your Own Kitchen
You can recreate Christie’s kitchen style by painting cabinets in muted blue, adding natural elements, and creating strong indoor-outdoor connections. Focus on one bold color choice balanced with neutral surfaces to transform any cooking area.
Start with blue kitchen cabinets in a shade that works with your existing lighting. Test paint samples throughout the day since blue can shift toward purple or teal under different light conditions. Keep walls, backsplashes, and countertops in neutral tones like whites, creams, or light grays to let the blue cabinets shine as the focal point. Add personal touches through lighting choices – consider unique chandeliers or pendant lights that reflect your personality rather than matching everything perfectly in your own culinary hub.
Create connections to nature by maximizing window treatments and adding plants or natural materials like wood cutting boards and stone accessories. If you don’t have French doors, consider adding large windows or even just displaying fresh flowers and greenery to bring outdoor elements inside. Even a modest breakfast nook can benefit from these principles.
For small kitchen adaptation, use blue only on upper cabinets or a kitchen island while keeping lower cabinets neutral. This gives you the bold color impact without overwhelming a compact space. Choose kitchen lighting design that layers different types: under-cabinet lights for tasks, pendant or chandelier lighting for ambiance, and maximize natural light sources. Christie’s approach works in any size space because it focuses on balance rather than matching everything perfectly.
The key lies in choosing quality materials and finishes that will age well over time. Invest in good paint for your cabinets, select hardware that feels substantial, and don’t be afraid to mix different textures and materials to create visual interest. Remember that Christie’s kitchen works because every element serves both a practical and aesthetic purpose, whether you’re working with a spacious galley or a compact cooking area.
Key Points About Christie Brinkley Kitchen:
Her blue-painted cabinetry serves as the signature visual anchor in the space, proving that bold color choices can work beautifully when balanced with neutral surroundings. She designed the fireplace with shells and stones collected from local beaches, creating personal artistic touches that connect her renovation work with the home’s original character. The kitchen opens through French doors to a centuries-old maple tree that she lights with environmentally sensitive string lights, creating magical evening ambiance that changes with the wind and seasons.
Multiple colorful chandeliers with grape cluster designs provide both task and ambient lighting throughout the cooking and dining areas, showing how functional lighting can also serve as decorative focal points. The space functions as the primary family gathering spot where all three children, their partners, and three dogs congregate for meals and entertainment around the cozy fireplace, proving that beautiful design can also be completely practical for real family life in this remarkable Hamptons estate.
