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Design Dilemma Bathrooms Kitchens

Looking for designer for kitchen and bathrooms remodeling

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

In greater Seattle area, we need a designer who can help us on kitchen and bathrooms remodeling, flooring flooring designs. virtual location would work as well.

kitchen https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6226461/kitchen-remodeling-idea

Family room https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6229790/fireplace-two-story-living-room

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Comments (2)

PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
3 years ago
Look for an indepedant kitchen designer they generally have some good experience with bathroom design too do not go with a cabinet salesperson for sure. IMO there is no way to successfully design a space remotely . I di a kitchen design in Miami Beach remotely but only after being in the space and able to see it in person and also take every tiny meaurement on site.
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Helen
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Good luck finding someone.

In my experience having someone who is local is critical for all kinds of reasons and especially so for kitchens and bathroons.

A good designer wants to "inhabit" the actual space in order to get a true sense of the space and the light. I did a gut remodel and after everything had been moved out she came and just sat in the rooms for awhile. When picking finishes, the play of light and space is going to impact decisions - and that is part of the reason why you hire a professional in the first place.

Also kitchens and bathrooms are particularly "code" specific and a good designer will be conversant with all of the necessary Codes and interface with the GC - a good GC will also obviously know Codes. However there are all kinds of issues which aren't necesarily Code but do impact functionality like where fixtures should be placed or even where knobs and pulls should be placed. How high and where exactly for the toilet paper holder. I am focusing on what seems to be relatively trivial matters but the sheer number of decisions that have to be made is overwhelming and I was very happy that certain decisions were being made by a professional. She would ask me about certain things of course that *mattered* but even when she asked me how I wanted something done I would generally ask her what the functionality would be for the different options and/or aesthetically what her recommendation would be.

My designer was also indispensable as a defacto "project manager" as I don't have the background of knowledge to truly judge construction. So she would either find things that needed to be corrected or would explain to me why things weren't an issue.

Also a local designer will have resources in terms of all kinds of stuff - for my project there were the "to the trade" sources so that we did a few visits to the Pacific Design Center. She also had artisans - cabinet makers; wall paper hangers; upholsters; custom furniture builders; regular "to the trade" vendors - and even with her designer markup the net price to me was generally lower than what I would have spent - and the expertise was *priceless*.

I think remote can work if one is just looking for help in terms of furniture placement or whatever but I think for the kind of remodel of kitchens and bathrooms which OP is planning you really need a talented and experience designer who can be onsite.
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thanks to all who have posted so far, especially Eric. We can probably save/budget down the road for a kitchen redo, or do part of it ourselves. Additions would be a little harder for us except finish work (floors, tile, etc. Can do drywall even but would need to find time to do it). What that kitchen has is a U shaped layout, not too bad except there are overhanging cabinets between a small dining/family space and the kitchen. It's a counter/pass through kind of setup where someone can sit at stools and talk with the person in the kitchen....except the cabinets hang down so the person in the kitchen has to look under them. We would likely tear those out and relocate the stovetop to the perimeter wall and make that pass through an island. Then that entire space could become kitchen/dining. It is possible we could still move out a wall on that (kitchen) side of the house down the road too, we are in Hawaii so all the construction costs are much, much higher than mainland. So jealous of all the posters here who can put on a large extension for less than 50K. Plan A or Plan B will cost us about the same. We don't plan to sell and move anytime soon, but should we need to we're leaning toward sq. footage instead of just extending current bath and upgrading the kitchen. Our neighborhood is about 20 years old so people are beginning to redo those rooms as the fixtures and appliances are ageing. We redid all the appliances about three years ago with stainless finishes, new faucet/sink, and redid the countertop Corian, so the kitchen is livable - just need to clear out some clutter and make smarter usage on available storage space. We could paint or restain the cabinet doors to freshen it up. A few neighbors are creating the "big bang" kitchen now but I'm not certain a 70K upgrade will improve the value that much as a new neighborhood is planned about 5 miles away within the next couple of years. Would we love to live in a "WOW" kitchen, of course. But as with most people we have to make a decision on where it is best to spend the money for now. We could feasibly also add on a 2nd story in future years, but we prefer the single story and if we age-in-place as planned, the new bath will include wide accesses and no-curb shower.
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debrak2008: will do There is an extended opening between the dining/great room. I want to remove more of that wall between the kitchen and great room. My house is a ranch with a partially (most) finished basement. The great room has vaulted ceiling, dining has tray, and kitchen has normal.
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We are right now doing what you are considering. (Well, our contractor is doing...) We've owned this house for a very long time, and never set foot in the 4th tiny bedroom (really just an office, no closet). But thought we would hurt our property value if we used that office as our closet (our home is our largest asset, so it matters to us if we renovate in a way that lowers value). We live in such a high COL area, we can't move. So we finally decided to (1) add the master closet to the master bath; and (2) put a door from the master bedroom into the office, to make it the new master closet. Turns out in my area it helps value to have a larger master bath and closet - even at the expense of losing the small 4th bedroom/office (tons of homes in my area have this layout). I checked with real estate agents and watched sales for a couple of years to make myself comfortable with this decision. As to layout: similar to your drawing, ours will be 6'x12' with the closet added on). We have a 3.5'x6' shower at one end like your drawing. Left the toilet (saves about $4k in my area, party b/c old house plumbing issues). Then, do a short wall about 30" wide x 42" tall at the shower: (1) have the shower door pivot (both in and out) there, so you can reach the shower valve on the inside of that half wall - no getting wet!); and (2) put the 2nd vanity (30" for us) against your window wall and that 1/2 wall. Your door is at the other 6' end; ours is on the 12' long wall, so a bit different but hopefully this makes sense?! I.e., I think you can fit in two 30" vanities (we have a 30" and 36"), big shower, keep toilet there, and have a huge master closet from your (unused??) bedroom. I personally like the 2 separate vanities vs. a long 60" - and it saved so much for us b/c it kept the toilet in its place - but YMMV. Sorry to ramble! Hope that helps. I'm so thrilled this is happening now to my home, and only wish we had done it a decade ago!PS I, and the real estate market I'm in, prefer a large master bath to large closets if there is a 4th bedroom (as it will get converted to a closet anyway). Of course that varies by market, person, etc... but thought I'd say that as I struggled with this decision for many years.
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Update: The pyrolave is a match. We will meet with the carpenter in 2 weeks. We are planning to repaint the cabinets. They are 20 years old now so as much as it pains me to paint over something that is working I think it will make everything more cohesive and it's probably "time" to paint the cabinets. We are considering BM Edgecomb Gray which seems to work with the countertops. The actual limited painted kitchen walls are currently BM Navajo White. I think that will still work. I may have to repaint trim and the ceiling. From what I have found on line it sounds like BM Dove White is a good choice. It's all northern exposure. I am leaning toward a stained island but using pyrolave for all the countertops. I am also considering a painted island. I think the stain may warm up all that stone. Question now: We cannot match exactly the marble tile and we are putting in one little section of open shelves in place of the hutch (over the new counter). Should we just have a painted wall behind the shelves or try to get some sort of matching tile to the kitchen tile across the room? Or should we use the countertop pyrolave as a small back splash? Do we paint the coffered ceiling beams to match the cabinets?
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