The Gem Awards 2026: Celebrating the UK’s Finest Kitchens

Gem Awards 2026 Categories

Most Unique Design 2026

We’re looking for the UK’s most individual kitchens: one-of-a-kind features, bold patterns and colour choices that could only belong to the people who live there.

Prize: £50 Amazon Voucher

Biggest Transformation 2026

Whether you’ve given an existing kitchen a new lease of life or started from bare walls, show us the before and after. We love seeing how far a space has come.

Prize: £50 Amazon Voucher

Best Modern Kitchen 2026

Clean lines, considered storage and a calm, uncluttered finish. This category celebrates contemporary kitchens where every detail has a purpose.

Prize: £50 Amazon Voucher

Best Traditional Kitchen 2026

From country cottage to timeless shaker, this is for kitchens built on classic proportions and honest craft, designed to look as good in twenty years as they do today.

Prize: £50 Amazon Voucher

Stone Statement 2026

Waterfall ends, floating shelves, a considered edge profile. This category is for kitchens where the stone is the centrepiece. Show us how your worktops set the tone for the whole room.

Prize: £50 Amazon Voucher

Overall Kitchen of the Year 2026

The kitchen that brings it all together: bespoke design, attention to detail and a room that feels entirely its own.

Prize: £100 Amazon Voucher

Key Dates

• Entries open: 09:00, Sunday 1 November 2026
• Entry deadline: 23:59, Friday 11 December 2026
• Judges revealed: Coming soon
• Shortlist: January 2027
• Winners announced: February 2027

Meet the Judges: Coming Soon

This year’s panel is almost ready, and we can’t wait to introduce them.

The 2026 judges bring together expertise from across design, interiors and the stone industry, so every kitchen will be judged from every angle: how it looks, how it works and how well it has been made. Each entry will be scored on creativity, execution and how well it meets the category brief.

We’ll reveal the full panel soon, so keep an eye on our Instagram. Your kitchen doesn’t need to wait, though. Entries open on 1 November.

Celebrating Our 2025 Winners

Last year set a remarkable standard. Our 2025 judges, Laura Hamilton, Francesca Robinson, Nigel Fletcher and Lucy Carter, called it the hardest year yet to judge. These are the kitchens that came out on top.

Overall Kitchen of the Year 2025: Warren Edwards & James Roper

Warren and James’s kitchen has soaring 12ft ceilings and bespoke lighting, and the judges called it “quirky and unique.” Judge Francesca Robinson said: “What they have created is perfect for the type of home they live in. They have really thought about how the kitchen works with the room architecture.” Their kitchen is due to appear in series 2 of Channel 4’s Outrageous Homes, hosted by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.

Highlights from the judges

• Best Modern, Victoria King: Laura Hamilton praised the “sleek shape of the worktop island,” and Nigel Fletcher noted the “use of lights to create warmth and zones.”
• Best Traditional, Charlie Burgess: Lucy Carter loved the “timeless element,” noting how the “neutral tones with the Siena Gold work so well.”
• Biggest Transformation, Jonathan Lubert: Francesca Robinson called it “a clever and carefully thought-out space” where “every inch has been considered.”
• Most Unique Design, Laura Storr: a T-shaped peninsula that “meant that all space was utilised and nothing was wasted.”
• Stone Statement, Laura Holehan: Lucy Carter was taken with the “Gold Superior quartz with the ogee edge,” and Nigel Fletcher praised the detailing around the sloped ceiling.

Read the full 2025 winners announcement →

How to Enter

To enter the 2026 Gem Awards by Gemini Worktops, either:

• email your images to [email protected]

Entries must reach us by 23:59 on 11/12/26.

Once all entries are in, we’ll draw up a shortlist for each category before final judging.

If you have any questions about the Awards, please email [email protected] with “Gem Awards 2026” in the subject line.

Thinking About Your Own Kitchen Worktops?

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• Backed for longer: a 25-year material warranty and a 5-year installation guarantee, made directly by the company that makes and fits your worktop.

Terms and Conditions

To be eligible for the Competition you must, as of the date of entry, (i) be a UK resident (ii) be at least 18 years of age. The Competition is not open to employees of Gemini Worktops.

All entries must be submitted between 09:00 on 1st November 2026 and 23:59 on Friday 11th December 2026.

All submissions to the Competition (“Entries”) must be received during the Competition Period.

By submitting an Entry, you warrant and represent to Sponsor that:

(a) you have all of the rights and authority necessary to submit the Entry in the Competition in compliance with these Terms, including the right to contract in your own name, the right to publish the image submission, and the right to grant the rights granted here under;

(b) The Entry is in all respects free and clear of all claims and rights of third parties;

(c) The Entry is the original work of you, is owned by you, including the copyright therein;

(d) The Entry complies with the requirements set forth in these Terms;

(e) You have not made any commitment for the use or publication of the Entry to any person or Entity for any commercial purposes or otherwise made any commitment in a manner that would conflict with the rights and licenses granted to Sponsor as described in these Terms.

(f) You give permission for the entered photograph to be used within the Gemini Worktops official marketing channels.

SUBMISSION CRITERIA:

Entrants will be judged on an image or images created by the Entrant.

Entries must show worktops purchased from Gemini Worktops and installed between 13/12/2025 and 11/12/2026.

The Sponsor is entitled, at its sole discretion, to require the Winners of the Competition (the “Winners”) to provide proof that the kitchen depicted in the Entry was originally purchased from the Sponsor.

To verify that the kitchen was originally purchased from the Sponsor, upon the Sponsor’s request, the Winners must submit their order number. The Sponsor is entitled to require any additional information it deems necessary to verify that the kitchen was originally purchased from the Sponsor. The Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any Entry that the Sponsor deems, in its sole discretion, cannot be verified as originally purchased from the Sponsor.

You understand and acknowledge that your Entry may receive exposure on the Internet or other public forums, where the Entry may be the subject of public comments. Sponsor is not responsible for any remarks, including any critical or derogatory remarks, posted by the public pertaining to you or your Entry.

WINNERS SELECTION PROCESS:

The Winners will be contacted in due course following the Competition Period via direct message on Instagram, Facebook or email. Direct messages will be sent to the account associated with the Competition entry.

It is each Entrant’s responsibility to timely check his/her DMs for any notifications or messages from Sponsor and to ensure that Entrant’s Instagram account settings allow the Entrant to receive notifications and messages from Sponsor.