9.1) Most Popular Posts Posts

At Main Line Kitchen Design ninety percent of our customers come to us believing that they know the kitchen design that they would like. Customers are confident that they just need to shop around for cabinet lines, styles, and colors. Surprisingly the vast majority of our customers end up getting very different designs than what they asked us for initially. Why? The answer might surprise you!

It’s because we don’t do the designs our customers ask for in the initial design we present to them.

When customers tie the hands of the professionals helping them with pre-selected layouts, appliances, and colors they will never see the best designs for their kitchen and will probably pay more than they needed to for their renovation. If the kitchen design professional measures and works on redesigning a kitchen space independent of the clients initial wishes customers often select those designs or ones close to them.  Additionally because customers don’t realize that subtle color and style changes can reduce cabinetry costs significantly designers can save money making small compromises in color or style to free up other money.

The common consumer strategy of asking 3 different kitchen designers at three different cabinet dealers to price out a layout not done by an expert in three separate cabinet lines usually results in  making poor choices beyond just the kitchen design.

I advise customers to treat selecting a cabinet dealership and their kitchen designer like they would selecting an auto mechanic. You want to hear the mechanics advice and you want to shop for the garage that gets the best reviews and that customers recommend for reasonable pricing and good service. You don’t want to tell the mechanic what to do without his or her input and I always let the mechanic recommend the parts and manufacturer they think best serves my needs. This way I take advantage of the expertise of the professional who has spent a lifetime learning their trade.

At Main Line Kitchen Design all our designers are instructed to do their first designs to achieve the best kitchen possible within a customers budget. Even if they have to ignore requests made by the customer.  There is always time to make the changes that our customer wants. We know from experience that compromise and collaboration is what creates the designs people love most. And that just giving customers what they ask for is the easy and less professional path.

Hoping your kitchen designer is brave enough to show you beyond what you ask for.

and as always . . .

Bon Appetite!

Paul

Kosher kitchens are an interesting meeting between very specific traditions and what can be accomplished with technology to make adhering to those traditions more convenient and the resulting kitchens still efficient and easy to work in.

Generally, the kitchen design process is  about making trade–offs between the pros and cons of each of the design elements. As all Main Line Kitchen Design customers learn, creating the best kitchen designs requires both customers and their designers to be flexible about wish lists such as giving up some positive aspects or desires to gain better designs or to save money for other splurges.

Kosher kitchens add additional requirements to designing a kitchen that limit what trade–offs are possible. This generally makes designing a kosher kitchen more of a challenge, particularly for less experienced designers. Over the past few years, new material and fixture choices, and high tech appliances with Sabbath mode settings and other conveniences have made designing a great kosher kitchens easier for kitchen designers familiar with the newest products and materials.

The web site Star-K is a wonderful resource for designers and homeowners planning a kosher kitchen. Star-K explains the strictest interpretations of kosher rules and guidelines, and helps in evaluating the newest Sabbath mode appliances. Keep in mind when using Star-K that, even the most orthodox Rabbis sometimes have different opinions on what materials can be considered kosher. Accordingly, we recommend checking with your Rabbi if you are considering using Quartz or Corian countertops, dishwasher drawers, or other surfaces, fixtures, or appliances that can fall into a grey area on the kosher scale.

The following appliance innovations further demonstrate this fascinating meeting between technology and tradition:

Refrigerator/Freezer Doors placed in Sabbath Mode that:

1. will not cause circulation fans to go on/off. (kosher)
2. will not activate any tones or digital readouts. (kosher)
3. will not affect defrost cycle.  (kosher)
4. will not turn on interior appliance lights. (kosher)
5. pause automatic ice makers. (kosher).

Sabbath Mode Ovens 

While very popular are in the kosher grey area. Many Sabbath Mode Ovens will do a vast array of  anything you preprogram them for but most of these amazing conveniences do not meet the strict criteria of Star-K and other orthodox rabbinical groups. As a result, simpler and less automated ranges are the most appropriate when considering the strictest halachic concerns.

