Star Kitchen: Amanda Freitag

As a judge on Chopped, Amanda Freitag spends a lot of time in a hectic TV kitchen. When she renovated her home kitchen last year, she wanted something…calmer. “My Pinterest page was all white and wood with plants,” she says. “I love that Scandinavian look.” To make the small New York City galley kitchen feel airy, she took down one of the walls, opening up the space to the rest of the apartment, and she kept the color scheme neutral with gray tile floors, stainless-steel counters and a maple island. Because the kitchen is so tiny, Amanda had to be ruthless about editing down her stuff. “When I’m out shopping, I constantly remind myself, ‘Nope, you have nowhere to put that.’” There was one thing she couldn’t go without, however: her KitchenAid dishwasher, an appliance she had coveted since moving to Manhattan 23 years ago. “I put everything in the dishwasher,” she says, laughing. “It’s exciting to finally have one!”

A friend gave Amanda this painting by Kay Kato, a newspaper cartoonist, to help her hide an electrical panel.

The floating shelves were the last pieces installed in the kitchen; they had to fit perfectly. Each shelf has lighting underneath.

To make prep work easier, she had her cabinet builder carve out a piece of wood in the island over the trash bin.