08 Apr Featured Interior Design Project: Kauffman Kitchen

What is an ultimate designer-client relationship?   Ask most interior designers, and they will tell you that the ideal scenario is fostering long-term collaborative relationships with clients with whom they enjoy working with over and over. The beauty of these relationships is the implicit trust that can be established and the shorthand that can take place as the designer client relationship develops over time into friendship and understanding.

For me, the Kauffman family in Bryn Mawr, PA is one of these clients.   Carrie Kauffman is also the owner of Carrie’s Essential Services; she’s a networking wiz and she provides professional organizing services in the Eastern Main Line suburbs of Philadelphia. You can learn more over at her Facebook page.

Carrie also runs a facebook page that is immensely popular and growing daily called “Getting Organized on the Main Line.”   It focuses on organizing, decorating, and design questions and is an opportunity to get feedback and ideas from other members of the local design and organizing community, and from other creative community members.

Lately, Carrie Kauffman has been spreading the word about the kitchen we designed together for her home, and today I want to share with you some of the process drawings that got us from before to after.

Here at down2earth interior design, we begin every project by taking measurements of the space and creating floorplan and elevation drawings to scale.   We then explore multiple schematic layouts and have a conversation with the client where we discuss pros and cons of the design.   In kitchen design, we are particularly concerned with efficient work flow. Once we’ve determined an ideal layout, we provide drawings and dimensions that are sufficient to get pricing from contractors and cabinet makers

Next, we shop for finishes, and determine how they should be implemented in the space. These tile pattern drawings show some of the exploration we did for creating backsplash patterns in this kitchen design

Every element of a kitchen design needs to be detailed and dimensioned.   The woodworker created shop drawings, our upholsters took their own measurements for banquette cushions, and here at down2earth interior design, I mapped out exact lighting locations.

We collaborate with all the trades and professional members of the design team for a final look that is warm and speaks of craftsmanship, and will endure in style for years to come.

We will also be sharing a blog post that Carrie just published on getting organized for a major renovation, if you’d like to check it out now you can head over to check it out!

Want to learn more about the Kauffman’s Kitchen?   Leave us a comment!