Being a kitchen designer means designing great kitchens for all your customers. Our job is not to determine the style of our customers’ kitchen. It is to help them implement their style whether it is simple Modern or ornate French Country. With kosher kitchens, our job also is to understand the level of compliance our customers and their Rabbis are comfortable with and to design within those boundaries.

Hoping your kitchen designer places your style and preferences above their own in helping you create a great kitchen together.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 

. . . and of course . .

Bon Appetite!

Paul, Julie, Ed, John, Stacia, and Tom

Main Line Kitchen Design

Meticulous Details Lead to Tremendous Results

At Main Line Kitchen Design, we’ve seen our share of kitchens but we’ve never seen one like we recently saw in Iceland! Main Line Kitchen Design president Paul McAlary and his wife Julie Meyer traveled to the incredible country of Iceland where they experienced waterfalls, a glacier, a lava cave, hot springs and the capital city Reykjavik dining phenomenon known as Nostra, which mean meticulous details in Icelandic.

Ordering is simple – 4, 6 or 8 courses and with or without recommended wine pairings. Then, the performance, begins.

Appropriately enough, we were started off with an ‘amuse bouche’ accompanied by a 2017 Tunglskin Hauksson Weine.

The pedestal plate contained a handcrafted cheese enclosed in a edible vegetable wrap. The larger plate was a seaweed wafer. The very complimentary wine is grown and vinted by an Icelandic office worker who recently relocated to Switzerland to pursue his dream of growing grapes and making wine (www.haukssonwine.com).

Our second course was “tiled” salmon over a skyr (Icelandic yogurt) mousse and topped with trout roe. It was paired with a Chilean pinot noir. Both the mousse and roe perfectly complimented the paper thin salmon and left us eagerly anticipating the next courses.

Course no. 3 was potatoes ‘vichyssoise’ sauteed with leeks and Karl Johan mushrooms. The paired wine took us halfway around the world for an outstanding New Zealand Chardonnay. When asked how we enjoyed this course, Julie responded ‘It’s everything I don’t like and it was wonderful!’

Course no. 4 was a barbecued carrot with pistachios, horseradish and skyr. Each item on the plate – including the incredibly flavorful parsley – had their own bold unique flavor that combined for a completely unexpected wonderful combination. We later learned the secret of the standout parsley – stay tuned. We remained in New Zealand for this wine pairing – this time, a New Zealand cab that perfectly complimented the tangs in the barbecue sauce and horseradish.

The evening’s fifth course was plaice (fish) salsify (root vegetable), caviar and sauce nage. As with each course that preceded it, each ingredient combined for a perfect blend of flavor and texture. We made it to France for the wine pairing which presented a unique blend of its own. It was
a Domaine Villemajou Corbieres-Boutenac containing Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedra.

In addition to being perfectly prepared, the courses were also masterfully timed so as to allow for ample enjoyment of each followed by enough of a break to look forward to the next one which, on this evening, was tuna.

Once again, perfectly prepared and paired with tremendously imaginative ingredients. At this point, the staff invited us for a post-meal kitchen tour. We were so honored that I forgot to photograph the wine and can’t share what was paired with this course.

As it was being served, we were informed that our 7th course was a “pre-dessert”.

On this evening, whey sorbet with candied barley constituted a ‘pre-dessert’. Just as unique and incredible as everything else. We couldn’t believe there could be more but, of course, there was.

Desert was served with the description of strawberries, strawberries and more strawberries. It was more formally listed on the menu as fresh strawberries, grilled strawberry sabayonne and raw strawberry sorbet. The beverage was a sloe gin the restaurant makes on premises.

And, apparently, where’s there’s pre-dessert – there’s post-dessert-

And then! We were whisked off to the kitchen – or should I say kitchens!

From the dining room, we could see

Our behind the scenes guide was Fridrik Pordarson and our first stop was the secret to the incredibly flavorful herbs.

