Hi akchicago! I totally agree with everyone that I don't want to use this particular designer (or both as I was assigned to a team) for my project as it's obvious she has no excitement about it or interest in it. I'd like to first speak with the owner about being reassigned to a new team who would love to take on the job. The reason I say this, is because as a hairstylist, I'm typically the one in the salon that is given the disgruntled client (from other hairstylists), or color/haircut corrections. I absolutely love the challenge. I understand when clients don't receive the service they deserve, I am very good with empathizing, and it's so fulfilling to me to go above and beyond to get the job done and make the client happy. It really makes me feel good to put a smile on that client's face and for them to LOVE their hair! I'd like to give the owner the chance to perhaps approach my situation in the same way. As far as the cabinet maker, I'm sticking with him. He did my sister's kitchen, bathrooms and laundry room cabinets, as well as two of her friend's homes. The workmanship and service was absolutely excellent in all of them. They're all beyond pleased. The price is excellent, he's a smaller company. I'm going with the same style cabinetry as my sister, in a different color. My sister did tell me that the cabinet maker prefers a French country style, and the ideas he drew up for her (from a design perspective) weren't her style at all. She and I have the same style. I totally understand what you're saying though!! And I really appreciate your concern :) I'm not of the same mindset that if the cabinet maker can't come up with a good design, he's not a good cabinet maker. I had a contractor finish my basement. He drew up a design for it. It was awful! I actually ended up designing it myself (that's the one space that worked out for me when going it alone haha!) and it turned out amazing. His workmanship was excellent, his design skills...not so much :) Besides just layout, I have a door pantry I wanted to turn into a Butler's pantry, if it would even look right. I'd like a designer to do that so it flows with the rest of my space :) I did try to do a drawing and post it on here quite awhile ago. Obviously I don't know what I'm doing because I guess I drew two elevations on the same picture. Half the kitchen was as if you're looking down on it, and the other part was looking at it head on. No one could understand it haha! :) The drawing thing is not my forte lol ;)

Dear Desert, i was in the trade for years, and underneath your uncertainty, I hear a very understandable and natural fear of spending a pile of money and being given less than you wanted, or something you don't love, or getting stuck in a contractual relationship that feels more like a bad marriage! Letting a stranger inside your tenderest dreams of home is a leap of faith - but it doesn't have to be blind faith. I am rarely in favor of using in-store design services for general concept and/or whole house projects. Good in-store designers can help tremendously in matching what they offer to your well-defined scheme, but the fact is that their job, established by the people who sign their checks, is to keep you in the store for everything they offer. Nothing in the world wrong with that model, so long as you understand its benefits and its limitations. So here are Mother Bronwynsmom's steps toward a happy life with your designer, which I believe to be equally important, no matter what the size of your project is: 1. Make your book. The first thing that does is to educate YOU in the nuances of what you love and want, and also what you don't like or want. (This should be easy for you, because you already know a lot about your own tastes and desires - you just need to refine your way of communicating it.) Pack it with samples and photos and drawings that can serve as visual clues to color, texture, style, sense of space and light, and specific objects. Write all over it. Stick in some things you hate and write helpful things like "Yow!" and "Yuck!" and "NO NO NO." 2. Figure out your scope of work. What exactly do you want a designer to do for you, and what are the limitations of the scope? This is critical both to you and to him/her. Make notes as though you were going to write a Request for Proposal, which outlines what you are asking your prospective designers to do. This can be informal, but it should be as specific as you can make it, so that any designers who don't like to work that way will eliminate themselves. 3. Establish a budget. This can be a range, with an upside limit. Without a knowledge of your budget, a good designer can't help you work out how to spend it to get the most bang for the buck. Be brutally honest about what you can spend. So many people are afraid to do that, because their worry is, "If I tell him how much, he will spend it all, and how will I know if I'm getting my money's worth?" (We'll get to the references in a minute...) 4. Make a list of designers to interview, and make appointments. If the job is small, offer to come to their studio, which is a nice gesture toward someone whose essential living usually comes from the use of time. It also gives you a sense of how they function in their own space. If you go to them, take lots of photos of the places you want transformed. And make sure you understand whether or not there's a charge for an initial interview. If there isn't, don't ask a lot of specific questions about what he/she recommends - we've all been burned by clients who interview ten designers, get all their ideas, pay nothing, and then take all the ideas and do it all themselves, and it makes us wary... 5. Here's the key at this point...Pay Attention to Your Instincts. Look for warmth, respectfulness, gentleness with what you're unsure about, and first-class listening skills. If you don't have a strong positive feeling about this person, then don't choose him or her. Does she seem tired or bored? Does he sneak looks at his watch? Does he rush to tell you what you should do? Does she make you feel that you should know more than you do? 6. For everyone you are considering, get, and meticulously check, references. Three is best. And ask not only about the work, but about whether or not the designer stayed responsive through to installation, whether your questions were taken seriously and answered clearly, how well schedules were maintained, whether the trades subcontracted to do things were reliable and respectful of your house, and how well the designer spent your money. It's like dating. Weed out the unpromising ones. You want your designer to want to work with you, and to do the things you want done. Don't go home with him if you don't want to see him over the breakfast table! If you do all these things, you will know at some point in the process who is right for you, and then you are ready to start on a lovely, rewarding experience. Once you have made a choice, and it's time to talk turkey, be confident. It always amazes me that competent, mature people are sometimes intimidated by design, as though it were somehow a mark of human value to be able to do it. It isn't... :>) Ask everything you want to ask, don't agree to things you really don't like. DO be prepared to accept things when your designer explains why her idea about something is right. And don't hesitate to be honest about things you don't know.

