Questions worth asking

It depends on how much moves. A kitchen that keeps its layout runs a good deal faster than one where plumbing, gas or electrical shift to new walls. The single longest wait is almost always the cabinet order, which is placed only after the design is signed off and the room has been measured. We give you a schedule with real dates on it before anyone starts, and we tell you when a date moves rather than letting you discover it.

Four things account for most of it: the cabinetry, the countertops, the appliances, and whether the layout changes. Moving a sink, a range or a wall pulls in plumbing, electrical and sometimes framing, and that is usually a larger swing than upgrading a finish. We price the design you approve, so you can see what each choice costs before you commit to it rather than after.

Stock comes in fixed sizes and fills a standard room cheaply. Semi custom keeps a catalog box but lets you choose door styles, finishes and some sizing. Custom is built to your room, which is what you want when the space is an odd shape, the ceilings are tall, or you need the storage to work a particular way. Most kitchens we design land in semi custom or custom. We will tell you when stock would do the job, because a cabinet that fits is worth more than a cabinet that is expensive.

Ordering before the design is finished. A cabinet order placed against a layout that is still being argued about is the single most expensive thing that can go wrong, because cabinetry is not returnable and the lead time restarts. The second most common is changing a decision after the trades are scheduled, which pushes every following trade back. We lock the design first for exactly this reason.

We handle them. Plumbing, electrical, flooring, countertop templating and installation, appliance delivery and the inspection sequence all get coordinated by us against one schedule. That coordination is most of what you are paying for. The alternative is you holding six phone numbers and finding out on a Tuesday that the countertop crew came before the plumber finished.

Usually yes. Most people set up a temporary kitchen elsewhere in the house and stay. There are stretches, particularly during demolition and floor work, when the room is unusable and the dust is real. We tell you which weeks those are in advance so you can plan around them.

Kitchens are the core of what we do and where the design work goes. We also take on bathrooms, basements, flooring, windows, doors, home offices and full house renovations, and we run those the same way: one design, one schedule, one point of contact.

We are based in Chester, New York and work across Orange County and into Bergen County, New Jersey. That covers Chester, Goshen, Middletown, Warwick, Florida, Pine Bush, Montgomery, New Hampton and Highland Mills in New York, and Mahwah, Ramsey and Upper Saddle River in New Jersey. If you are just outside that, call and ask.

We look at the room, measure it, and talk about what is not working and what you want instead. Bring photographs of kitchens you like, including ones you dislike, because knowing what to avoid is as useful as knowing what to aim at. You leave that conversation with a clear idea of what is possible in the space and what it involves.