Doug and Paul explain why managing a customer’s regret is one of the primary jobs of a kitchen designer.
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Below is a video of Doug Motterhead and Paul McAlary discussing managing customer regret when designing a kitchen and doing a kitchen renovation.
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I think it’s surprising to most people that being a truly good kitchen designer is not about giving customers what they think that they want. This is why I don’t like the catch phrase less experienced kitchen designers often repeat. “That they want to make their customers dreams a reality.”
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Being a great kitchen designer is about showing customers things they hadn’t considered and helping them to make sensible choices once they have have all the options. Seldom do customers choose the design they initially dreamed of once they are better informed. We simply wouldn’t be good kitchen designers if customers didn’t choose different ways to spend their budget and different designs after getting help from a qualified professional.
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I think it is also surprising to most customers that telling them what is bad about any particular kitchen design is more important than what’s good about that design. And ALL kitchen designs have there good and bad points. This is what we are speaking of when we talk about managing regret. IE Making sure that whatever the design choices a customer makes, that they are fully aware of that designs pluses and minuses, and have no regrets when their renovation is complete.
Some kitchen design features are mutually exclusive.
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Most of our customers come to us with a kitchen wish list. Many also do not understand that certain features preclude others. Here are the top 5:
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1 Cabinetry reaching the ceiling without a two piece crown molding system, or for contemporary cabinet styles, a one piece flat molding to level the cabinetry. Wall cabinetry and tall pantry cabinetry can never be put all the way to the ceiling without some way to level the cabinetry and even stand up the tall cabinets in the room. In an over zealous attempt to gain every last inch of storage, amatuer designers often try to use 42″ wall cabinets and 96″ tall cabinets in a room 96″ high. The results are always disastrous.
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Proper use of a 2 piece crown molding
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2 Large hoods and large doorways. Many customers want large hoods or hearths over and surrounding their range or cooktop. To look proportional wider hoods need longer walls to make the wall cabinetry on ether side of the hood also look proportional and not too skimpy. Leaving larger doorways on the same wall detracts from the look of the hood and can even make them look silly.
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Large hood with plenty of room left on either side
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3 Squeezing an island into a space that’s too tight. Nearly every customer wants an island in their kitchen. Generally the bigger the better. Often customers have seen islands they like online in kitchens far larger than theirs that they want to replicate in their own kitchen. If you want a functional and attractive kitchen there are set distances that must be followed to leave the proper space around any island. Ignoring these design rules can actually destroy the value of the renovation you are undertaking.
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A large island that fits
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4) Top of the line appliances are not always best. Professional appliances are not only very expensive but they are generally larger and require a lot of additional space. For example the cost difference between a 42″ SubZero refrigerator and a 36″ counter depth refrigerator might be 6 or 7 thousand dollars. Not only is 6 inches of space lost in the kitchen as both refrigerators have the same storage capacity but the added investment is often better spent on construction changes or other features. Removing a wall or soffit, moving a doorway, or enlarging windows can be far more dramatic than the upscale refrigerator.
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More appliances but with enough room
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5) Adding a powder room to increase the value of a home only works if the doorway does NOT open into the kitchen or dining area. Some people may chuckle at how obvious this is but we are regularly amazed how often customers are considering this. Additionally this is against building code. Good designers can usually find a better location for a “must have” powder room.
Exposure to the silica dust created cutting and polishing Engineered quartz countertops is giving some workers severe silicosis a fatal lung disease
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The Center for Desease Control has issued the following warning: “Silicosis is an incurable occupational lung disease caused by inhaling particles of respirable crystalline silica. … Because quartz, a type of crystalline silica, is commonly found in stone, workers who cut, polish, or grind stone materials can be exposed to silica dust.”
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Engineered Quartz Countertop Fabrication
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While inhaling dust from the cutting and polishing of all countertops is unhealthy, the fabrication of engineered quartz countertops has been found to be especially dangerous. NPR reported in October that the “artificial stone used to make kitchen and bathroom countertops has been linked to cases of death and irreversible lung injury in workers who cut, grind and polish this increasingly popular material.” Some scientists are comparing the dangers of cutting quartz countertops with coal mining.
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In 2016, OSHA issued new workplace limits on how much silica could be in the air at countertop fabrication sites. Unfortunately a year later, the incoming Trump administration canceled the safety agency’s national emphasis program for silica.
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Example of a quartz countertop
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Main Line Kitchen Design presently sells Quartz countertops. But the time has come for responsible retailers to investigate the conditions at the fabrication sites where the engineered quartz that we sell is cut and polished.
