By Donna Heiderstadt
The NKBA Design + Industry Awards, which take place annually at KBIS, are known as the Oscars of the kitchen and bath industry, and it turns out that the NKBA awards have their very own Meryl Streep: Gina D’Amore Bauerle. Like the acclaimed actress with her 21 nominations and three wins, the Partner and Principal Interior Designer of Denver-based D’Amore Interiors, has been a Design Awards finalist ever since her first entry in 2021, winning seven awards in individual bath categories as well as Best Overall Bath in both 2022 and 2025. “I’ve enjoyed a nice 5-year run of wins with the NKBA Design Awards,” says Bauerle. We wanted to know the secret to her success, so after KBIS we asked her a few questions.
You have won multiple times for your powder room designs. What is it that you love about small bathroom spaces?
I love designing powder rooms for so many reasons: People are more willing to be bold with them! It’s the room nearly all guests use and should be a statement. There are also fewer rules. People aren’t washing their faces or putting make up on in these rooms, so lighting can be moodier, you can compromise on countertop surface in exchange for a bolder sink or vanity choice, and you can get away with more delicate finishes or materials since they aren’t used as heavily.
In addition, smaller spaces are easier to make dramatic without going overboard because there isn’t a lot of square footage to fill. Budgets also stretch further because you need less square footage of materials, and typically only one of each fixture. This sometimes makes the client more willing to splurge on really cool pieces that they might not normally consider if they needed larger quantities.
Is your use of natural elements—stone, crystals, burled wood, live-edge finishes—a result of your clients’ requests for these materials or your personal appreciation of them?
This bath was 100 percent created to reflect my clients’ interests. They live in a mountain home and collect burled wood pieces, gemstones, and antique light fixtures. For example, the flooring was a solid slab of petrified wood from India that we had cut into tiles to fit the space and minimize the grout lines so it didn’t take away from the beauty of the natural patterns.
It was a very pricey selection, but we only needed 25 square feet and they absolutely fell in love with it! I have had that sample in my library for about four years, waiting for the perfect project to use it on. When they reached out asking me to redo this bath, I instantly knew that was what I was going to show them. Of course I offered them a less-expensive tile option as a back-up choice, but once they saw the petrified slab it was a done deal.
My favorite feature of this powder room, though, is the burled wood slabs and mirrored vanity wall. My husband (@willardwoodworkingco) makes a line of custom wood and epoxy surfaces that we sell exclusively through our Denver showroom, D’Amore Interiors, so the feature wall of this powder room was inspired by his creations. Instead of using epoxy, we installed mirror behind the slabs that peers through the live edges and serves as the vanity mirror. We mounted the faucet through the mirror, and backlit the live edges to bring it to life. It was a very meticulous process, but it was an enjoyable one since I got to create it with him!
You’re also not afraid of color, even deep saturated ones. How do you talk to clients whose initial vision for their space is mostly neutral to convince them to embrace a bit of color?
The first thing I ask someone who says they want things more neutral is, ‘Is it because you love a neutral palette, or you aren’t sure how to go about using color?’ Almost every time, the answer is the latter. Also, my portfolio scares away most neutral lovers at this point!
I don’t force color on my clients, instead I feel it’s my duty to help them explore which colors make them feel good and show them how we can apply those tones in their space. My favorite colors are teals and shades of green and blue, because it reminds me of water and that makes me feel at peace. Color can have a heavy influence on your well-being and affects the way you feel in a space, so it really matters to me that it makes sense for the people living in the home to feel good.
That said, I do have some clients that genuinely love to keep their homes more neutral, so in that case I put a heavy emphasis on the textures of materials, and create lots of contrast with light and dark tones to keep spaces from becoming flat and boring.
Let’s talk kitchens, because you excel at those, too. What are you seeing in terms of client requests lately? Are they seeking more individuality, more flexibility/function, more sustainability, more smart technology?
Most of the clients I work with are asking for more individuality than a typical kitchen design. That usually means fun colors, specialty finishes, luxury appliances, smart technology, and all the little details that turn it into a bespoke space that accommodates their whole family. I’m also getting even more requests for specialty bars and speakeasies built into the plan, which is my other favorite space to design in the kitchen-and-bath world aside from powder rooms!
If you could design a home for a client anywhere in the world, where would you love for it to be located and what design elements would you most enjoy incorporating?
Well, to circle back from my earlier statement about my love for teal, I would love to design some beach and lakefront properties. It wouldn’t be the worst thing to have to travel to those types of locations for work either! I really enjoy all styles of design and find that I get more diverse requests when I’m working on out-of-state projects as they are totally different environments than what I typically see in Colorado.
If I had to choose one location in particular, I’d probably say Lake Tahoe (as long as I can visit the site in the summer). I would love to design some killer outdoor kitchens, pool baths, and indoor/outdoor living spaces! We do have some of that in Colorado, of course, but it’s typically missing the waterfront element and the fun color palette you can pull off with those environments.
