What a Kitchen Designer Gets Right Before Anything Is Ordered

A client came into our showroom recently, looking for a new kitchen.

During our conversation she said, “So, you design kitchens? That’s funny because, I don’t mean to be rude, but I can basically do your job with Pinterest.”

I understood what she meant.

Pinterest is an incredible source of inspiration. It can help you discover colours, materials, layouts and styles you are drawn to. It can help you communicate the look you want.

But Pinterest doesn't design a kitchen.

And that distinction is important.

After more than 20 years designing kitchens, I can tell you that the part of my job that matters most happens long before we start choosing colours, handles or benchtops.

Because a well-designed kitchen isn't simply a collection of beautiful things put together.

It is a space that has been carefully considered around how you actually live.

A kitchen isn't just about how it looks

One of the biggest misconceptions about kitchen design is that the designer's job is primarily about aesthetics.

Of course, aesthetics matter. We spend a huge amount of time considering materials, colour, texture, proportion and how the kitchen relates to the rest of the home.

But that comes later.

Before we get anywhere near finishes, we need to understand the people who are going to use the kitchen.

These questions are far more important than whether you have saved a particular image on Pinterest.

Designing the way a household actually moves

Good kitchen design is about flow.

It is about understanding what happens when someone walks into the kitchen with a bag of groceries, while someone else is cooking, another person is making coffee and the children are trying to get something out of the fridge.

A kitchen needs to accommodate all of those activities without everyone getting in each other's way.

We look at the relationship between the refrigerator, sink, dishwasher, cooktop, ovens and preparation areas.

But we also look beyond the traditional "work triangle".

Where does food preparation happen?

Where is the space for unloading the dishwasher?

Where are the things you use every day?

Can two people work comfortably beside each other?

Can someone make a coffee without walking through the main cooking zone?

Can guests sit at the island without becoming part of the working kitchen?

These are the things that make a kitchen feel effortless.

And when they are done well, you often don't notice them at all.

You simply notice that the kitchen feels easy to use.

Increasing storage isn't simply about adding more cupboards

Another misconception is that more cabinetry automatically means more storage.

It doesn't. Storage needs to be designed.

We consider what you own, how often you use it and where it needs to be located.

The things you use every day should be easy to access.

The things you use occasionally don't need to occupy your prime real estate.

Drawers, pull-outs, pantry systems, internal organisers and clever cabinetry can transform how much a kitchen can hold — but only when they are planned around the person using them.

The goal isn't to fill every available wall with cabinetry.

There is nothing worse than the most accessed cupboard being in front of the person who is cooking dinner.

The goal is to create a place for everything, and for everything to have a logical place.

A well-designed kitchen can actually make a home feel less cluttered because the clutter has somewhere to go.

We design for the household, not the photograph

This is where Pinterest can sometimes create a problem.

You can save hundreds of beautiful kitchens.

But the kitchen that looks incredible in someone else's house may be completely wrong for yours.

Perhaps you love the look of open shelving, but you don't want to constantly see everything you own.

Perhaps you love a huge island, but it leaves insufficient space for the rest of the kitchen to function properly.

Perhaps you love a particular pantry configuration, but your family needs something completely different.

Perhaps a beautiful appliance wall looks fantastic online, but it isn't the best use of the available space in your home.

A kitchen has to work within the architecture of the house, the available space, the position of windows and doors, the services, the structure and — most importantly — the people using it.

That's where experience matters.

And then we get to the pretty part

Once we have solved the practical side of the kitchen, then we start talking about finishes.

This is where the inspiration from Pinterest becomes genuinely useful.

We can look at what you are naturally drawn to and start translating that into something that works for your home.

But even here, there is much more to it than simply choosing a colour.

We look at how materials relate to one another and build a layered palette rather than simply matching a collection of finishes.

A kitchen should feel as though it belongs in the home.

Not as though it has been dropped into it from a Pinterest board.

The value of experience is in the things you don't see

I have spent more than 20 years designing kitchens.

That experience isn't simply knowing which cabinet finishes are available or how to produce a beautiful 3D image.

It is knowing what works and how people work in a kitchen.

It is knowing where people make mistakes.

It is understanding proportions.

It is understanding how cabinetry behaves in a space.

It is knowing how much clearance people actually need.

It is understanding how a family uses a kitchen differently from a couple.

It is knowing which decisions need to be made early because changing them later can be expensive.

And it is being able to look at a space and see the problems — and opportunities — before the cabinetry is ever ordered.

That knowledge isn't something you can acquire by saving 500 images to a Pinterest board.

You don't know what you don't know

Perhaps the hardest thing to explain about good kitchen design is that if you have never experienced a really well-designed kitchen, you don't necessarily know what you're missing.

You might think your kitchen works perfectly well.

Until you have one where everything is exactly where you need it.

Where two people can cook without constantly getting in each other's way.

Where the dishwasher can be unloaded without blocking a walkway.

Where the things you use every day are within easy reach.

Where appliances can disappear behind pocket doors.

Where the pantry holds everything you need.

Where the island is the right size — not simply the biggest size that will fit.

Where the lighting works.

Where the storage works.

Where the finishes work together.

And where the entire room feels effortless.

That is the difference between choosing a kitchen and designing one.

Pinterest can absolutely help you discover what you love.

But a kitchen designer's job is to work out how to make it work.

And that is what happens before anything is ordered.