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Main Line Kitchen Design will talk to industry experts at the National Kitchen and Bath Industry Show, KBIS, held this January in Las Vegas. After we return from the show, we will speak to our fabricators and try to ascertain if their workers are being exposed to these dangers from the countertops we sell.
If we determine that we can not sell Quartz countertops without endangering the lives of the people who fabricate them we will cease selling Engineered Quartz countertops.
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Wishing all our customers and the people we work with a safe and happy Holiday Season.
. . . And of course. . .
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Bon Appetit!
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Paul, Julie, Ed, Chris, John, Lauren, Tom and Stacia
Main Line Kitchen Design gives advice to a DIYer on remodeling their home on their own.
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Below is a post from one of our blogs by a homeowner contemplating remodeling their home. Paul’s detailed answer stresses the do’s and don’ts for DIYers.
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Question: We are thinking about remodeling our six bedroom home this summer. I’m praying I can do a wonderful job. Any tips?
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Paul’s Answer
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Success in renovating a home requires the same thing as any other project.
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First – Doing the research to understand what’s involved in the project. And after researching deciding correctly what parts of the work you are capable of doing yourself and what you will need to get professionals for.
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Fortunately we now have Youtube and the internet so you don’t necessarily have to go to the library. Spend at least 20% of the time it will take to do a project researching how to do it the way professionals do and planning it. Then you can reasonably attempt the project yourself.
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Assuming you know how to do things you are not trained for is the most common mistake for amateurs and less competent professionals.
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For example most homeowners believe that they know how to paint or even wall paper. They foolishly believe that there is little to know in these simpler renovation tasks. However there is a great deal to learn and not learning assures a very poor job. Professionals will often spend longer prepping the work area than actually painting or wallpapering.
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Find out what tools professionals use. You may be doing a renovation yourself to save money, but if you aren’t using the tools needed to do the job well you will certainly fail. Tools won’t be expensive and will pay for themselves in the time you save. Learn how to repair and prep drywall, how to use a caulk gun, plaster, sand, prime, size for wallpaper. Follow the procedures laid out in detail on the videos you watch and the books or articles you read.
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For example one difference between a professionals work and an amateurs in painting is that a professional might use up to a case (12 tubes) of caulk prepping walls and trim work in just a single room for an older home while an amateur might use zero and not even own a caulk gun much less know how to use it. The difference in the finished product is staggering.
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As a kitchen designer I can assure you that designing a kitchen well is not possible without the help of an experienced and talented kitchen designer.
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Fortunately most cabinet dealers supply design help free of charge as it is incorporated into the cost of the cabinetry. Designing your kitchen yourself especially if you are an architect, engineer, real estate professional or contractor means you haven’t grasped the fundamental concept that you don’t know what you haven’t done professionally.
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The worst designs we see as kitchen designers ALWAYS come from these professions because they arrogantly assumed that they knew enough to design a kitchen and did little or no research. Smart professionals in these fields KNOW they need professional kitchen design help, and that it is free, and so collaborate with kitchen designers at the cabinet dealers they chose.
. Buying RTA cabinets or IKEA saves about 20% on cabinetry but you still must put cabinets together and you have no qualified professional kitchen designer to help you design, plan, and organize your kitchen renovation. This makes no sense, but is all the rage. The best contractors, and architects would never buy RTA cabinetry so why do homeowners and less experienced pros assume this is a good idea. The answer is the IKEA effect a common delusion that effects most do-it-yourselfers. . The distinguished researchers that named The Ikea Effect found that the majority of human beings would rate their first attempt at complex origami as better than a lifelong origami maker’s. This exaggerated over evaluation of their ability is telling and dangerous for DIY re-modelers.
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As humans we can be delusional and in denial. We see examples in our politics, and in our personal lives. The smartest and most rational person is always the person that admits they don’t know something and then does the research needed. . Because as humans we tend to delude ourselves, critical thinking and self evaluation are surprisingly important on any large scale DIY renovation. IE knowing what you don’t know.
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Below is our blog on this subject with a funny video that makes this point!
Check Out These Kitchen Related Quotes From Celebrities
“Kitchens should be designed around what’s truly important—fun, food, and life.”—Chef/restaurateur Daniel Boulud
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“I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.” ― W.C. Fields
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“I wish my stove came with a Save As button like Word has. That way I could experiment with my cooking and not fear ruining my dinner. ” ― Jarod Kintz
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“It does not matter how expensive your kitchen is if you are a bad cook.” – Loesje
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“I love what you might call brutal elegance. Where form and function are really obvious. There is nothing easily broken in this house.”—Actress Meg Ryan
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“Most people start out wanting to go for their fantasy, but end up painting their walls dove-white.”—Shopkeeper/interior decorator Rayman Boozer
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“I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate.” – Julia Child
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Wishing the Happiest of Holidays to all our customers and friends, and of course….