Nostra grows their own herbs?! Grows and dries –

Priorities are obviously different in restaurant kitchens. Cabinets are minimal and accessibility is key.

Nostra obviously had all the right recipes. And if you’re ever in Reykeyjevik, we can’t recommend it enough.

Main Line Kitchen Design’s President emerges from glacier

Until then, we wish all our customers and friends the happiest of holidays with family, friends and good food.

. . . and of course . . .

Bon Appetite!

Main Line Kitchen Design recently participated in two key fundraisers for Chester County Futures.

Chester County Futures serves low-income Chester County students (Coatesville Area, Kennett Consolidated, Oxford Area and Phoenixville Area School Districts) motivated to earn a high school diploma and post-secondary degree in order to break out of the familial cycle of poverty and become meaningful contributors to the communities in which they live.  All of their students are considered low-income by national standards.  

Main Line Kitchen Design’s Ed Sossich misses Fall Golf Scramble Championship by 1 stroke!

Stop by our Havertown/Upper Darby location to meet Main Line Kitchen Design’s new Operations Manager and Ace Golfer, Ed Sossich. Most days, Ed will be designing kitchens and keeping the Main Line Kitchen Design “trains running on schedule”. One day, last month was a bit different as he represented us at Chester County Futures 2018 Fall Golf Scramble at Broad Run Golfer’s Club in West Chester, PA.

The tournament began with Main Line Kitchen Design sponsoring both the 14th hole and the watering hole (golfers beverage of choice). At the end of the day as scorecards were turned in, Ed and his foursome turned out to be the team to beat for the 80 tournament participants! Their -12 under par held up until one of the final teams reported and they took 2nd place, just 1 stroke off the championship. 

Our Ace Golfer Ed missed out a second time on the 164 yard par 3 closest to the pin challenge. Ed’s shot landing 4’ 5” from the pin missed ‘closest to the pin’ by ½ an inch – AHH so close!  We’ll get ‘em next year!

Shortly after the golf outing, Main Line Kitchen Design president Paul McAlary and Julie Meyer were honored to attend Chester County Futures Annual Wine Tasting and Dinner.  Held in Malvern’s striking High Point, the event included multiple courses paired with expertly selected wines and spirits followed by a panel of Futures Students explaining the role of the program in their lives.  The students represented numerous area universities including Penn State and Temple. They all had ambitious majors and both their accomplishments and aspirations are an absolute inspiration.

Before the event concluded, Paul and Julie learned that they had placed the winning bids on two silent auction items including an autographed photo of Carson Wentz throwing his first Eagles touchdown.  We are honored to have contributed to such a rewarding cause and have this collectible on view at our Havertown office.

Carson Wentz throwing his first Eagles Touchdown Pass

At Main Line Kitchen Design, we are all about creating great kitchen designs and helping our customers spend their budgets wisely.  We are also about making our customers’ communities the best they can be and enjoy working with the many community organizations we are affiliated with.   

With Thanksgiving approaching, we are thankful for our valued customers, our dedicated design team and that we can give to those in need. 

Wishing everyone a heartfelt Thanksgiving …

…and of course…

Bon appetite!

Paul, Julie, Ed, John, Stacia, and Tom

Main Line Kitchen Design

Financing A Large Kitchen Project Is A Big Commitment

Kitchen renovations are one of the most expensive home remodeling projects. And, regardless of economic conditions and interest rates, financing a large home renovation can be challenging.

A  recent development helping homeowners to pay for large renovations is online banking institutions offering nearly instant financing at competitive rates.

One very quick way to apply for a loan online would be to use the SuperMoney portal link here and at the bottom of each page of the Main Line Kitchen Design website. SuperMoney assists people in getting bids from financial institutions for loans. Much like KAYAK does for hotels, SuperMoney does not loan you money directly, it simply submits your loan information to qualified responsible financial institutions and assembles a list of loan offers for you to consider. The SuperMoney website discusses additional financial information that could be useful. And SuperMoney gets very good reviews on consumer websites and with the Better Business Bureau.

