Main Line Kitchen Design will hold our next facebook raffle on July 4th.  Everyone who has “liked” our facebook page will be entered.  We will select TWO winners who will EACH receive $250 gift certificates to the restaurant of their choice.  So tell your friends and family to like us now.  Even if you don’t win, they may take you out to dinner when they win one of the prizes.  The link to our facebook page to like us is below:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Main-Line-Kitchen-Design/109096125835251

Good Luck to all and of course Bon Appetit!

Contrary to what most people believe, the most productive and cost effective first step in planning a kitchen addition is to come to Main Line Kitchen Design first and to an Architect second. This is because you need to plan the layout of your kitchen before you can finalise the locations of doors, windows, and even the size of the addition.

This is also far more cost effective since designing the kitchen costs nothing to start.   At Main Line Kitchen Design the first two appointments are free and afterwards our design deposit is applied towards your cabinet order.  Planning an addition with an architect before you have planned you kitchen design wastes money creating plans that will always need to be changed once you meet with your kitchen designer.

Design your kitchen addition inside out and you will end up paying for only one set of final architectural plans and get the best use of your new space.   Whether we are your architect, general contractor, or kitchen designer, we all want you to have an aesthetically pleasing exterior to your new space, but the kitchen is the hub of your home.   The kitchen design layout needs to be planned first and not be an after thought in a space already created.

Not all kitchen design firms are experienced enough to fill this role in planning your kitchen addition.  At Main Line Kitchen Design we would rather see our customers sooner than later.   Once previous work has been done and plans set in motion it may become  difficult and probably more expensive  to give you the best kitchen possible.

Let experts in every area involved in your kitchen addition help you along the way.  But start by letting the experts in kitchens themselves get you on a path that will be far straighter then the paths taken by most of the kitchen addition customers we eventually see and sell kitchens to.

As an aside – we will be posting our next kitchen design and facebook “like” promotion in May.  We will be giving away either multiple $200 gift certificates to the restaurant of a winners choice or a single iPad2 to one winner.   Anyone who has “liked” Main Line Kitchen Design on facebook will be eligible to win. If you have a preference let us know and remember to “like” us first.  The link to the Main Line Kitchen Design facebook page is below.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Main-Line-Kitchen-Design/109096125835251

Hoping all your spring kitchen projects run smoothly.  And as always………

Bon Appetit!

The sale of Le Bec Fin and the loss of it’s 5 star rating has signaled the change in the Philadelphia restaurant landscape, and in a small way, our society as a whole.  Society has become less formal.  In our kitchen design world traditional dining room and kitchen space is routinely being combined.  The larger area becomes a more  social place to eat day to day as well as to entertain on special occasions.  Today my younger customers no longer aspire to complete  the sterling silver and china place settings they began as wedding gifts.

We don’t spend less money on eating out and certainly we don’t spend less on our kitchens today but we spend it differently.  Imagine, Craig LaBan gives Bibou a BYOB his highest rating.  At Bibou diners can enjoy fine cuisine and bring $100 or $1000 bottles of wine that would have troubled my sensibilities purchasing at traditional restaurant prices.

I was going to write in depth on the Le Bec Fin sale but Brenda Kieffer of Kieffer’s Appliances did a great job.   The link is below:

http://kiefferscooks.com/2012/02/14/a-few-words-about-le-bec-fin/

Le Bec Fin

I am reminded daily of our changing world.  Certainly the business model that Main Line Kitchen Design employs would not have been possible just a few years ago.  Change is good and I’m excited that tomorrow we officially open our North Carolina satellite. (Click the following link to visit their website NC Main Line Kitchen Design.)  But what truly warms my heart is when I mail out the Julia Child cookbooks  to each homeowner who’s kitchen we just completed.  I love change but it’s nostalgia and remembering Le Bec Fin as it was or Julia Child working in her PBS  kitchen that gets me choked up.

…and so Bon Appetit!

