You know you need a kitchen remodeling… Your kitchen doesn’t work at all, it looks old, and the appliances probably need to be replaced. But kitchens are probably the most expensive $/SF of any remodeling project. Before you spend a significant amount of money — usually tens of thousands of dollars — shouldn’t you look at major options that you might not have considered?
For example:
- How hard is it to vault the ceiling?
- Can you remove some walls to open up the space? If so, are they structural walls?
- Should you look at a small addition to your house to make the kitchen significantly more functional? Or maybe to add a breakfast nook?
- Will the new appliances you’re thinking of really fit and leave enough countertop space? What options are available for the pantry?
- Is the kitchen really even in the right spot in the house?
The Kitchen Feasibility Consultation (or KFC, as I call it) will help you answer these questions. It includes:
- On-site measuring of the relevant areas of your home.
- A detailed analysis of your cooking style and proposed appliances.
- Three radically different layouts to explore what you might get with “out of the box” thinking.
- An online meeting where you can virtually walk through these possible kitchens in 3D. And you can walk through these options on your own computer later, using a free downloadable “client viewer” program.
- Schematic plans that can be used to get preliminary budget pricing from contractors and cabinet shops.
I’m now able to offer Virtual Reality, both online, and through Google Cardboard. Here’s an example of the online version:
Click the image to the right to see a sample design option:
After this design study, you’ll be able know whether your future kitchen will really work for you, and approximately how much it will cost.
The cost for The Kitchen Feasibility Consultation is a reasonable $1995. (To make things easy, I ask for payment by PayPal in advance of the consultation. Just click the PayPal button below.) However, please call me to confirm a time to measure your house.
NOTE: California Business & Professions Code Sec. 5536.22 requires a written contract between architects and their clients for architectural services, unless it is expressly waived by the client. Because the services you are requesting are very limited in scope and duration, we agree that proceeding with this PayPal transaction constitutes your waiver of a more extensive contract. However, if you request additional services, a written agreement will be provided.
Some Frequently Asked Questions about the KFC…
How is the KFC different from just hiring you to design the kitchen?
The KFC is actually the beginning part of the Preliminary Design Phase of full service kitchen design. However, with full services, the Preliminary Design Phase will give you a chance to develop the initial designs much further, and allow you to explore different finish options. For example, should you have dark counters with light cabinets, or light counters with darker cabinets? More design revisions are included with full services.
The KFC, on the other hand, allows you easily to see what would happen if you bumped out the kitchen, or if you had an island rather than a peninsula and how many people could sit at that island, but doesn’t get down to the level of detail that full service kitchen design does. The KFC is intended for a high-level analysis, and is usually the first step in full service kitchen design. It may be all you need right now as a feasibility study.
In other words, with the KFC, you’ll be able to say, “yes, we can make a really great kitchen work in this house, and it might cost about this much.” However, at the end of full service design, you’ll be able to say, “yes, this is the kitchen I want!”
What happens if we decide we want to take one of the options for the kitchen to the next level of design?
Any fees that you have paid for the KFC will be credited to the full service design fees, so you already have a good start on that and haven’t lost anything!
What would we need beyond the design phase of full services?
Once you decide on a final kitchen design, implementing that design is where the real work begins. There is picking out the specific cabinet finishes and countertops, appliance selections, lighting and electrical design, construction documents for the City (including structural details), getting bids/pricing from one or more contractors, and following the project through construction. This is all in the “Phase II” of a full service package. See “The Process” page for more information.