“Southern Californians are creative and our clients are really forward-thinking about how a kitchen should look, work and feel,” says Steven Cooper, the second-generation principal designer of Cooper Pacific, a kitchen company founded by his father in 1986. To celebrate its 40th anniversary this year, the firm is reflecting on pivotal moments, including bringing German kitchen manufacturer SieMatic to the West Coast and opening an expanded Pacific Design Center showroom to reflect its partnership with luxury British cabinetmaker Cabbonet. Still, Cooper stays focused on the future. The company recently branched out from kitchens to adjacent spaces like family and powder rooms and this autumn debuts a cabinetry collection inspired by the California lifestyle. “It’s a fresh new look for us but quintessentially Californian: classic, casual, elegant and livable,” he adds. That ongoing evolution keeps Cooper engaged, as does working alongside his wife, Giselle, and daughter, Brittanie, who run the company’s brand curation and logistics services, respectively. But he also simply enjoys seeing clients thrive in the spaces he creates. “Life happens in the kitchen. It’s where we break bread and celebrate,” he says. “And the open-mindedness of our clients means we’ve never done the same kitchen twice.”
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