Choosing California Kitchen Designers

Before beginning your selection process you need to have a project goal or goals. Simply “wanting a new kitchen” isn’t enough and you’ll only end up wasting time in the designer selection process. You may be considered a unsuitable design client (the top California kitchen designers are usually extremely busy, with long waiting lists).

It might be that you want to have more countertop space for a hobby or fledgling business, you might want to make the most of garden views, let more light into the room, create a dining zone – or any number of needs and wants. How do you use your kitchen? Are you a professional chef or do you merely heat ready made meals? Do you do a lot of entertaining? Do you bake bread?

Making a list of your needs and taking notes as to how you all use your kitchen – along with any concepts of the colors and surfaces you’d like in your new kitchen – will all help a great deal in the first sit down with your kitchen designer, assisting the designer know you as a potential client and saving everyone’s valuable time in any initial complimentary design consultations.

Equipped with the basic ideas of your needs and requirements – it’s now time to check out the designers themselves.

Start with the Web

The web has made looking for and selecting kitchen designers in California very straightforward.

It’s easy to look on specialist kitchen ratings sites like KitchensRated, search trade associations such as the National Kitchen and Bath Association’s California local chapter, or look up the California section of the BBB

Nearly all top kitchen designers will be certified members of trade associations like the NKBA, or have received qualifications from specialist groups such as the National Council for Interior Design Qualifications (NCIDQ).

After browsing their site, how do they seem to you? Do they show examples of complete projects? Do they show recent homeowner testimonials? Is all their contact information on-site? Do all their pages work?