KITCHEN DESIGN
7 July 2008
"Oh, Baby, You Knoooow What I Like!"
It seems awfully smug to say this, but the most important part of design is everything. How does it look, how will it be used, how well does it perform its intended function, how does it fit, how well is it made, how long will it last—to ask just a few questions.
When I designed a vanit
y for my wife, I had her sit down at the dinning room table and pretend to put on her makeup, reaching for imaginary bottles and the like, so I could determine the proper dimensions of the piece. Going through those motions myself would have accomplished nothing because my wife is five feet two-and-a-half inches tall, and I’m a six-footer.
Sometimes the solution to effective design is to simply think it through. Right now I am dickering with the design of our kitchen, and one of the things I most want to do is make wooden countertops for us. The thing that most concerns me, though, is how well the wood will hold up to water, or more specifically, what products can be obtained to protect the wood from the water damage that will surely occur without them.
In checking other manufacturers of wooden countertops, I have noted that virtually all of them claim a waterproof product, but when I do a little checking online, I sometimes see that the finish they are using does not recommend having water stand on it. So, how can that be good for a countertop? Now, granted, cabinetmaking is what I do, and those are the kinds of questions any competent cabinetmaker is goin
g to ask. But what I’m trying to say here is that if you rely only upon the cabinetmaker or designer, you may be in for a rude surprise. Maybe he never thought of it that way. Maybe his is a large household (ours is just me and the wife) and the dishes are washed and put away every night. Then, because they’re elegant wooden countertops, they routinely wipe everything down. That countertop is going to work absolutely fine for him, and he will not be lying in any way whatever when he says, "Hey, it works for me." But how exactly does it work for him? If you don’t ask questions like that, you may wish you had.
One of the things my wife and I do is wash a few items during the week—pots and pans, that sort of thing—and leave them to air dry on a towel on the counter beside the sink. My comfort level would be to not let a damp towel sit on a wooden countertop day after day, no matter what the manufacturer of the product I will be using says is correct. So, the question then becomes, what can I come up with to make this workable? The thought of having to carefully dry each piece and put it aw
ay, along with the damp towel after each use is a little odious. And it’s not very realistic. So, what else can we do? Well, as of yet, I have not come up with an idea I like, but I mean to keep at it.
That, of course, is kitchen design as I approach it. Other designers have their own methods. The bulk of them, though, never really get into that much effort, and that’s why I say that those who are commissioning these kitchens need to do a little of their own homework, which is surely why you are reading these lines.
Some people think of themselves as being at the mercy of the designer. I cannot tell you how much I disagree with that point of view. I believe that the person who is paying for the job should be the one calling the shots. And one of the things you should be doing is making a list of those things you like and those you don’t and then seeing what kinds of innovations your cabinetmaker can come up with for a solution. And when a solution is presented to you, be a little inquisitive. How, exactly, is this going to solve the problem? Think it through. In the case of my dilemma with the wet towel, I am going to want to come up with something that (1
) eliminates having to put everything away immediately after washing, (2) is easy to use, and that (3) eliminates even the slightest possibility of water damage.
Because the one thing I know is that I will have to live with whatever solution I eventually come up with. So I take this very seriously—and very personally. The same is true of your own kitchen design. The only way a designer "knoooows" what you like is if you tell him—and then see to it that he delivers the goods. It’s your money. Why not get what you’re paying for?
Joseph
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