Who will plan my new kitchen?

February 26, 2010 1:45 PM

Kitchen designer in the Seattle area?

I might be facing a kitchen remodel soon. I'm terrible at figuring out that, for example, moving the stove from here to here and changing the cabinets from this size to that size will make everything so much more pleasant. I know what I like, but I don't know how to get there.

I want to hire someone who can plan it -- not the contractor, but the idea person. Would that person be a "kitchen designer"? And can you recommend one in the Seattle area?

(I know I could read lots of blogs and download various things from Ikea and spend my weekends at Home Depot, but kitchen design isn't a skill I'm interested in acquiring.)

posted by The corpse in the library to home & garden (6 answers total)

Kitchen Plus is the company we're using for our remodel -- they do the entire thing, so may not be exactly what you're looking for, but we've had a good experience so far. We're in the engineering phase, having finalized our design layout (Georgia was our designer and she had some excellent ideas, as well as being very accepting of the ideas we had already).

What I like about them is that the entire operation is in-house, with few exceptions. They have plumbers, electricians, a cabinet shop -- everything. This allows them to schedule your job and give you a fixed bid, not an estimate. If part of the project is more complicated than they expected, you don't pay for it. If they go over the scheduled time for completion (ours is 10 days for a full tear-out), they give you $150/day until it's done.

Definitely worth talking to them and the initial design consultation is free, so you can feel them out before committing, if you want to.
posted by Pantengliopoli at 2:04 PM on February 26, 2010

I did this myself recently, and would be happy to clue you in on how I did it, and on the cheeeeeap. I'm also 110% game to offer scads of advice on where to find supplies and whatnot cheaper than Home Depot and stuff so that you might boss whoever you hire around nicely.

Me, I had my dad to do the power-tool stuff, but being a Carpenter's Kid, I can also tell you what's doable yourself vs. paying through the nose by necessity. Such as:

* moving gas line for the range? PAY THROUGH NOSE
* moving cabinets, willynilly? GET OUT THE DRILL, IT'S PLAYTIME!

So yeah. MeMail me, I'll be your renovation pal.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 3:25 PM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

We got a recommendation for a kitchen designer through our architect. It cost around $500 and it was totally worth it. She dutifully drew up our ideas, but hers was much better and exactly what we ended up building.

I guess what I'm saying is (1) ask around for recommendations and (2) maybe use someone independent of the other contractors to get neutral advice.
posted by turbodog at 4:11 PM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

This isn't exactly what you're asking, but my best resource for design was ultimately my contractor. Having followed a whole lot of people's instructions and done a whole lot of remodels and having seen a whole lot of kitchens, he had terrific insight.

What I'm saying is, after you get your pro advice, maybe run the concept past your contractor as a sanity check against trendy-yet-pointless modifications.
posted by desuetude at 6:09 PM on February 26, 2010

have you tried IKEA?
posted by killy willy at 9:52 PM on February 26, 2010

Sorry, missed the fine print. But IKEA has folks on staff who will work with you to design your kitchen. My friend is totally happy with her new IKEA kitchen, and it looks fabulous too. Good luck and have fun!
posted by killy willy at 9:14 AM on February 27, 2010