9 Steps to Getting the Kitchen You Want

By: Max Alexander, This Old House magazine (Page 1 of 4)

Illustration: Kristofor L. Kvarfordt

Enlarge this image Illustration: Kristofor L. Kvarfordt

Modern Loft
Downstairs, owner Liz Bagley wants to open up walls so she can see the water out the front of the house. So kitchen designer Kathy Marshall designated sleek, dark cabinetry and counters and lots of storage to unclutter the room and create a "contemporary loft." She also worked in a peninsula to keep the large room from feeling like a bowling alley.

Enlarge this image Illustration: Kristofor L. Kvarfordt

Seaside Cottage
Upstairs, in Chris Flynn's apartment, the same footprint gets a completely different treatment. For this "cottage by the sea," Marshall designated white beadboard and light-colored appliances. The new layout steals space from a bedroom to make a casual family room with raised bar, but preserves both a formal dining room and an informal eating area—all great for the gatherings of family and friends that Chris likes to host.

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Modern-Loft Kitchen
The original small space of Liz Bagley's kitchen opens up into what had always been a formal dining room—a feature she has no need for. Instead, the arrangement of the cabinetry leaves one corner free for a small dining table. A built-in hutch that used to divide the dining room from the kitchen will be moved upstairs for linen storage.

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Seaside-Cottage Kitchen
Chris Flynn started with the luxury of five bedrooms spread over two stories, meaning she could spare two to expand her second-floor kitchen to include a family room area and an island. A small room that held the refrigerator in the original kitchen now becomes a pantry with open shelving—an inexpensive storage solution.

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It seemed like a simple request: Give my space a "cottage by the sea" feeling. That's what Christine Flynn said when describing her dream kitchen to Kathy Marshall. Marshall is the kitchen designer charged with transforming Chris's dated space in the upstairs apartment of the two-family house that is this season's renovation on This Old House television. Marshall is doing double duty: She must also design a kitchen for Chris's niece, Liz Bagley, who owns the downstairs apartment and wants her kitchen to look like a contemporary loft.

That may not seem like much to go on, but for a designer, turning vague descriptions into fully functional dream kitchens is a daily challenge. A homeowner who's new to the process, however, has plenty to learn. Marshall's designs didn't appear overnight—the three women put in months of back-and-forth, with meetings, drawings, mock-ups, and more drawings. Every designer needs this time to truly understand what the client wants. "You can take the same space and get ten completely different kitchens," says Dana Jones, a kitchen designer from Long Beach, California. "So when people say 'Give me a nice kitchen,' I say, 'Which nice kitchen?'"

One Footprint, Two Kitchens
The house featured this season on TOH TV is a two-family. The kitchens in each apartment started out with almost identical footprints. However, the homeowners have entirely different tastes.

Chris and Liz's kitchens are good case studies in the homeowner-designer relationship. Both rooms started out with similar footprints and ended up reflecting individual tastes. "I realized that Liz's 'modern' wasn't stainless steel and high-tech," says Marshall. "It was really about minimalism, neatness, and storage." With Chris, "cottage" was not just about white beadboard, but plenty of natural light.

So how can you get your kitchen designer to find meaning in your musings? Here's a 9-step plan that will help you get the most out of the designer-client partnership, turning your time, money, and ideas into the kitchen you've always wanted.