I did my first kitchen project my first year in business. It was straight out of the aisles of home depot for a close friend of mine. He had just purchased his first townhouse and we were on a tight budget. I remember learning so much on that project, and to be quite honest on every kitchen project since. Since then, I have upped my game, refined my process, and honed my skillset, but many of those lessons I carry with me today. 

This blog is intended to give you some insight as to how I approach a kitchen project. Not necessarily from an install perspective, but how I go from concept to design, to ordering cabinets. Please let me know if you have any questions.

First off, I would highly suggest that you create relationships with cabinet showrooms or designers early on in your career. Base your systems off a program that works for all parties involved. This will make for the most seamless and successful project possible. For myself, I approach kitchens two different ways. 

The first way is to send my customers to a full-service kitchen showroom or design company who designs and sells the cabinets. This option is more hands off for me, but it does have its drawbacks. Being that I am not as closely involved, details and design issues may fall through the cracks. This can end up compromising the design or costing me time and money on the back end. I am also not selling the cabinets in these situations, so there is less of an opportunity to make money. I basically get a kickback for the referral. The positives are that it requires less work for me, and I have an opportunity to use any brand of cabinet on our projects.

When I send a customer directly to a cabinet showroom or designer, the process is relatively straightforward. We discuss budget, needs, style, and who may be a good fit to design/sell the products. I connect the parties, and then remain engaged throughout the process to ensure I am a valuable resource. The designer will send me the plans to review, we will make any changes necessary, obtain approvals, and then the client will order the cabinets through the designer or dealer. I receive compensation through a kickback, and then the cabinets arrive at the jobsite. The designer or showroom is responsible for any issues or fixes, but I will install the kitchen. 

The second way, which tends to be more common for me, is to sell the cabinets directly to the customer. I am a dealer for a couple of cabinet brands within my area. I do not sell cabinets to other contractors, customers, or designers; only my own kitchen remodels. The pros to this approach are that I can really control the process, I can make a considerable amount more money through markups and my time, and I can tailor the design as to how I see fit. Communication is comprehensive, thorough, and streamlined. The downside to this is that it requires a lot more work on my behalf, there is more liability, more responsibility, and more risk.

When selling cabinets directly to the customers, it requires a heavy lift on my end. Typically I approach this by understanding the customers’ wants/needs, discussing design/budget, and then doing a preliminary measure. At this point I will send those measurements to a woman I work with who does a basic floor plan. We determine an approximate cost for her to design the kitchen, produce drawings, redline/modify the drawings, and then submit an acknowledgement to the cabinet company. Once we approve the cost of design we will begin laying out the kitchen. 

First the designer will provide me with 1-2 layout options for the customer to review. We will make any necessary changes, and then submit an order for preliminary pricing. Once we confirm that the quote is within budget, I will schedule a time to meet with the designer at the home. We will measure the space together, discuss any challenges, go over details and design elements with the customer, and then further revise the design. Once the revisions are made, the designer will send them to me, and I will create shop drawings and specs for all of the cabinets that need special attention. At this point I am looking at the kitchen from an installer’s perspective. Where do we need scribes, what portions of the cabinet will need to be knockdown, are the trims the correct size, do we have any clearance or interference issues, how must the cabinets be fabricated to work with the appliances, where do we need oversized and extended panels, etc. I am going through the entire design and creating detailed drawings for each and every cabinet that requires them. This is extremely time consuming but critical to proper design and execution. 

Once I finish my shop drawings and details for the kitchen, I send everything back to the kitchen designer, she compiles a cabinet package, and she submits it to the cabinet manufacturer. Once they receive the package they will generally call me to go over all of the details. Once we have determined that the communication and design is clear, they will provide me with an order acknowledgement to review. I can then ensure that everything is correct, and finally place the order. 

The goal with custom kitchen design is to plan and account for every detail humanly possible during fabrication. This is not always possible, but custom cabinets should be custom. They should not require field modifications to make them work. Especially in a situation that is avoidable with proper planning. Selling cabinets myself requires considerable more work than sending clients to a showroom, but it is the only way that I can guarantee my best chance at proper fitment. Once I pass a lead off to a showroom and the client is purchasing directly, I am absolving myself of a lot of responsibility. I discuss all of this with each potential client. Everyone has their own systems and processes, and all designers work differently. By designing and selling in house with my systems, I stand the best chance of knocking the job out of the park.