2: DESIGN DEVELOPMENT & SELECTION
You now have assed your needs, refined your wishlist into a scope, you have narrowed down your budget, you have your team. Now the fun really begins its time for you to make your actual selections. While work through sourcing everything you will need for your kitchen, use our Kitchen Checklist Worksheet to keep you organized. We have added tips along the way to guide you in the right direction so you can make informed decisions. If you are not sure where to start, look at our Guides on Counter tops, Cabinets, Tile, Lighting and Appliances to get informed. You will be deciding on your:
REFINE YOUR DESIGN CONCEPT |
CABINET DESIGN & LAYOUT |
Countertops, Backsplash Tile & Flooring
SELECTING HARD MATERIALS |
Appliances, Plumbing & Light Fixtures
PRODUCT SELECTION |
Window Treatments, Wall Covering, Breakfast Tables, Chairs & Stools
SELECTING SOFT MATERIALS |
the basic steps
Create Floor Plan, including the:
Lighting Plan
Look for door and cabinet swings to make sure the fixtures don’t get hit when opening a door
Center fixtures in the spaces or furniture groupings when possible
With Sconces, make sure to take into account in the following areas:
Bedroom: Headboards width and heights fitting with bedside sconces
If you mount sconces over a fireplace look at the size of the Art, Mirror or TV being mounted
If you are having sconces over bookshelves or outside a window or doorway, take into the account the width of the door frames or window casings
Sconces over or outside a vanity. Layout the spacing. This is tricky. See the Lighting Guide.
Furniture plan
Make sure furniture does not cover or hit (Windows, HVAC grills & vents, Recessed lighting or fans, Recessed ceiling or wall speakers, door swings, main traffic paths)
If this in an existing space, we love to use painters tape to tape out the furniture layout on the floor. Live with it for a day or so. See if it interferes with any other elements in the space like pathways, door swings)
Select Materials (Use our highlighted guides for additional information)
Flooring : Wood Floors, Tile Floors & Wall to Wall
Look how these materials meet. Often they can be different thicknesses and how they Jon must be planned in advance.
Windows & Doors (including hardware that often comes with sliding doors)
Crown Molding, Paneling, Window & Door Casings & Baseboard
Cabinets
Hard Materials (Countertops & Tile)
Wallcoverings: Paint, Tile & Wallpaper
Plumbing Fixtures
Light Fixtures.
Door Hardware: Interior, Exterior, Sliding, Privacy, Passage, Pocket door with lock, Sliding door
Window Treatments: Labor, Fabric, Hardware & Trim
Rugs,
Furniture,
Art and Accessories,
Additional Design Decisions
Finish work: (Wainscoting, Shiplap, Built Ins)
Stair railings, banisters and spindles
Order
Windows & Doors
Cabinets
Appliances
Plumbing Fixtures
Order Plumbing, in the framing process they will need to know where and what types of valves needed. They need to know in advance if the faucets are wall mounted, rain shower locations, vanity heights and styles.
Framing Walkthrough
At times there are areas you can call out in advance that you know might be extra heavy and you will want to add extra blocking. Examples
Heavy Window Treatments
Heavy Chandeliers
TVs
Heavy Mirrors
You need to consider where the TV is mounted, does the wall have enough blocking to support the wieght. Does the TV have built in speaker or will it require speakers, are they in the ceiling or will they be mounted to the wall or on bookcases. All these details matter. Also the relationship of the TV height and a fireplace mantle matter. The more information you have and can consider in advance, the better off you are.
Lighting Walk thrus
This is something I advice you do a few times along the way. You should know in advance where the:
Cabinets are
Furniture Layout
Dimensions of selected fixtures
Look at Outlet Locations
Great to avoid outlets in middle of a backsplash, I love to stack them to the side where I can hide them with accessories or where I know where we will be placing an appliance. (MJ DO DIAGRAMS)
Look at switch locations
There is noting worse than wanting to hang a piece of art and there is a freggin light switch in the middle of the wall. Get ahead of that, Know where you want art and plan in advance. Look at how many switches and what fixtures each box will control/ (MJ EXPAND ON THIS)
Write all this down!! This can be confusing. Keep Record
Order Light Fixtures. See our Lighting Guide with our tips on what to think about while going through this process. Here is a list of things one should consider with each fixture.
