Designing Your Kitchen - The Benefits of Hiring a Professional
By Aishah Coleman
 Now that you have decided that you are ready to move forward with your kitchen remodeling project, it is the time to start designing. There are several ways to approach this:
1) Do-it-yourself design;
2) Home improvement store design employee
3) Hire a professional kitchen designer
As a D.I.Yer, if you have the time and some design skills, you can tackle this on your own. Your greatest challenge will be TIME. Can you really spare it? You can purchase any type of home design program and start designing your dream kitchen, but it comes with limitations such as lack of guidance. For example, these programs can’t tell you the difference in stainless steel (yes, not all stainless steels are created equal). Your next option is utilizing the free services of the design employees at your local home improvement store. Again, TIME is a factor because you are working around that person’s schedule and when they are at work not the other way around. There are still limitations, if you want to move or add walls, you may not receive the guidance or design for that type of project. Your last option is hiring a professional kitchen designer!
A professional kitchen designer is not someone who woke up one morning and said, “Hey, I think I’m going to be a kitchen designer today”. No, No, No! A professional designer has spent years training and perfecting their skills. They have knowledge and understanding of construction, mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems and they are familiar with the local building codes.
They know how to listen to your needs and wants, make recommendations and create a design that meets and exceeds your requirements and expectations. Instead of you going through countless numbers of kitchen design books and magazines, a kitchen designer can streamline that process by showing you the products and designs based on the look you are going for. They can also pinpoint your style and taste and help you to decide what type of kitchen will be advantageous for your family.
Professional kitchen designers can recommend the newest products on the market that are not sold at your local home improvement store such as:
1. Bellavita tile – www.bellavita.com, or
2. LG Hausys quartz countertops – www.lghausys.com
Most importantly, a professional kitchen designer is there thru the construction phase to make sure that the contractor is building according to the plans.
When looking for a professional kitchen designer, your first step is to locate one on the National Kitchen and Bath Association website (http://www.nkba.org). You will have a variety of professionals to choose from, their website and contact information. The site provides consumers information about planning and other resources.
So with everything that has been covered, do you think a computer program or your home improvement design employee can do all of this for you? I don’t think so!
I hope this article has shed some light about hiring a professional kitchen designer. The next article of this series will focus on construction and what to expect before and during the construction phase.
About the Author
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| Aishah Coleman, AC Design & Development Corp.
4220 Wilder Avenue
Bronx, NY 10466
347-843-8507
If you would like to re-print this article, please contact the author.
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