Introduction to kitchen design

Dear reader, firstly, thank you, thank you for reading my blog! I really hope this helps you with your kitchen project.

This blog is aimed at my clients really, the interesting and mostly funny people I meet everyday in my work who want to start planning their dream kitchen, who don’t really know where to start, what to ask or what to expect from us - ‘kitchen designers’.

I design kitchens to meet all budgets, or I really try to. I have to admit, I prefer to get to know my clients wish list first, uncover what they really want and then guide you as to how to achieve that.

For example, you might say that what you really want in your kitchen is an island, it is then my job to find out the why behind it. Why? Well, supposing that dream island doesn’t quite fit in your room.. but rather than simply saying no, I’d need to find a solution to meet your needs. Is it more worktop space you’re looking for? Is it a seating area for a more sociable space? Or do you simply want to be able to face the room whilst cooking?

The other difficulty with planning to a ‘budget’, is that the majority of customers, (forgive me if you’re the exception) will not know how much a kitchen costs.

Having started designing kitchens long before I’d ever thought of buying one I struggled to grasp this, but then the other week I had to invest in my first set of fencing, (the joys of being a new home owner) and I can now relate. I had no clue how much it costs, the chap who was there to price up my fencing works, clearly straining to not roll his eyes and my utter lack of knowledge for fences taught me an excellent lesson - worth all the condescension delivered. I showed him a picture of a fence I liked the look of - one with a curved trellis on top; subtle and pretty. His answer was, “that one was really expensive”. But, when you have no idea (and I mean none) as to how much fencing costs, I mean, what is expensive? What was cheap? I couldn’t say. Does he mean expensive to me? In general?

When I got his figure for doing the fencing job - which felt very pulled from thin air, I again couldn't tell you if he was cheap. It’s not till I got a couple of comparison estimates for the work can I now tell you that, yes, he was expensive.

Through this book I will guide you, I’ll give you options, say why something’s suit different lifestyles better and you can choose which you think works best for you.

My experience? Well, I’ve been successfully designing beautiful kitchens for nearly 12 years now, and I have experience in all ends of the market. I’ve designed bespoke, fabulous high end kitchens and I’ve designed a great many beautiful kitchens for the ‘sheds’ too. Sheds are where the majority of our British kitchens come from, they typically don’t specialise in kitchens, and will reach out to building trades too, selling various materials. But I wouldn’t overlook them, they’re extremely price and quality conscious. They’ve also been in the kitchen business for a very long time, so they’ve ironed out many customer care issues you may experience with less established companies.

The pickle you’ve got is that most designers in the sheds or ‘sales focussed’ kitchen companies will not challenge you. The companies will have invested millions of pounds in beautiful inspiring brochures, new showrooms with incredible displays and yet, the ‘designers’ are still stuck in the ‘boxes on walls’ way of thinking. Or will inevitably ask you, “what do you want and where?” I’ve seen some ugly designs recently, and when I ask the designer why they did it that way, they’ll inevitably say, ‘it’s what the customer wanted’. Crikey, poor customers, thousands of pounds wasted on what could have been a wow. When it’s fitted and finished, it is simply too late.

I have to admit, in all honesty, I hope they never change, it makes my job much easier, but for you, for fairness, I will help guide you, and that is why I’ve written this book.

Okay, so not all designers are bad; I’ve worked with many excellent ones!

The better ones usually have some kind of art or interior design experience to compliment their current role. Your best bet is to try a few, and don’t waste your time with ones that won’t invest time in you. At the same time, when you find a designer who will work their magic and bring your dreams to life, it is poor thanks when you take that design to someone who couldn’t be bothered to put their own thought into it.

I mean, I went to see a client last week to design their bathroom (yes, multi-talented), and she had a beautiful kitchen. I mean, really lovely! Big island, real oak doors, granite tops; it was special. But what stuck with me was the fact that this really nice lady sang the praises of the designer no end, “wonderful man, talked me into moving a door, which I hadn’t considered before etc..” then she said she bought the kitchen from another company, the other company that, in her words ‘hadn’t come up with any of their own ideas, just copied the other design”.

I think I can safely speak for all designers when I say that, it is not a compliment when you come back to us later and say, “we bought the kitchen elsewhere but don’t worry, we used your design!” Had you come back to us instead, had you just said, Lily, we love your design best but it’s a bit too expensive, what can we do to bring the costs down?” Well, I’d be over the moon and together we would relook at the design and see what things we can save on.

I do appreciate that it could be uncomfortable to say this, it is probably easier to go to another place and say, “ I had a design done I liked but it was a bit over budget, what can you do?”.

Think of it this way, if it’s me, I have tailored that kitchen to you. I’ve dug deep and asked the right questions, I’ve discovered whether you want a recessed drainer or just drainer grooves and why, if this other company is cheaper it’s because they’ve taken an overview of what I’ve created and skimmed off the top.

It may look like my design at first but you’ll notice the differences later on.