Japanese fashion magazine

Judging from the 324 entries in Sunset's first-ever search for the West's best interior designs, announced in the April issue, Westerners ask a lot of their homes. They want the kitchen to be a family-living room. They want the bath to be a decompression zone. They want to bounce on the furniture. They want rooms furnished to fulfill their fantasies, and to fulfill pure function--not uncommonly many functions at once. They want comfort and craftsmanship.

Entries from across the West challenged our jurors (identified on page 6). On the following pages are their picks for interior design excellence. Do you see a room you'd like to come home to?

It won for its elegant theatricality

The jury loved this house. "Take a look!" exclaimed juror Heidi Richardson. "There's more and more and more to it. They had the courage to make a theatrical statement." Juror Ron Rezek noted, "It looks like French deco. Neat to see historical inspiration from a different place." The seamless flow of the interiors and the subtle way they recall earlier periods of modern design, without appearing to be reproductions, won rave reviews.

The owners, an active empty-nest couple interested in music and collecting art and decorative objects, asked the architects for a setting that "would meld past and present." Homeowners and architects achieved an elegant backdrop, especially in the living room, where the piano, the vivid poster, and the granite mantel stand out against the light tones of the maple fireplace and the pitched oak-and-fir ceiling.

Rounded and angled like a piece of furniture, the fire-place flanked by built-in bookshelves fits the room's scale and creates a focal point. Hues inside the box shelves are compatible with colors of the Czech and French glass, and American Arts and Crafts and contemporary ceramics displayed. Beiges and yellows in the carpet and upholstery extend the palette of natural wood tones.

The curving sapele-and cherry-paneled stair recalls interiors of French ocean liners of the '30s. Colored tiles frame the window like ceramic drapery.

The best little bistro kitchen

Some rooms just sing. This elegant sliver of a kitchen croons, "I left my heart in San Francisco." But here, it's the cabinets that climb halfway to the stars. With its black-and-white marble tiled floor, tall white walls awash in daylight, and clean-lined contemporary counters and cabinetry, the 9-foot-wide space won unanimous praise from the jury. Rezek summed up the group's reaction: "It's simply the greatest little closet kitchen. It looks like a little bistro."

San Francisco architects Catherine Armsden and Lewis Butler borrowed setback space from one side of their Victorian row house to add this kitchen. Open through a wide arch on one long side, it's a bright corridor of daylight adjoining the dining and family rooms. A skylight runs the 16-foot length of the room.

Deft choices of materials and finishes contribute to the bright, elegant appearance. The glass cabinet doors, the unusual wire-glass backsplash, and the stainless steel that wraps the island and faces the appliances all reflect light. The marble tile floor and black marble island top look related to the house's original antique elements. The airfoil-shaped curve of the island and display niches above the cabinets recall arches and curves elsewhere in the house.

"There's a cool warmth to it"

If interior design were a form of Olympic gymnastics, this house would score a 10 on the balance beam. For, as juror Marcia Johnson said, "This is a completely resolved, well-balanced interior." The judges appreciated the skill with which architect-owner Bernardo Urquieta integrated spatial organization, daylight, scale, texture, and color. Rezek explained, "There's a cool warmth to it--and that's difficult to achieve."

The crisp contemporary spaces--with display platforms and a stairway rising behind the elegant freestanding fireplace--are softened by the furnishings. And furniture is carefully scaled to the fireplace and the platform stair.

Warmth comes from leather and laminated wood chairs, the coffee table designed by Urquieta and made of aromatic California nutmeg, the antique gilt mirror, and the wheat-colored sisal carpeting.

Wall sconces, also Urquieta's design, use sheet metal, bronze tubing, and Japanese rice paper. For the walls, Urquieta applied plaster, then a yellow-tinted wax to create a smooth, handcrafted, light-reflecting texture.

Home gym, circa 1200 B.C.

Enter the shrine of Cybex, Egyptian goddess of exercise. In one of the more unusual and creative accommodations of interests seen by the jury, designer Suzy Schradle-Walker and Jim Walker combined their passion for ancient civilizations with their practice of weight training. Their fantasy exercise room lets them pump iron in the cradle of civilization. Textured walls have Moorish-style arched windows. Carpet resembles raked sand. The remarkable ceiling vault decoration was achieved with 20 patterns of Victorian-style wallpaper--dissected, rearranged, and pieced together to create the effect of a mosquelike mosaic.

The fresco, found in a showroom, inspired the project; it's a faux concrete reproduction of a wall in the Tomb of Ramses III, showing him greeting the god Ptah in the afterlife. This is fitting, as "ptah" is the sound one can't help but make when completing a clean and jerk with free weights.

Tut, tut, you say. All this for the two of them? To share it with friends, they center a dining table under the vault's ceiling fan.

Crayon colors fit a family room

"Here's a family room that's really a family room," Richardson said about this informal space opening onto a rear garden. "Let's throw this one in for the kids." In fact, architect Steven Ehrlich designed it with his clients' three young children firmly in mind. The room, adjacent to the kitchen, functions as a home theater, with a built-in big-screen television dominating one wall.

Drawn up around the screen like big, happy cartoon characters enjoying a friendly game of fish are four custom-designed curved-back armchairs, perfect for bouncing on when parents aren't looking. Rezek praised the choice of furniture: "It's nice having all those chairs instead of a sofa. It gives you greater flexibility in the way you can use the room."

The other furniture and finishes continue the playtime theme. A low table made of Finnish plywood has safe rounded edges and is just the right height for crayoning in front of the television. A second table, for informal dining, reminded the jury of tables in kindergarten classrooms. It has a cartoon yellow-stained top. Around it are springy red plywood cutout chairs designed by Greg Fleishman.

Deep blue linoleum flooring from the Netherlands sets off a geometric Tibetan rug placed in the entertainment area. All the built-in cabinetry is rift-sawn cherry, stained deep red.

Comfort in an industrial loft

Style magazines love factory-loft conversions. The tall spaces, rough walls, and abundant daylight create photogenic backdrops for skeletal fashion models or bony avantgarde furniture. But it's hard to imagine wanting to live full time in such an arty and anorexic environment. Margie Herron's loft is different.

Here you can sink into the sofa and snooze without guilt. The jury liked this loft because it didn't try to get too highfalutin and "la-di-done." In Richardson's words, "The owner didn't worry about the warehouse backdrop, but instead created a nice feeling of contrast between the soft sofa and chairs and the rough concrete walls." Rezek was also drawn to "the cross-pollination of industrial and comfortable."

Though the building is a former tobacco warehouse (remodeled by David Baker Associates Architects), Herron bypassed high tech, and opted for a softened atmosphere of comfort and elegance. To mix with antiques, she selected a washable cotton damask slip-covered sofa and chairs from a specialty furniture store, and a reproduction neoclassical dining table and chairs from a department store.

Tapestry pillows enhance the inviting squashiness of living-area seating. Examples from Herron's candelabra collection add romantic accents.

A great family kitchen

It's a scene and a half. Rap music blasts from the CD player while the whole family jokingly gets in the way of lunch preparations at the cooktop. But it's not just a show for the photographer. This kitchen-family room is where everyone genuinely wants to be.

As juror Tim Street-Porter explained: "It's wonderfully warm and welcoming, friendly." Richardson agreed: "It's a kitchen elevated to living room." Earthy red-orange walls and rich verdigris ceiling squares, prominent display areas for the owners' collection of Mexican and Italian figures, and carefully planned activity centers-organized around cooking, eating, deskwork, and relaxing--draw family and friends (and jurors) with the power of an electromagnet.