Another lending route is Lightstream.  We met a Lightstream representative at the January 2016 National Kitchen and Bath Industry Show KBIS in Las Vegas. Below is a video about Lightstream from KBIS 2016. Lightstream gets good reviews from the consumers that qualify for their loans.

YouTube Video on Lightstream Lending

Homeowners should beware of predatory lenders offering free financing for 12 to 18 months and then charging retroactively over 20% interest rates on the balance. Many kitchen companies and home centers promote this deal to their customers through lenders like General Electric. There are much better alternatives to this type of loan and Main Line Kitchen Design would never participate in one of these type lending agreements.

Hoping you find reasonable financing for the project of your dreams……and of course…

Bon Appetit!

Paul, Julie, John, Stacia, Tom, and Ed

Main Line Kitchen Design

Every type of wood has different characteristics. Recently we received the edited inquiry below on our blog.

2017 Swarthmore PA Kitchen

Hi,

I am looking for cherry wood cabinets in a light stain. I do not like it when a door has very different shades of color. I read all your posts and agree that getting a veneer panel will give me a more consistent color. However, looking at photos of Kraftmaid and other brands they still have very different shades between the panel and the individual parts of the frame on the doors. What cabinet line would you recommend?

Here is an edited version of our response:

All wood pieces on a cabinet door will have color variations between each piece of wood. Cherry wood in particular. While not as severe as hickory or walnut, cherry has more color variations than many woods. Another property of cherry wood is cherry pits (small holes on the surface of the wood). These characteristics are natural and while some more expensive custom cabinet lines will have slightly less variation in their cherry cabinetry than say the Kraftmaid line you mentioned, you must expect any cherry kitchen to have these properties.

Customers that can’t accept the properties of the wood they select for their kitchen can be a nightmare for kitchen designers. Maple has mineral steaks, oak and birch are consistent but people like the grain and colors of other woods more. You can not have your cake and eat it too as the saying goes.

I think that you should not be looking for a cherry kitchen but for a wood that can look like cherry or at least be stained to a cherry-like color but that will be more consistent. Some people select maple cabinetry and a stain that has a red cherry-like tone. In the Kraftmaid line you mentioned the chestnut finish looks cherry-like on maple. Or Alder is a wood that can be more consistent than cherry, and look like cherry, but you would need a more expensive manufacturer to avoid the knots that can also be found in alder.

All good kitchen designers explain the properties of the wood and finish a customer selects to that customer. It is incredibly frustrating coming to a customer’s home to go over their concerns about their cabinets to find dozens of pieces of blue tape on cabinetry marking variations in the grain, wood tones differences, pits, or properties of the stain and glaze that were selected and that customers should have been expected. These blue tape customers will usually tell us that they “feel” that they should have gotten more consistent cabinetry for the money they spent.

When I have explained or even warned a customer repeatedly about their selections before they order their kitchen and they then have these unrealistic “feelings”, I tell them that I “feel” like I should be 6 feet tall but am actually 5’9″ and shrinking with age. While very few enjoy the joke, they get the point and we compromise from there. Replacing 3 or 4 doors that are fine but have characteristics a customer doesn’t like for an entire kitchen is fine and par for the course for kitchen designers. Customers that want more than that will find some cabinet dealers more flexible than others.

2017 Warrington PA Kitchen

Below is a list of the most common types of wood kitchen cabinetry is made from, and the properties of each type wood. And here is a link to wood descriptions from Osborne wood products.

Cherry – Larger grain. Medium to high variation in wood color. The lighter the stain the greater the variation. Cherry pits.

Oak – Large grain. Less popular today for kitchen cabinetry. Medium color consistency.

Quartersawn Oak– More popular than regular Oak. Very tight grain and very consistant in color

Maple – Light graining. Consistent color. Mineral streaks (grey blemishes)

Birch – Consistent tight light grain.

