What are the first steps in a kitchen remodel?

Every kitchen renovation is unique, but successfully navigating the process from the initial design consultation to breaking ground does not work without a general structure. Our in-house team of architects, kitchen designers, and interior designers has developed and continues to refine our process. The general steps are as follows:

Initial Design Consultation:  This meeting at your home is critical for the kitchen design process to get started on the right foot. Meeting with you in the space and having an open conversation allows us to understand your vision for the new space. The problems with your current kitchen are just as important for us to understand as how you hope to use the new space. Are you a passionate chef? Do you entertain often? How does your family use the kitchen on a day to day basis? We’ll come with a list of questions to help organize thoughts, but the meeting should be informal and conversational.

Schematic Design:  We’ll use our prior conversations and measurements to put together a presentation of what the new kitchen can be. Usually there will be multiple options, and our presentation is tailored to your preferences for format. Typically, we’ll use a combination of 3d renderings, 2d plans and elevations, and a storyboard for finish concepts.

Trade Walkthrough:  Once we’ve worked together to hone our schematic, and you’ve signed off on the design, we will schedule a walkthrough with our trade partners. We’ll spend a good part of a day in your house meeting with plumbers, electricians, engineers, and others. These will be the tradesmen and women working on your project, and it is important that we communicate well at an early stage. Their feedback will also allow us to develop accurate pricing.

Selecting Finishes:  By now we have a good idea of your aesthetic and will likely have the kitchen finishes planned in broad strokes. It is time to begin selecting, pricing, and documenting exactly what will be used in each section of the kitchen. We will help you prioritize selections by lead time and connect you with any showrooms that you are interested in visiting. Many of our clients finalize all or most of their selections in our offices, and we try to curate your choices to a few good ones. Others prefer to spend the time to visit tile, counter, and appliance vendors with whom we have existing relationships and negotiated discounts.

Construction Documents:  Once finishes have been selected, plans will be brought to a level needed to communicate the design intent to the construction team. While some of these drawings are boring and technical, other elements are critical to make sure the final product is refined and detailed. We’ll need your input from time to time, but the ball is largely in our court at this point.

How do I decide on the components of my design aesthetic?

This is one of the most important aspects of kitchen remodeling, and it's entirely up to you! We know this can be a very daunting position for prospective clients, which is why, although you’ll have the final say in your kitchen design decisions, our skilled team of designers will help walk you through all of the most important options, selecting fixtures and finishes that go with your personal style. Outlined below are some of the central stylistic choices that we’ll help you navigate when designing your new kitchen.

Cabinetry:  We work with two premiere custom cabinet shops in North America, which offer a staggering selection of door styles, finishes, and colors to choose from. Based on our initial design consultations, we’ll be able to pull together a selection that we think you’ll like from their thousands of combinations. Our cabinet considerations include:

Frameless or Face-frame?  There are two main camps of cabinet construction: Face-frame, and frameless. Face-frame, or American-style cabinets feature a visible “face” matching the cabinet box, or carcass, around the frame, with a door placed overtop. Frameless or European style cabinets have skyrocketed in popularity over the past few decades, and offer what many view as a cleaner look, where the cabinet door covers any exposed part of the frame. We frequently are asked for frameless cabinet styles, which you can view in a fully finished kitchen at our Georgia Avenue showroom.

What materials?  The vast majority of the cabinets we install are made from sturdy, sustainably forested and manufactured paint-grade plywood, with plywood or hardwood doors. However, some clients prefer MDF, which despite its cheaper price, offers an often indistinguishable finished quality, in addition to natural pest-resistance and less stress from natural expansion and contraction.

What color and finish?  Our cabinet shops offer a range of colors for their different product lines, but if you have a color preference from a different brand, like Benjamin Moore or Farrow & Ball, we are able to paint them in any custom color you’d like. We also can help you choose a finish, from glossy, to matte, to natural hardwoods, or to a textured look with reeded doors.

What door style?  The overwhelming popularity of shaker-style doors in modern renovations is not a limiting factor for our designers or cabinet makers. While we do love shaker cabinets, we don’t try to use them everywhere. Thankfully, our cabinet builders have a range of profiles to choose from, from sleek flat fronts, to narrow angular frames, old-fashioned fluted offsets.

Countertops:  Engineered quartz countertops are the industry standard for kitchen counters, for ease of use, safety, heat and scratch resistance, and durability. We work with leading manufacturers like Caesarstone, Mikado Quartz, and Cosentino, to offer a wide range of engineered countertops. However, we also love natural stone countertops! Quartzite, soapstone and marble find their way into many of our designs, offering a high quality natural finish. Our experienced designers will help walk you through the pros and cons of each material and their various design possibilities.

Backsplashes:  The big question here is whether to go for a tile or solid-stone surface. Tile backsplashes are a great way to add color and texture variation to your kitchen walls, while remaining stylish and easy to clean. We like tile for both sleek white subway backsplashes, and for bright and vibrant color work. We source tiles from a variety of shops around the world to find the exact color and texture you’d like for your kitchen. On the other hand, many clients love the clean look of a solid stone backsplash. Usually a continuation of the countertops, solid stone gives a refined modern look to any kitchen, while being the easiest to keep clean of any backsplash surface.

Appliances:  Another important consideration, what sort of appliances fit in your ideal kitchen? We habitually install appliances of all shapes and sizes from top brands like Wolf, Thermador, Sub-Zero, Café, Cove, Miele, Fisher & Paykel, Bosch, and many more. One of the advantages we have from working so closely with our cabinet builders is that it's easy for us to source perfectly-fitted cabinet panels for any of the appliances you’d like. If you want a completely clean and minimal look with your fridge, dishwasher, microwave, and range top all hidden in identical cabinetry, we can make that happen. If you want a bold restaurant-class range to occupy pride of place with flashy red knobs and brass accents, we can make that happen. If you just want a spacious fridge for your kids’ snacks and a wine cooler for your favorite Austrian whites once they go to bed, we’ve got you covered.

Layouts:  It’s enough work choosing what you want in your kitchen, but figuring out where you want it brings the project to life. During our initial walkthrough and throughout subsequent visits, we’ll come up with a kitchen layout that fits your space and meets your needs. If you need a bigger kitchen, we can figure out where to free up space, by taking advantage of design efficiencies, moving walls, or compacting elements in to make more room. If you want more counter space, we love to find room for kitchen islands, where we can both maximize your countertop space and useful storage and eating areas. We have ample experience designing kitchens of all shapes and sizes, and we are confident that we can make your sprawling open plan or narrow galley work for you.