Kitchen Remodeling Example
First of all you should know that our client came to us referred by her sister whose kitchen we did 2 years earlier in Los Gatos. Best client you can have, we already had credibility. She loved what we did for her sister and she wanted the same for herself and she realized that she needed a bona fide kitchen designer as well as a professional remodeling company.
The challenges we faced: the kitchen was tiny, dark, dysfunctional and totally outdated. Actually I think it was outdated at the time it went in, your typical 70s look, if you know what I mean. Thick tile with huge grout lines, brown on brown color scheme, I remember that they used to call it "earth look" in those days. Let me just point out that I never participated in this trend.Our client gave us a wish list a mile high. At the time we thought only a magic wand could help us accomplish the goal to make her kitchen just the way she wanted, you know, another Goldilocks project, not too this and not too that, just right. Well, this is just up our alley, we love a challenge and we are creative. So we rolled up our sleeves and put the existing kitchen on paper. And it looked bad and as I said before "challenging". And you know what? After soaking it all in and sleeping on it and looking at it again, it all fell into place. Of course you need to know that I have done this for a long, long time and had many years of honing my skills.
So, what are the solutions we arrived at? Here they are: to begin with we took a wall out to open the kitchen to the family room. Benefits? Tremendous way to make the kitchen feel almost twice the size, and the cook is able to socialize with family or/guests. Next we decided that the 8ft flat ceiling didn't do anything for the ambience of this kitchen space. Not only is the new peaked ceiling making the kitchen feel larger yet, it also helped us create a strong focal point via the hood and cook top being centered on the peak.This move now allowed us to put windows on each side of the hood, which helped to create the kind of symmetry that's so easy on the eye and that everybody loves. Now we had the basic space, and all we needed to do was make it functional and pretty. My client agreed with us to give the kitchen a timeless look, so she would still be happy in 30 years, and probably will only have to replace the appliances instead of the whole kitchen. We made sure that there was a place for everything so she could keep everything in it's place, and of course we made an effort to hide the micro wave and the ovens, not the most attractive part of a beautiful kitchen space. Last but not least we chose high quality custom cabinetry in a wonderful soft, light yellow hue that makes it look like the sun is shining day in and day out. Oh, I almost forgot. We built a peninsula between the kitchen and the family room that houses the sink and dishwasher and is handy for casual eating or to have a glass of wine and watch the cook do the heavy lifting. How cool is that? Well, another happy client, that's what we live for. On to the next one!