25 Step Guide to Designing and Buying a Kitchen
A Professional Furniture Designers Guide
Step 6. Professional Design Help?
I suppose you would expect me to say that this was essential for the best kitchen design!! Well mostly yes! It is a lot to juggle when you take all the elements of a well designed and executed kitchen scheme. It is not just about the kitchen design, the manufacture and installation, especially if building works are involved, is just as important. Good project management and control of each aspect of the kitchen project cannot be ignored. I have probably saved quite a few divorces when it comes to designing kitchen layouts, choosing Kitchen styles, and putting all the elements together in a coherant manner. I am always ready to pick up the pieces, if at any time you have had enough of designing your own kitchen scheme!
Full online kitchen design service link
It is mostly free !!
Not that I believe that a good professional kitchen design service should be free in an ideal world. It is almost impossible to know who you are getting when you have your kitchen designed. Because professionals and amateurs are lumped together and indistinguishable without digging deeply, it is difficult for the professional designers to compete by charging for a better service, in a market place where it is presumed that kitchen designing is free . The tab is mostly picked up by the kitchen company tendering for your business, so if they provide you with a good professional kitchen design service, be nice to them ! An average kitchen design will have cost them at least £150 in time and labour to produce (most bespoke kitchen schemes at least £500). It is very easy to take this for granted. On the basis they get at least 1 in 3 kitchens then that is a cost of at least £450 for every kitchen that they do, so try to make their job easier !
If your local kitchen centre asks a few probing questions before coming out to see you, ie have you seen their kitchen showroom ? and will both of you be at the meeting etc ? it is an attempt to reduce this bill, by targeting genuine enquiries. It may be a surprise to you, how often this free kitchen service is abused.
How do our kitchen designers stack up ?
I believe, on a good day, if you go to a small local family run kitchen showroom, you will get an excellent level of service. Be under no illusion that this means they offer a professional design service the way I understand it . Most kitchen designers are self-taught and capable to a good level. It is possible to get by with most schemes on this basis, and for many people this is fine. But there are occasions when this level of kitchen design service is not enough.
I believe that the more you devote to the budget, and the more you care, the more important this design ability gap becomes. Having said that, there are some very small kitchen schemes, with awkward ground plans, where I have provided unique design solutions, on tight budgets, to get the business.
It is an area of amusement to me when small, one designer, kitchen companies have used my design services, to see how different they are from me in approach and design results. I have had few complaints when customers compare these results, so it is important to understand the role of professional designers in the kitchen industry.
Larger kitchen companies and their approach
I mentioned earlier the fact that you can quite often get the best design service from local small scale companies. I believe it is up to you to ask enough questions, when looking for a good design service and kitchen products. I have seen good small kitchen companies expand and lose sight of the importance of their customers. It becomes harder to seperate focus on profit, from providing a well rounded customer service. Do they recommend that better kitchen at lower profit to improve their reputation with customers ? Or go for the easy sell, with lower quality, because they have a bank manager on their back ? A large overdraft has spoilt some good people I have known over the years.
Larger kitchen companies have lost my vote, more and more, over the years, and mostly it is because they become more motivated by the kitchen sales pitch and not the quality and design. The approach seems to be to keep things simple and sell hard, so professional designers do not fit into this type of mentality. It is no surprise that I have not worked for this type of set-up for long, and the kitchen industry is full of this type of kitchen company . If your kitchen designer plays an active part in the whole process from kitchen design to installation and has direct involvement with the trade people, then he or she cannot hide from a bad design !! If they work full-time from a local kitchen showroom they cannot hide from their responsibilities if you wish to speak to them when things go wrong with the design !
Larger kitchen companies often actively keep designers away from the customer , because they know it costs them more money if the designer is involved in an installation. If they change your kitchen design to save money, it is easier if they get an installation manager to say that the designer agreed to lose that special order kitchen unit, so that they can fit the kitchen on-time, when really they forgot to order it !! Also you are more inclined to agree with them, if you have no kitchen designer to-hand to back you up.
When you get to the scale of the sheds and direct sales kitchen companies then the design skills degenerate further, and the installation, which is farmed out to sub-contract trades, becomes more important to look into.
I have recently worked with a kitchen company that provided sub- contract labour to a local national shed and was appalled by the total lack of experience from design through ordering to installation.The installation charges were also nearly double that of your average local kitchen company. So look locally if you have a choice of kitchen companies and start small.
Conclusions
Start at your local small kitchen company, ask lots of questions about their type of design service, ask to see examples of their work, and ask them to explain their reasons for their kitchen designs. Have they any recommendations, or kitchen schemes completed for people you know?
Unfortunately A smart kitchen showroom is not always everything, and can sometimes be a front to a direct kitchen sales organisation, so be wary. I will cover this later.
Getting more than one kitchen company to design your kitchen for comparison is always wise, but be careful not to be confused by too many opinions.
Friends and family will always have an opinion, and quite often confuse you with the best intentions. It is better to employ a kitchen designer you can relate to, and confide in, and stear clear of too much exterior influence. Quite often your friends advise is motivated by jealousy and self interest, and not have your best interests at heart.
Lastly I am always happy to discuss your scheme and provide a professional design service at whatever stage you are at.
Full online kitchen design service link
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