I Need Help with Kitchen Design

[Fer]

Hi.
My 100+ year old bungalow's kitchen needs some updating.  Not much, but I need to utilize and reconfigure the space I have to make it more functional and efficient.

Anyone worked with a knowledgeable, qualified kitchen designer before they can recommend?

Thanks!

Fer

[dukesdad]

We used a lady named Beth Havlat. Her company is About Space, I think she lives in Western Springs. (708) 246-6672 She did drawings for us and we used probably 75% of what she did. Unless you have a very set idea in your head what you want, it's worth the $$ to get a professional perspective.

[seebee]

I can recommend a contractor, but if you already have one, I bet they have a kitchen designer in their hip pocket for you to use.
I'm not just blowing smoke here either. We did a full kitchen gut down to the studs last year. Knocked out two walls, took down a two story chimney. There are places all over, not sure if you have to pay for a consult. Home Depot and Menards even have design centers. We went through Studio 41. I think they need your dimensions - DETAILED. I don't know what they are called, but it's the drawing that your contractor does on graph paper and measures like 8 times to get it right - wall depth, window placement, doorway placements. Then the kitchen designer plugs the measurements / dimensions into their software which then spits out "best placement" of everything, then you tell the designer what you MUST have, or what you can live without. It was EXTREMELY interesting to watch real time live what our kitchen was going to look like as we designed it, real time, in the existing space, in color, 3-d. I don't know if you have to pay for a consult at these places, we did not pay at Studio 41. I'm not sure if that's because they were our contractor's "place" or not. If you don't have the drawings, I'm pretty sure that's step one to being able to walk into a design center and saying "let's see what you can do." If you don't have that and just walk into a place, I think they can only give you a generalization. Hard measurements are needed to show you exactly what your kitchen can look like. A designer will come in, then probably call a contractor. I don't see the reason to pay a designer, but that's me. I'd just have the contractor set it all up. If you plan on DIY, I'd do the measurements, and then call up a random design center (I thought the Studio 41 ppl were just fine) and set up an appt. I'd bet that any place that sells cabinets has designers on staff, and can take care of you, but you really need the drawings to get exact designs.