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Bon Appetit!
Main Line Kitchen Design
Paul, Julie, Ed, Chris, John, Lauren, Tom and Stacia
Homeowners often use home centers like Lowes and The Home Depot to design their kitchens and to buy cabinetry. I have often defended home centers as not a bad place to work with if you are designing a kitchen and you do a good job finding the most experienced home center designer in your area. And contrary to what many people believe both Lowes and The Home Depost sell well made cabinets if they are upgraded as needed.
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However due to a combination of poor decisions made at the corporate level, I now feel that particularly Lowes, but also The Home Depot, are poor locations to design and to buy a kitchen. I’ll explain in detail below:
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Lowes
The corporate environment at home centers has always been at odds with what is required to design and sell complex kitchen renovations. In the past, home center kitchen designers worked around company policies that hindered doing their job effectively. The reason for the lack of support by home center management is that designing kitchens is very different from retail sales.
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Designing and helping organize a kitchen construction project requires a great deal of knowledge and experience. Unlike selling retail merchandise where only a limited knowledge of the products you sell is required, designing kitchens requires far more expertise. Knowledge of complex kitchen cabinetry, countertop specifications, kitchen design, and of all types of construction is a must. Because of this quite often kitchen designers at both home centers were paid in line with department managers.
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As time has gone by home centers have continued to decrease what they are willing to pay kitchen designers and both Lowes and The Home Depot have tried to limit their responsibility in designing and managing kitchen renovations. For example both locations no longer allow the person designing your kitchen to ever see your home, or measure your kitchen. Both home centers also recently decided not to design or install kitchens that remove load bearing and even non load bearing walls. Despite the fact that over half of all kitchen renovations today involve removing a wall. This policy makes sense when you decide not to employ good kitchen designers, as it limits your liability.
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Lowes, in particular recently made sure that no experienced kitchen designers would work for them. About 5 years ago Lowes eliminated commission for their kitchen designers. At that time, their best designers earned double their salary in commissions, so to avoid a complete employee walk out, Lowes agreed to increase the salary of their experienced kitchen designers by 50% of their commissions from the previous year. So a designer that might have made 70K was suddenly making only $52,500.
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Main Line Kitchen Design’s phone rang off the hook with kitchen designers looking for work following this cruel decision by Lowes Corporate. Shockingly last month Lowes told all those kitchen designers still working for them that they were going back in time and reducing their pay by the 50% they gave them 5 years before. So now a designer that might have been making 70K in 2014 now makes 35K. This guarantees two things. First that no good kitchen designer will continue to work for Lowes and second that any experienced kitchen designer still working for Lowes will be insensitive to their customers needs and angry with their employer.
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The Home Depot
The Home Depot has been less aggressive in their devaluation of the kitchen design profession but they have continued to undermine it, and under pay their designers. Designers can no longer measure their kitchens, move walls and doorways as needed, or even take responsibility for their designs. Contractors are expected to verify all measurements and take responsibility for any discrepancies. Home Depot kitchen measures that were once quite detailed and took over an hour are now routinely under 20 minutes.
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Lowes and The Home Depot also continue to have disingenuous sales. Pressuring customers to buy now or miss a sale that is manufactured on a regular basis. These sales drive closings on kitchens often before it’s sensible to be ordering. And home centers are generally not less than 5% from their competitors in price, even with sales. In fact, they are sometimes more expensive. Cabinet pricing from an independent cabinet dealer must be similar, when the independent dealer carries the same cabinet lines.
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IKEA
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The lucrative kitchen cabinet market has lured other retailers besides IKEA such as Costco into selling kitchen cabinets. But again, without the benefit of a true kitchen designer. As is so often the case, greed and a lack of knowledge is dangerous.
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Kitchens are far too expensive and complicated not to have a professional kitchen designer advising you on the important decisions you have to make during a detailed renovation. And investing in a poor kitchen design can not only waste money, it can actually devalue your home. Buying poorly made cabinets like IKEA is no longer even inexpensive, as many better constructed import lines are available. IKEA has also recently downgraded their cabinet construction making them a particularly poor choice in kitchen cabinetry.
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In my opinion, working with home centers when renovating a kitchen is no longer sensible. Here are some of our related blog posts:
Main Line Kitchen Design does an analysis of the storage space advantage of frameless vs framed cabinetry.
