Modern Kitchen Makeover - Issue No. 300

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	ARTICLE: Cabinet Intallation
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Issue #300 - April 2007
Elaborate, formal meals are occasionally prepared here. Modest meals are regularly prepared and eaten here. Friends gather here for coffee and conversation. This is where the mail gets sorted, the phone gets answered, and the bills get paid. And if you know where to look, you can find Band-Aids, pain relievers, and other of life’s remedies inside one of the cabinets. It is the figurative and literal center of this home. It is the kitchen. This kitchen belongs to Scott and Nancy Schroeder, of Adel, Iowa, and it’s newly remodeled.

Consult a Professional — A kitchen that meets the unique needs of a busy family as well as this one does is no accident. It’s the product of good design. And good design is, more often than not, the product of a good designer.

The Schroeders connected with kitchen designer Marcine Cameron through Consolidated Kitchens & Fireplaces in Urbandale, Iowa. During a series of meetings, both in the home and at the company’s showroom, Marcine helped the couple prioritize their wish list and identify which wishes would be fulfilled, which would require some compromise, and which just couldn’t be accomplished within the scale and budget of this project.

As you might expect, many of the Schroeders’ wishes were easy to fulfill, like a casual dining area, a way to display their prized dinnerware, and a family organizational center. Other, more complicated items, such as removing the bulkheads and creating a doorway between the kitchen and front room, required the help of a contractor.

Break the Rules — Of course, granting wishes is just one job of a designer. Another important role is to find the balance between conventional wisdom and the wants and needs of the homeowner.

A great example of that is the location of the sink in this kitchen — it remains unchanged from the old kitchen. This despite the fact that it violates the “work triangle” rule of kitchen design (which dictates the locations and distances between the sink, range, and refrigerator) and ignores the tradition of locating the sink in front of a window.

However, it was important to Nancy to leave the sink where it was to maintain a visual connection to the family room. While standing at the sink, Nancy can still interact with Scott at his desk, watch television, or enjoy the fire burning in the fireplace.

Of course, your wish list won’t be the same as the Schroeders’, and your kitchen won’t include the same challenges. But by taking a look at how the designer and homeowner collaborated on five key areas of the this kitchen (detailed in the April 2007 issue of Workbench magazine), you’ll get a sense of what a designer can bring to your project.