Create a Lighting Schedule. This is a useful thing to give the electricam with all locations, descriptions and specs. I like them to review everything prior to ordering. Things the Electrical will want to know in advance
Review HVAC locations. It is best to walk through the project to review where the returns and vents will be located to make sure they don’t interfere with locations like:
Furniture
Cabinetry that goes to the ceiling
Toekicks
Recessed lighting or fans/vemts
Recessed speakers
Order Tile & Counters
Make sure to get overage on the tile to account for broken pieces or waste when cutting tile. The reason why you don’t want to wait and order more when needed is that tile is made in lots and each lot the color can vary. In most cases if you put 2 tiles next to each other from separate lots, the naked eye can see the difference in color.
By ordering you slabs in advance you will be able to ensure that what you want is available. We recommend going to the stone yard and asking them to pull them out so you can see the imperfections and even mark areas you don’t want to use. Make sure you confirm with your contractor and kitchen designer on the slab quantity.
Order Door Hardware:
Interior
Exterior
Sliding
Privacy
Passage
Pocket door with lock
Sliding door
Create Paint Schedule. See our Painting Guide for our Tips on Painting
Before you select your paint colors have the paint on sample boards or samples painted on the walls. Look at it in different times of days and under different lights. It will look very different with natural sunlight vs. the light from an incandescent light bulb.
Order Window Treatments
Romans
Motorized Window Treatments - if motorized you must know to add wiring
Curtains (make sure you have room above to mount hardware
Shutters (heights, boxes, can they open, window crank thing
It is good to know inn advance to know how much fabric you will need.
The window treatment hardware, romans or shutters should not be ordered until window casings are in. At times rods can be shortened on site at installation, I try and avoid telescope rods.
Measure for Rugs so that you can in advance check for stock availability and also discuss binding issues. You will need to know where wood floors or stairs meet wall to wall carrels and decide on those transitions. They will have to come back when baseboard is in to do final measure.
Order Furniture, Rugs and Fabrics. See our Guides. Advice on blue taping out a space
Order Window treatments (when window casings are done)
Order Art and Accessories
TIPS
We Recommend that while you are developing your design, take a quick read over the Kitchen Construction, just so you get an idea of what needs to be on site and when it is expected.
Blocking - You need to consider where the TV is mounted, does the wall have enough blocking to support the weight. Does the TV have built in speaker or will it require speakers, are they in the ceiling or will they be mounted to the wall or on bookcases. All these details matter. Also the relationship of the TV height and a fireplace mantle matter. The more information you have and can consider in advance, the better off you are.)—move this somewhere else. Where does something like this go?
Builtins- Often we ask that the millworker draw out in pencil on the plaster the paneling or built ins. This way you can see how it interacts with an other elements on the wall like lighting, windows, doorways, light switches, outlets etc.
Floor plans- Blue tape the floor plan on the floor including:
Any Cabinets or built-ins
Area Rugs
Furniture
floor vents
Really study the space now that you have it all played out. Make sure nothing is interfering with each other. Here are some issues that you can run into: (EXPAND ON THIS AND MOVE INTO A NEW SECTION)
mounted on bookcases that could hit each other
Window Treatment hardware not having enough wall space to have hardware mounted into each other
Cabinet against the wall would block a air return
Foot of a console would sit on a air vent
relationship of the area rug legs and the furniture over it
light fixture being hit by a door when a cabinet is opeing
a bathroom vanity door or drawer not being able to open because it will hit a toilet or bathtub
Area rug covering a floor vent
bookcase door not being able to open because it will hit furniture
French doors not being able to open because a sofa is up against it.
Chandelier could hang too low and block the view of the TV
The legs of a dining table not allowing for chairs to tuck under the table.
Think through how the items will be drought into the space. For example, If you are brining in a large sofa upstairs, is it easier to bring in the items up the stairs before the railings and chandeliers are in? Is there anything that needs to get into the space before the doors and door casings are installed?