My MFK experience is detailed here: Stove Overhang Prevents Drawer Opening - Help. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/stove-overhang-prevents-drawer-from-opening-help-dsvw-vd~3521420 Short discussion: they didn't take into account make/model information or photographs of my range when designing. They fit everything to the cooktop dimensions (which I provided). If we had framed doors (like my old kitchen) we'd be fine. With frameless + drawers, the top drawer wouldn't open. In our telephone consult, I said I was confident in my layout but wanted someone to validate walkways, openings, etc. She mentioned the importance of providing exactly the measurements + appliance make/model. I asked about curves, handles, door swing, etc. and she said that was why the make/model was so important, and when measuring just to measure the basic opening - don't try to add anything for clearance, fit, etc. That didn't really work out... I'm talking with them about a refund, to partially compensate me for my direct costs attempting to mitigate the flaw. I think this is reasonable; I'd really like to tear out and re-do (at their cost), but I recognize the value in trying to reach a compromise. They've been terribly difficult, denying any culpability, denying that we sent make/model information (even after I sent the original email and information packet), etc. I've initiated a refund request via PayPal which hopefully I can get some closure over. I will be posting a review once the refund (or lack) gets resolved, because I want to be as fair as possible in my assessment. Mistakes do happen. At this point in my process, I can only recommend you steer clear and avoid MFK. I'll add/amend if this changes.

Freidajune, I'm going to disagree with you on a lot of what you wrote. :) While it is certainly possible to find a great KD at a dealer, finding one that can't or won't do a design without requiring you to buy their cabinets is limiting your options unnecessarily. They may sell great cabinets, and they may credit the design cost to your cabinet purchase. And you may end up buying their cabinets. But, if they can't do a design only, then that is not a Kitchen Designer whose primary duty is to create the best kitchen for you. Their primary duty is selling cabinets for their employer. Because why would they require that you buy them in order to use their services? I'm an independent, and while I'm not driving a Ferrari, I do OK. Most KD's are not sole breadwinners. Just as most department store sales clerks, or hair stylists, or others need a two income family, most KD's will be used to relying on another income to flesh out the light months. As far as "forced to use an online designer", well I have to say that someone of skill from a distance beats someone local without experience. About 30% of my business comes from online. And, anyone who has to check with a contractor about everything first may not be who you want as your primary adviser. That's not a big dis. Just a little one. I often check with my contractor about things that I'm uncertain about. But, 20 years specializing leaves a lot less to phone the expert about. I've encountered a lot of oddball situations, and remember what we did to solve them. I also disagree strongly about leaving the backsplash to last. The only reason that that is a popular notion in this forum is the great amount of DIY participants who have difficulty with choosing everything to work together. A skilled designer can select all elements at once, or in close sequence, on the front end. And have everything arrive before the demo starts. There is no need to be waiting on doing a backsplash. I won't work with a GC who doesn't hire a decent tile sub. I've blasted a few ears over that. In this town there are a lot of bad choices. I keep a couple of names in my back pocket if a GC needs a tile recommendation for a job because his regular guy is busy. But if his regular guy isn't good, that means that either the GC doesn't know quality, and I need to check in other areas too. Or it means he won't pay the good guy enough. In which case he needs to up his salesmanship of quality over objections over price. There's room for all manner of different approaches to a remodel. But the best remodels have both a great initial vision and the technical direction to achieve that vision.