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Many customers select European frameless cabinetry over more classic framed cabinetry because they want additional storage. This isn’t surprising since the drive to maximize storage space in a kitchen is frequently the motivating factor for many kitchen decisions. However, often the reasoning behind these decisions is either flawed or the advantage is overvalued.
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Let’s do some math to compare the additional space gained by using frameless cabinetry over more durable framed cabinet construction.
Frameless Cabinet
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Above is a cross section of a cabinet built using the frameless method of construction. Notice the cabinet box is simply a back, bottom, top, and sides. The front of the cabinet is missing. Below is an example of a framed cabinet. Notice the front frame on the cabinet that the drawer passes through and that the hinges and hardware is attached to.
Framed Cabinet Box
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Better made framed cabinets usually use 1/2″ thick sides and a solid wood face frame with horizontal and vertical pieces 1 1/2″ wide x 3/4″ thick. Better made frameless cabinetry uses 3/4″ thick sides and the cabinet has no front at all. This means that the hinges and drawer tracks are all attached to plywood or particle board sides on a frameless cabinet as apposed to solid wood on a framed line. However it also means that all roll outs, drawers, and pull outs must pass through the reduced size opening in the front of a framed cabinet.
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What’s the difference in storage between the two options?
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Lets do the math!
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First the inside of both boxes are essentially the same since the width of the inside of a cabinet is identical in both framed and frameless examples. And while the frame does take up a tiny bit of space it is far less than 1% of the total cabinet space. It is only in the drawers and the roll outs that space is reduced significantly by the moving parts needing to pass through a smaller cabinet front opening. This also means that both framed and frameless wall cabinets contain the same amount of space. This is because it is only in the base cabinets and the bottom of the tall cabinets that drawers and roll outs can be used.
Frameless kitchen
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Each drawer or roll out in any cabinet will lose 3/4″ of space on each side so that the inside of every drawer in a framed line will be 1 1’2 ” narrower than in a frameless line. For an average cabinet of 24″ in width this means that the storage capacity of any drawer or roll out is reduced about 8%. More in narrower cabinets but less as the cabinet gets wider. So were a cabinet to have all drawers or all roll outs the most that the storage space would be reduced on average would be 8 %. A cabinet with only a top drawer would only lose storage space for that top drawer and the cabinet below would hold the same amount. So without roll outs a typical base cabinet with only a top drawer would lose at most 2% total storage. We are simplifying the calculations due to some other minimal factors we are not taking into account but we are also being liberal in the overall storage savings.
Framed beaded inset kitchen
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Most kitchen use more drawers and roll outs today so assuming that the bottoms of most tall and base cabinets use drawers or roll outs lets say 6% of all the bottom cabinetry is lost. Since none of the storage in the tops of tall cabinets and wall cabinets loses space certainly the overall kitchen won’t lose more than 4% of it’s storage space using framed vs frameless cabinetry.
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A 4% loss of storage space is not such a large number. By comparison choosing a range and a microwave hood above it in a kitchen can save 10% of the total storage in a small kitchen versus a design using a cooktop and a wall oven and microwave wall oven with a hood above the cooktop. Dividing cabinetry to create small spice pull out cabinets or tray divider cabinets can lose a similar 4% in a small kitchen. Even adding decorative 3″ wide legs on either side of a cooktop or sink would lose 5% of the base cabinet storage in a small kitchen. 10% if you did it in both places.
Contemporary acrylic European style cabinetry
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Frameless cabinetry is less durable than framed cabinetry because there is no solid wood front on the cabinet. Cabinet fronts protect the cabinet box and frameless cabinet front edges are just 1/4″ thick edge banding at best. Having hinges and tracks screwed to the solid wood frame and screwing each frame to the faceframe next to it is what makes well made framed cabinetry capable of holding up over a lifetime. Face frames do get in the way which is why frameless cabinetry is also called “easy access cabinetry”.
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Our take away from these space calculations and considering the durably issues is that we do not recommend using frameless cabinetry unless some of their other added benefits come into play. Most notably, there is no question that if you want very contemporary slab doors in your kitchen these modern styles look better on frameless European style cabinets.
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Door and drawer gaps on frameless cabinets are 1/4″ tighter due to how the frameless hinges operate and that gap makes a big difference in making a contemporary kitchen look sleek, modern, and stylish. Because of this the most modern foil, acrylic, and laminate slab doors styles will only be available in frameless cabinet lines. However raised panel and recessed panel door styles like the popular shaker style look fine in framed lines.