Paul

Traditional Style and especially French Country Style Kitchens employ architectural accent pieces such as legs, corbels, capitals, and onlays.  These accent pieces can be surprisingly expensive.   A 6 inch by 6 inch Island leg typically will cost at least $600 retail from any cabinet line even at a home center.  Corbels can range from $200 and up.  I once had a customer whose custom finished 36 inch high corbels cost us $2000 each before we even added our mark up.  Typically crown molding costs more than $100 per 8 foot piece of molding and, in some more ornate designs, we stack 3 or more moldings on top of each other to reach the ceiling.

The cost for all of these accents and moldings can sometimes exceed the cost of a customer’s actual cabinetry!

Now here comes the good news.

Crown molding, legs, corbels, capitals and onlays cost 90% less when ordered unfinished from internet suppliers such as Osborne Wood Products.

Often these kitchens or the dressing area shown above are designed in painted finishes.  If a customer chooses a solid paint color without a glaze, then quality paint stores like Sherwin Williams using the newest high tech scanners can match the cabinetry finish exactly.  Only the application of the paint can give the matching process away, and a good painter with a sprayer will eliminate even that possibility.

I’m less concerned about the durability of the paint on these accent pieces as they are not moving parts and often times vulnerable legs and the backs of Islands end up getting touched up soon after installation anyway.  Certainly the crown moldings are too high up to be vulnerable to abuse.

If a customer selects a stained finish, we can never match the furniture stain and finishing process from the cabinet supplier.  However if we stain unfinished accent pieces two shades darker and with a different sheen, then they appear to be intentional highlights and often become the most attractive feature in detail driven kitchen designs.

So if a French Country Kitchen is your style of choice, don’t be stingy with adding the legs, columns, onlays and the other accent pieces that define this style.  Your kitchen can cost half the price it would have a few years ago.

Looking forward to working with you and as always Bon Appetit,

Paul

Kitchen cabinet buyers need reputable, professional assistance for many reasons including safety (see link: http://www.mainlinekitchendesign.com/general/is-your-kitchen-designer-going-to-kill-you/ ), good design, and . . . there’s probably no less blunt way to say this. . . to avoid being ripped off.

For example, many cabinet companies sell the same product for different prices by having multiple cabinet line names.  Even in the same cabinet line, exact same door styles and finishes will have different names at different locations. In 2004 Consumer Reports was completely duped — publishing cabinet reviews in which they compared cabinets that were actually the same product and reviewed them differently.  Ikea duped them as well – - garnering top ratings despite durability and construction flaws that take only a few years to become problems.

Here are some examples of advice Main Line Kitchen Design professionals share with our customers:

• Frameless cabinets are much less durable than framed cabinets. Frameless or European Cabinetry can definitely look sleeker and is better suited to the most modern door styles because of of this, but even the most expensive frameless lines such as Poggenpohl are nowhere near as durable as any well made framed cabinetry.
• The worst way to make a framed cabinet is with 3/8″ sides and backs. Quality framed cabinetry has 1/2 or 3/4″ sides and backs with solid wood hanging rails.  Watch out for Masterbrands — They are the largest cabinet conglomerate in the US and produce most of their cabinetry with the less durable 3/8″ sides and backs. Many home builders including Toll Brothers use these type lines because more money goes into the door styles and finishes and very little into the cabinets construction.  These lines include:  Aristocraft, Schrock, Diamond, Yorktowne, and Kemper.
• A cabinet by any other name…. Thomasville, a fine furniture company, sold the right to use their name to Home Depot to sell kitchen cabinetry.  Home Depot’s “Thomasville” cabinets are actually 3/8″ Masterbrand constructed cabinetry with the Thomasville name.  At one point Home Depot actually had Mills Pride their least expensive cabinet line making half of the Thomasville line.
• Thicker plywood sides, solid wood hanging rail, Ibeam or plywood tops, along with dovetail drawers and Blumotion tracks can be had for less. Higher end framed custom cabinets differ in finer finishes and in the availability of custom pieces  –  not construction and durability.  Kraftmaid, Woodmode Brookhaven and Main Line Kitchen Design’s Jim Bishop cabinet lines for example can all provide the same quality construction as higher priced custom alternatives.
• Selecting a Kitchen Designer is just as important as the cabinetry you select. Unfortunately accreditation in the kitchen industry is fairly nebulous.  Going to the most expensive showrooms doesn’t assure you of getting a good designer or one that has your interest at heart.  Architects are also generally less capable designers because they spend so much less time designing kitchens and therefore have so much less experience doing so.
• The best Kitchen Designers explain as much about cabinetry and design to their customers as time allows. When you know what you are buying, and why and what the negative and positive aspects of your design are, you can make an informed decision about what matters to you most, and where you want to spend more and or less.  Kitchen Designers also add NO COST as the design costs are included almost everywhere in the cost of the cabinetry.