Hickory – High color variation between pieces. Expect “stripes” on your cabinets. Also large grain and some small knots are possible.

Walnut – Available in custom cabinetry. The most extreme variations in color.

Bamboo – VERY consistant VERY tight grain.

Mahogany – Usually actually Liptus wood today. Tight consistent grain.

Main Line Kitchen Design wants all our customers to love their completed kitchen. But please make sure you understand the properties of the wood you are selecting and keep the blue tape within reason.

Bon Appetit!

Paul and Julie

Main Line Kitchen Design’s second office and selection center will officially open Tuesday October 23rd. Unlike the Bala Cynwyd offices which are appointment only, the City Line Office will greet customers stopping in to make appointments and have a few questions answered prior to beginning our design process. Office Hours will be Tuesday through Saturday and posted after the October 23rd Opening.

Main Line Kitchen Design says “come on in!”

Our Bala Cynwyd offices will remain our primary design center with two offices and 3 design stations. The City Line Office located on the corner of City Ave and Barclay Rd across from the Havertown Post office has two offices but one design station. All Main Line Kitchen Design orders and projects will be expedited and scheduled out of the City Line Office primarily manned by our designer Ed Sossich. Our designer Tom Shannon, who like Ed also lives in Havertown, will find the new location convenient.

Recently completed kitchen in Malvern Pa

Customers using Route 1 and West Chester Pike, Route 3, will save travel time for meetings at our new location. Our Bala Cynwyd location remains easily accessible from The Schuylkill Expressway, Lancaster and Montgomery Avenues, and is only one block off of City Avenue.

Our new office will also share space with General Contractor AD Panaccio. Al Panaccio and his staff have been a pleasure to partner with on our many kitchens together. They were a great help setting up the new office and I know they enjoyed  watching kitchen designers try their hands at construction.

Customers who choose to hire Main Line Kitchen Design as their project management team and General Contractors will be under the AD Panaccio umbrella even though the project will be bid by and managed by Main Line Kitchen Design. This partnership will help keep our fees low and will give us an added ability to keep jobs running on schedule.

Official Main Line Kitchen Design Update

Our Web Pages, Social Media Pages, and our listings on  Houzz, Angie’s List, Porch, Home Adviser, Yelp and all other internet platforms will be automatically updated on Tuesday October 23rd.

As our company tag line says . . .

The world of kitchen design is changing .  .  .

Paul, Julie, John, Ed, Stacia, and Tom

Main Line Kitchen Design

Selecting appliances when renovating a kitchen is more complex than many people might guess. Even what appliances you are shopping for may differ from your initial thoughts once you consult with a kitchen design professional.

For example, homeowners will frequently select the type and size appliances they want without considering how those types and sizes effect their kitchen design. Sometimes even making the mistake of buying those appliances before they have met with a kitchen design professional.

Putting ten pounds of sausage into an eight pound wrapper is a common mistake. Extra wide appliances need long walls to go against, and since most homeowners are also wanting to open up their kitchen space and possibly remove walls, the longer appliances they think they want won’t fit in the revamped space they insist on.

Selections like wall ovens and cooktops instead of a range will eliminate countertop space and usually adds more than $3000 to the overall cost of a kitchen. These are the types of considerations that often are left unaddressed until resolving them can become frustrating when homeowners go shopping for their cabinetry and kitchen designer later rather than sooner. The correct sequence of events is to meet with and consult with a kitchen design professional and have them measure your space long before walls are removed and appliances are even considered.

If you have a large kitchen or a large appliance budget than it is even more important to understand how appliances you might not have originally considered such as steamers, coffee makers, speed ovens, and convection steam ovens might be attractive to you and alter your design. Attending a free cooking demonstration might also make sense. Click link here.