Frameless modern “Steam Punk” styling
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So before you jump into a decision of one cabinet construction type over another, consider your options and do the math!
Kitchen and Bath Design News, the premier industry magazine for kitchen and bath designers and industry suppliers, featured 50 top innovators in the kitchen and bath industry in their October issue. Main Line Kitchen Design’s President Paul McAlary was selected as one of these top innovators.
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The Bio from the article is below:
Paul McAlary possesses a voice that resonates far beyond the boundaries of Philadelphia’s western suburbs and the city’s prestigious Main Line – the location of his well-established Delaware Valley design firm. McAlary, president and senior designer of Bala Cynwyd, PA-based Main Line Kitchen Design, is an internationally recognized kitchen design authority who has won more than a dozen local and national design awards, including being named a 2017 Viking Appliances Designer of Distinction. Beyond his achievements as a designer, McAlary has also forged a burgeoning reputation as the creative force behind the “Main Line Kitchen Design Blog,” a unique online forum and social media resource that is read by more than 40,000 people each month and has been honored as one of the top kitchen design blogs in the world. Main Line Kitchen Design’s videos and blogs address a wide range of kitchen/bath-related topics aimed at sparking a constructive exchange of ideas among both consumers and design professionals. McAlary, whose kitchens and comments often appear in trade magazines and on social media sites, is sometimes at odds with the kitchen design establishment, but he maintains a distinct sense of humor and is known as a fierce advocate for design standards, ethics and transparency in the kitchen design trade.
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Paul being mentioned in an article is refreshing in that he is often a critic of The National Kitchen and Bath Association. So including him among the innovators is the type of transparency that we appreciate. Giving our customers honest appraisals of our designs and the products we sell even when the those appraisals are negative is something we always strive to do.
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Hoping our industry and the world in general continues to become more transparent. And as always a hearty . . .
Bon Appetit!
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Paul, Julie, Ed, Chris, John, Lauren, Tom and Stacia
Today, cabinets can be purchased online at prices as much as 20% below what cabinet dealers and showrooms sell them for. Some of the online cabinet sellers even make pretty well made cabinetry. So why would saving money and buying your cabinets online not make sense?
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The answer simply put, is that buying kitchen cabinets is not like buying a toaster or a pair of pants. It is the first and most important purchase that locks you into a renovation, design and construction strategy. And it is just the tip of the iceberg. Many thousands of dollars in choices are made after finalizing the kitchen design and purchasing the cabinets. Flooring, countertop, lighting, backsplash, appliances, sinks, fixtures, molding, and even the types and locations of windows and doors determine how your kitchen functions. How much you decide to spend on these choices determines whether your money is well spent or wasted.
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When you buy cabinets online or at IKEA, Costco, or other extreme discount retailers, you are giving up having knowledgeable kitchen design help. Having a professional measure your home, weigh design choices and help you make effective decisions is worth far more than what you might possibly save on cabinetry. Without expert design help the majority of kitchen renovations are a waste of money and poorly designed. Left to their own devices, homeowners nearly always spend more and spend it ineffectively.
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The truly sad part for these homeowners and the frustrating part for good kitchen designers is thatbecause people aren’t kitchen design professionals, they seldom realize howproblematic the choices they are making are. See our funny video on this topic here.
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Even worse, are the homeowners who recognize how much better their design is after working with an expert but, after getting good design help, go right back and buy cabinetry online. Homeowners who do this are essentially asking their contractors to install their kitchens blindfolded. And they are giving up the important advice needed to coordinate the other materials they select. Good designers both remain involved and are needed during the installation process and for help coordinating materials. During the installation process, contractors working with Main Line Kitchen Design contact us on a regular basis to confirm and confer on nuances for installing the best kitchen available. Customers who don’t finish the design process and buy discount cabinets online end up making poor decisions that result in costly mistakes they will live with every day.
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Embarking on a $20,000 – $200,000 kitchen renovation without the help of an expert kitchen designer makes no sense. And, every kitchen we see designed by architects, contractors, interior designers, or other pseudo kitchen professionals always contain major design flaws and substantial overspending. The expert help from kitchen designers is included in the price of the cabinetry. Opting to save a small amount by purchasing cabinets online ends up costing much more in bad decisions and substantially lower resale value.
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Still considering buying your cabinets online? Invest 10 minutes in a call with us or any kitchen design professional first. The well designed kitchen you end up will be worth much, much more than what you think you will save buying cabinets online.
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Bon Appetit!
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Paul, Julie, Ed, Chris, John, Lauren, Tom and Stacia