Getting a great kitchen requires one big investment that many customers have a hard time making.  The investment of their own time.  It always surprises my customers when I tell them that we would prefer them to take more rather than less of our time making their decisions.  It is only the customers that invest too little of their own time that are ever unhappy with their selections.

The Main Line Kitchen Design team wishes everyone a wonderful new year and the best kitchens possible  …… and of course Bon Appetit!

Paul, Ray, Tom, Carol, Ed, and Julie

CONGRATULATIONS to Nadim E Saade the winner of the iPad drawing.
We will be contacting Nadim via facebook to get the address to send his iPad.
STAY TUNED for our next promotion that we will alert everyone to in the next few weeks.

In an effort to obtain Likes on our facebook page we will hold a raffle on January 2nd 2012.  We will select at random someone who has liked the Main Line Kitchen Design facebook page.  The person selected will receive a free iPad.  We will notify the winner via facebook on January 3rd and will UPS the iPad to the address the winner requests.  The receipt will be included so that winner will be able to exchange, return, upgrade to 4G, etc at any Apple store.  So like us now and you might be updating your facebook page on an iPad in January!

Below is the link to our facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Main-Line-Kitchen-Design/109096125835251

Good luck and a Happy New Year to all,

Paul, Ray, Carol, Ed and Julie   Main Line Kitchen Design

Below is an article praising my sometimes lauded, sometimes maligned, tell it like it is approach to kitchen design. One of the nice things about Main Line Kitchen Design is that if this approach doesn’t work for you then Ray, Carol or Ed are wonderful designers thankfully not blessed with my tough love approach:

Even after the inconvenient and dusty construction process, the contractor Eric Spiro appears to have retained our customers undying affection. A feat even more challenging then Kitchen Design.

Hoping all is well with everyone and as our patron chef used to say in her very distinctive voice Bon Appetit!

Paul

Architects began raising the ceiling in higher priced homes in the 1980′s.  Partly to make  homes feel more spacious and partly as an inexpensive design feature to give homeowners  more for a very small increase in price.  Homes still had the same floors, basements, mechanicals, fixtures, and roofs, only the walls were stretched a little.  Building products  followed with 9 ft  studs and drywall becoming standard, and the cost for this added feature became even less.

Unfortunately 9 ft ( 108 inches ) is inconvenient for kitchen design and doesn’t create the best visual designs.  Adding  a few inches would  allow designers to stack cabinetry with appealing size cabinet doors.  Subtracting a few inches  leaves room for slightly smaller more appropriate sized moldings.  Alas, Architects live to make functional and appealing kitchen design a challenge.

One of the most dramatic and least expensive solutions to the 108 inch dilemma is a tray or coffered ceiling.  Below is an example of each.

COFFERED CEILING

TRAY CEILING

The cabinetry is appropriately sized in both these built-in designs and  the tray or coffered ceiling will cost less to to build than the cost of  stacking the cabinetry to the ceiling.

So if your ceiling height is 108″, before you start stacking cabinetry, staggering cabinet heights, or installing more traditional soffits.  Take at least a moment to consider the tray or coffered ceiling.

…..and remember at Main Line Kitchen Design things are always looking up.

Jack Gardiner from Third Generation Contracting

610-331-2324

posted this youtube video of a Main Line Kitchen Design customer’s kitchen progressing from before to a much improved after.

The cabinetry and the design is ours, the detailed quality installation is all Jack’s.