Once you have narrowed down your appliance selections to what can work and fit in the kitchen design you create with the help of your kitchen designer, shopping for the models you want will be much easier. The kitchen designer will also know good appliance sales places and salespeople to recommend if you would like. And researching models will be far less time consuming when you have additional direction. Main Line Kitchen Design for example usually recommends Kristin Costa and Keiffer’s Appliances to our customers.

As far as reviewing appliance models and gathering information on appliance models and brands these two web sites are great for gathering information:

Yale Appliances in Connecticut. Reviews of brands, rankings, and relevant blogs.

Brisbane Appliances. For the international perspective on appliances.

Hoping you reach out to and find a great kitchen designer BEFORE you start removing walls, buying appliances, and handcuffing your designer with decisions made prior to getting the professional help all kitchen renovations and new homes need.

. . . and of course . . .

. . . Bon Appetit!

Paul

Main Line Kitchen Design asks the question: “Do crazy kitchens have anything in common?”

I was looking for an unusual topic for this months blog, possibly with a humorous bent, and so I was inspired to try a Google image search for “crazy kitchens”. Not surprisingly there was no shortage of search results. The 6 photos of kitchens below were the oddest and most unusual.

Being a kitchen designer for going on 30 years, I suspected  the results I would find would all share some common traits on top of just being wild looking. Namely:

1. The kitchens would all be modern, contemporary, or eclectic in style.
2. The kitchens would use strange and unconventional colors,  I am not labeling them as tasteless, although some critics might.
3. The kitchens would not be very functional or convenient to work in.
4. Useful storage would be at a minimum.
5. They would not obey NKBA (The National Kitchen and Bath Association) guidelines.

Each of the kitchens below do in fact have these characteristics in common.

How could I predict the offending kitchens would all share these traits? Because the inexperienced people who create the worst kitchens are most often architects and interior designers and these styles and lack of  design considerations are common among those professions.  As the saying goes “A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.”

The worst design offenses for each kitchen are listed below each photo.

No storage areas for food. Improper venting of cooktop. Freezer door hits wall not allowing complete access. Faucet on side of sink ruins work zone. I suspect cabinetry is not being properly supported.

An eclectic mix of cabinetry and appliances that looks ridiculous. Little storage space for food, plates, and glassware. Drawers  on back of island pull out under countertop overhang. Sink and cooktop are too close. Inadequate cooktop ventilation. Sink faces wall with window too high to see out of. Many more issues.

Sink faces wall with no good work space on either side. Cabinet left of the sink will be ruined by water damage, Refrigerator door sweeps counter left of sink Freezer door hits cabinet. Window and curtains next to cooktop are a fire hazard. Lack of useful storrage. Seating extends into work area. Just curious, why not put the sink in front of one of the windows?

Tasteless mix of color. Sink faces wall. Inconvenient storage. I suspect cabinetry is not properly supported. Venting of cooktop uncertain.

Effective design for a live-alone octopus. For human beings, not so much. The biggest crime here is that the materials for this tiny kitchen exceed $40.000.00 Other issues include once again no venting for cooktop and most of the function issues listed in the previous kitchens.

Why the posts? They are in the way and prevent a decent work area on either side of the cooktop. Refrigerator placement has door hitting counter and everyone going to the refrigerator interferes with the people at the sink and the cooktop. Storage issues, and like all the poor kitchen designs above, this would be a terrible kitchen to work in.

The bathroom above won Best Bathroom  in the 2014 NKBA national competition.

Unfortunately this demonstrates that kitchen designers and the professionals judging kitchen and bath competitions can be just as crazy as the designers for the kitchens we highlighted above.

At Main Line Kitchen Design we try to do more than fulfill our customers’ dreams, we sometimes try to temper them. A dose of common sense can make the difference between something you might see in a design magazine but would never want your home to look like, and a kitchen you love that you would want to spend time in and enjoy every day.

Hoping your kitchen designer has the strength and common sense not to design you anything like the designs above!

And of course…

Bon Appetit!

Paul

Main Line Kitchen Design