Edwards Designer Yvonne Jacobs Named Design Icon for Beaver Creek Kitchen

The wind off the Gore Range doesn’t care about your pedigree. It cuts through the wool of your sweater and tests the seal on your windows. In Edwards, that same wind rattles the siding of a modest office where Yvonne Jacobs has spent the last six years turning empty shells into sanctuaries.

Jacobs doesn’t just arrange furniture. She builds the stage for how locals live.

Her firm, Jacobs + Interiors, sits on the valley floor in Edwards. She launched it in 2018. Before that, she spent two decades at Slifer Designs. She knows the difference between a showroom display and a home that actually survives a Colorado winter.

The industry noticed. In 24, Luxe Interiors + Design and Sub-Zero, Wolf and Cove named her a Design Icon. Only twelve designers in the entire nation got the nod for kitchen design.

That’s not a participation trophy. It’s a validation of a specific kind of craftsmanship.

Her award-winning remodel in Beaver Creek proves it. Heartwood Custom Woodworks handled the cabinetry. Herge provided the barstools. Arrigoni Woods supplied the reclaimed wood walls. The result is a kitchen that looks modern but feels like it has history. It’s rustic without being cliché. It’s expensive without being ostentatious.

But Jacobs didn’t start in luxury. She came from modest means in New Jersey. Her family was tight-knit. Social. Always crowded with friends and relatives.

Her great-grandmother was Native American and creative. Trips to her home meant baking, gardening, sewing, painting. Always making something out of nothing. Beauty wasn’t about price tags. It was about meaning.

Jacobs was the artsy kid. She carried a camera. She took black-and-white photos of town. She made collages from magazines. She painted her walls. She was always working on a project.

"I think I was made to be an interior designer," she says.

Moving to the mountains felt inevitable. She landed in Denver first. Then she and her husband started escaping to the slopes. Hiking. Skiing. Rock climbing. Living where you play makes sense. It’s the first rule of Western Slope living.

Raising kids here wasn’t automatic paradise.

"At first it was really hard," Jacobs admits. "It felt like we were all alone."

Her family was in New Jersey and Pueblo. Far away. The isolation hit hard. But she wasn’t the only one struggling. Other families reached out. They formed a circle. That circle became family. They shared ski groups. Rafting trips. Camping excursions.

"It was a magical time in our lives," she says.

That communal instinct bleeds into her work. She listens. She doesn’t just impose a style. She reads the client’s needs. She understands that a home is both a sanctuary and a gathering place.

The recognition from Luxe and Sub-Zero, Wolf and Cove highlights this balance. It’s not just about the hardware. It’s about how the space functions.

Her Beaver Creek kitchen uses reclaimed wood to bridge the gap between high-end design and local character. It’s a statement that you don’t need to import everything to get quality. You can build it here. You can source it locally. You can make it yours.

Jacobs is 50-something now. She’s seen the valley change. The prices have gone up. The traffic has gotten worse. The density has increased.

But the core value remains. It’s about the space. It’s about the people who fill it.

She still takes photos. She still arranges. She still creates.

The Design Icon title is just a label. The work is in the details. The way the light hits the Heartwood cabinets at 4 p.m. in January. The Herge stools invite conversation. The Arrigoni walls hold the heat.

That’s what locals pay for. Not the fame. The function. The feeling.

The wind keeps blowing. The houses keep getting designed. And Jacobs keeps listening.