Kitchen
Secret #11
Why will a Kitchen Designer often decline a request?
If
a kitchen designer is 'doing his job properly', he'll - and it is
normally a he - have a good idea of how much money you want to
spend.
If he knows how
much money you want to spend, then he'll know how he can adapt the kitchen
floor plan with a view to arriving near to your budget. By adapting,
everything that he's doing is increasing his chance of a sale.
He'll know
when to tell you no - when to advise on changing your initial plans
to something that might just be more 'beneficial'.
Often kitchen floor
plan companies will vary their offer on appliances due to suppliers.
This means that depending upon what products might be available; the
most cost efficient method of kitchen design might change. For instance,
if the kitchen company has received some discounted integrated laundry
drying machines from its appliance supplier, then this could feasibly
mean from the designer's perspective the prospect of an appliance costing
less than a cupboard! Sounds absolutely crazy, I know… but it
happens. This means that designers who are dealing with potential customers
who already require such an appliance have an easier job.
However, this of
course doesn't happen very often. It is therefore imperative for a designer
to always have a positive and a negative reason in the back of his mind
for a customer to have / not to have a particular part of their kitchen
floor plan. For example, double ovens in a tall oven-housing unit are
great for families with small children - they reduce the danger of burns
by not being located at a lower level. They are however more expensive
- especially when you include the tall oven-housing unit, with a cupboard
at the base as well as the top. The flip side of the argument from the
designer's perspective is two-fold...
A designer might
say "Tall oven-housings look great in a showroom - in reality
in most kitchens they're not practical. They're too imposing, casting
shadows - also when you have a separate hob you're loosing too much
worktop - there simply isn't enough food preparation space."
The reality
is that the designer thinks that the customer can't afford it. In this
instance, the designer is therefore trying to sell the customer something
he thinks he can afford.
In terms of appliances,
there are also other examples of positives and negatives that a designer
is able to influence customers with. If there are no reasonably priced
integrated washing machines that the kitchen company can supply, a designer
might tell the customer "If you're thinking of selling the
house at some point in the future, then most people are now looking
for the washing machine to be out of the kitchen - it reduces the noise
& it's more saleable to say 'with laundry room'".
The designer might
then give the same reason to have a dishwasher - that even if it's not
wanted by the customer, when it's time to sell the house, it'll sell
much more quickly because it has that particular integrated appliance.
Again, the reality is that the designer only wants to sell the dishwasher
because it happens to be cheaper than the more useful cupboard.
There are many ways
for a designer to be a cost-cutter. Another way is to forget about symmetry.
It's always generally good practice to 'match' the wall units with the
base units.
If a base unit,
which is 500mm (20 inches) wide has a matching wall unit of the same
width directly above it, then the kitchen generally looks more professional
as well as being more efficient.
A kitchen
floor plan can however also be designed with the lowest cost-per-storage-space
in mind -
To achieve this,
a designer will only utilise the largest possible cabinets - and the
largest possible covering of filler panels! For instance, when encountering
an 800mm (32 inch) wall space, unscrupulous kitchen designers might
place a 600mm (24 inch) wall cabinet in the centre with two 100mm (4
inch) filler panels either side. Whilst doing so, the designer would
probably mark 'FP' next to the filler panel. This would indicate to
the kitchen company that the filler has been discussed with the customer
when it probably hasn't. There is one other method of secretly saving
money that a kitchen designer uses...
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