20 Stunning Southern Kitchens

Because this renovated historic kitchen in Charleston, South Carolina, receives harsh direct sunlight all day long, owners Zoe and Brys Stephens opted for a dark, soothing color for the space.—See more of this home.

Interior Designer Fran Keenan created an entirely open floor plan that includes a banquette for the Thrower family in Birmingham, Alabama.—See more of this home.

This laid-back kitchen by interior designer Cortney Bishop in Loudoun County, Virginia, is equal parts primitive and modern. “There is something magical about this farm,” says homeowner Beth Russell. “The spirit of the place creates an environment for coming together, and we have felt from the get-go that is not just for us: We want to share it as much as we can.”—See more of this home.

Interior designer Carolyn Malone’s cabin kitchen in rural Georgia is so close to nature even climbing fig vines are part of the décor. “I want things to look like they’ve been here forever,” she says.—See more of this home.

This Creole cottage kitchen on Bayou Carron in Louisiana is rife with concessions to the past, including a soapstone farmhouse sink. “I don’t really know how to live in a new house,” says owner and antiques dealer Patrick Dunne. “I just don’t have those skills.”—See more of this home.

Honed slate counters add a raw, organic note to the midcentury-inspired Nashville kitchen of Kings of Leon’s Nathan Followill and his family by interior designer Benjamin Vandiver.—See more of this home.

Industrial cabinetry and an over-scale farm table combine to dramatic effect in the carriage house kitchen of D.C. shopowners Anna and Dan Kahoe. “We knew we could make it better without taking away its intrinsic charm,” says Anna.—See more of this home.

Chef Anne Quatrano tested every recipe for her cookbook in the kitchen of Summerland, her home on the outskirts of Atlanta. “My kitchen is a quintessential gathering place,” she says, “and to me, that’s the South.”—See more of this home.

Playful collections of food-centric vintage art, colorful bowls, and a vintage sink are practical and pretty in the North Carolina kitchen of clothing designer Kenny Thomas of Grayers. “We’ve tried to keep it honest,” says the former Ralph Lauren alum.—See more of this home.

Georgia interior designer Barbara Westbrook’s cottage kitchen is a study in masculine and feminine contrasts. “I tend to collect things and bring them in when I’m ready to build a room around them,” says Westbrook of her marble-topped butcher table on a scrolled wrought-iron base.—See more of this home.

This kitchen, on a sprawling property adjacent to the Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana, celebrates the land and sporting culture around it, thanks to custom salvaged-wood cabinets and a wood-burning fish grill. “This was not a place for color or trend,” says the interior designer Melissa Rufty. “It called for a ‘less is more’ approach.”—See more of this home.

Colorful tile matches the personality of chef Vivian Howard at her home in Deep Run, North Carolina. “We wanted a happy place that melded the architecture of Eastern North Carolina and our own aesthetic,” Howard says.—See more of this home.

This mountaintop kitchen in Cashiers, North Carolina, by interior designer Kathleen Rivers is a blend of subtle color and rustic and refined textures: ceramics, marble, stainless steel, log timbers. “Nature rules up here,” Rivers says. “If you try to combat that with bold colors, you lose.”—See more of this home.