I Tied With Myself : (and Other Things I Never Expected to Say)
Carrie Lucke Designs brings home Gold and three Bronzes at the 2026 Milwaukee Magazine Home + Design Awards
Let me start with the sentence I never thought I'd type: I tied for Bronze with myself.
Yes, really. In the Traditional Kitchen category at this year's Milwaukee Magazine Home + Design Awards, two of our kitchens landed in the same spot on the podium. I'm still not sure whether I should shake my own hand or ask for a rematch. Either way, I'm taking it as a sign that we're doing something right, and I'm grateful beyond words.
Here's the full tally for Carrie Lucke Designs this year:
Gold for Traditional Living Room
Bronze for Full Home Remodel
Bronze (times two) for Traditional Kitchen
All the winners are featured on the Milwaukee Magazine website, and the Gold winners, including our living room, are in the printed October issue. If you see me at the grocery store flipping to page whatever-it-is and showing strangers, please be kind.
Before I walk you through each project, I want to say something honestly. Awards are lovely. But the real prize is getting invited into someone's home and trusted with the place where their family eats breakfast, argues about homework, and hosts the holidays. That's the part that still amazes me. Being "in the room" at all, whether it's a client's living room or a room full of Milwaukee's most talented designers, is something I don't take for granted.
Gold: Traditional Living Room
This room makes me happy every time I look at it, and I think it's because it breaks a few "rules" in the best possible way.
Pink wallpaper? Yes. A white beamed ceiling? Absolutely. Blue-and-white ginger jar lamps topped with pleated pink ikat shades? Four of them, thank you very much. Add a rattan console, a textured sisal rug layered under a softly faded vintage rug, floral upholstered chairs, and a moody tiger painting over the mantel, and you have a room that feels collected rather than purchased.
What I want you to take away from this room: traditional doesn't mean stuffy. A traditional living room is really about proportion, comfort, and layering pieces that feel like they have a story. The trick is repetition with restraint. Notice how the pink shows up in the wallpaper, the lamp shades, and the pillows, but never shouts. The blue in the lamps echoes the navy floral on the swivel chair across the room. Your eye travels around the space because it keeps finding a friend.
Layering rugs is another move I love for rooms this size. A natural fiber rug grounds a large space affordably and adds texture, while a vintage or vintage-style rug on top defines the conversation area and brings in pattern and history. It's one of those details clients often don't think to ask for, but once they see it, they can't unsee it.
Bronze Award : Full Home Remodel category - from 1950's flat gray to a cozy cottage
If the living room is the jewelry, the full home remodel is the whole outfit. This project touched nearly every surface of the home, inside and out, and it's the kind of work that most people never see come together because it happens in a thousand small decisions over many months
Here's what a full home remodel actually involves when you work with a designer, because this is the question I get most from people who have never hired one before:
Planning and budgeting first. Before a single tile is chosen, we talk about how you live, what's working, what isn't, and what you're comfortable investing. A clear budget up front saves heartache later. We engage an Architect to create plans in conjunction with the finish selections for bidding to builders.
Selections for everything. Flooring, tile, cabinetry, countertops, plumbing fixtures, lighting, hardware, paint colors. On a full home project, that can mean hundreds of decisions. My job is to narrow those down so you're choosing between 2 great options instead of three hundred confusing ones.
Coordination with your contractor and trades. I work alongside your builder so selections arrive on time, measurements are right, and the finished rooms look like they belong to the same house.
Furnishing and finishing. The renovation gets the house ready. The furniture, lighting, window treatments, rugs, and art are what make it feel like home.
What I love about this home is how it feels cohesive from the curb to the last bedroom. The classic exterior, with its crisp white brick, dormers, and soft blue shutters, sets a promise that the inside keeps. That consistency is what a whole-home approach gives you, and it's much harder to achieve when rooms are tackled one at a time with no overall plan.
Bronze (Twice!): Traditional Kitchen
Now for the part where I competed against myself. I'd love to tell you I planned it, but truly, I was just as surprised as anyone. These two kitchens could not be more different in personality, and I think that's exactly why I'm so proud of both of them.
Kitchen One: Warm, Calm, and Built for Gathering
This kitchen is all about warmth and quiet elegance. Soft cream cabinetry, a long walnut island, and a natural stone that runs from the countertops straight up the backsplash create a calm, seamless backdrop. The walnut band on the range hood ties the island to the cooking wall, and a trio of brass pendants with white shades keeps the long island feeling light and inviting instead of heavy.
Those rattan counter stools? They're the little bit of charm that keeps a refined kitchen from feeling too serious. And the two faucets on the island are a practical choice for a family that cooks together. When two people can prep at once without bumping elbows, a kitchen just works better.
Designer tip: when you run your countertop material up the backsplash, you get fewer grout lines, a cleaner look, and a sense of calm that busy families really appreciate. It's an investment, but it's one of the most impactful ones in a kitchen.
Kitchen Two: Collected, Cozy, and a Little Bit English
If Kitchen One is calm, Kitchen Two is a warm hug. A painted plank ceiling, a handmade-look glossy tile backsplash that catches the light, a French range with brass details, and a brass two-arm fixture over a marble-topped island with turned wooden legs. It feels like it's been there for a hundred years, in the best way.
And can we talk about those plaid wool stools with nailhead trim? They're my favorite kind of unexpected. Upholstered counter stools are one of the easiest ways to bring softness and personality into a room full of hard surfaces. Add a patterned Roman shade at the window, cabinet doors with little cutout details, and a peek into a painted pantry, and you have a kitchen that tells you who lives there.
What these two kitchens teach us: "traditional" isn't one look. It's a respect for craftsmanship, classic proportions, and materials that age gracefully. Within that, there's room for serene and minimal or cozy and layered. The right answer depends entirely on you, and that's where a designer earns their keep. My job isn't to put my kitchen in your house. It's to find the version of traditional that feels like yours.
Thank You, Truly
None of this happens alone, and I mean that. A huge thank you to:
My clients, who trusted me with their homes, their budgets, and occasionally their most daring paint colors. You made these rooms possible.
The contractors, cabinetmakers, fabricators, upholsterers, and installers who brought these designs to life with incredible skill. Specifically Lake View Remodeling and Labonte Contstrudtion as by talented Builders. Architechts KCB Architecture and Meg Baniukiewcz.
Kyleen DZ Ploch and Linda Smallpage for capturing these spaces so beautifully.
Milwaukee Magazine and the judges, for celebrating residential design in our city and for including us among so many talented designers.
I've been a fan of this awards program for years, and to be recognized alongside designers I admire is genuinely humbling. I'm just happy to be in the room, and even happier to have been in these rooms.
Thinking About Your Own Project?
If you've been dreaming about a kitchen that finally works, a living room that feels like you, or a whole-home refresh, but you're not sure where to start or what working with a designer even looks like, that's exactly what I'm here for. Many of my clients have never worked with a designer before, and I love walking them through the process step by step, from budgeting and selections to ordering and installation day.
You don't have to have it all figured out. You just have to start the conversation.
With gratitude (and a little bit of disbelief),
Carrie Lucke
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