A Day in the Life of Interior Designers for Kitchen
At Garrison Grove, kitchen designing is creative work for us as well as our business. Hence, we our designs have to be precise, results need to be liked by the client - and all the accountability is on the interior designer for the kitchen.
We do not sell readymade kitchens. Our kitchen interior designers aim to come up with working, living systems that can handle years of daily use, cooking habits, heat, movement, spills, and moods of those who are using it.
While we may show you catalogues and discuss kitchen design trends with you, our kitchen designers help you decide the layout of your kitchen based on logic, your storage needs, your budget, and the kind of material you would like us to work with.
A day in the life of our interior designers for kitchen usually gets spent in managing client expectations, kitchen costs and timelines, and vendor coordination. Let us share what we do all day.
Interiors Designers for Kitchen Begin Their Days with Planning
Most clients think that we start our days bending down on the table - sketching a kitchen layout for them…or perhaps, surfing through Pinterest looking for the best and most adorable kitchen designs online. But that is not true.
We start our work days with finding out where each kitchen we are handling stands. We juggle with checking site updates, client messages, taking confirmations from vendors, and installation schedules.
At the morning review, our designers decide the milestones for each kitchen design project we undertake, such as freezing the design, finalizing the material, production, installation, and more. They go over blueprints and drawings once again - check the base units, wall units, accessories used inside and outside the cabinets and make sure every millimetre of your kitchen space is well thought out.
They also go through lifestyle notes they make during discussions with our clients: who cooks, how often, what they mostly cook, do they play host, etc. This helps them make better kitchen design decisions.
Site Visits are Usually Scheduled for Mid-Mornings
Most of our interior designers for kitchen reach their respective sites by mid-morning. While they may create a design on screen, they can only see real walls, real plumbing, and real electrical points on site. They measure and re-check the measurements for columns, beams, window sills, and floor levels.
They also check whether actual wall conditions allow for the drawer depth they have planned and whether there’s proper space and clearances for appliances planned to go in the kitchen.
Our designers do not walk in and out of the site in a rush. They pretend working in the kitchen they are designing - opening fridge doors, washing the utensils in the sink, reaching overhead cabinets, throwing the peel-offs from vegetables in the dustbin - and making sure the kitchens are ergonomically perfect.
It’s on site, they guide electricians where to place sockets and plumbers where to place taps, sink, and dishwashers. In apartments, our kitchen designers check the chimney ducting routes before they instruct carpenters on what to do.
Client Meetings Often Happen in Afternoons
Most of the time, we schedule client meetings for late morning or afternoon. We explain our concepts and drawings to the client, recommend them material samples and tell them why we chose them, and discuss the pros, cons, costs, and maintenance requirements of each choice they make in detail.
We don’t try to upsell unnecessarily. We only recommend what fits our client’s budget, expectations, and usage needs. For example, a glossy acrylic shutter is not a good fit for neat freaks who hate fingerprint smudges. An internal accessory the client won’t be using is written off the plan.
If clients show us Pinterest references, we pick and choose the things that the clients liked most and try to make them work in the kitchen spaces available.
As a designer, we like to listen to you and bring your ideas to life.
Coordination and Documentation Behind the Scenes
The real work happens after the client meetings. The operational work includes preparing final drawings, updating changes, and preparing a clean and clear plan for the production team.
Our kitchen designers are responsible for everything:
- Coordinating with manufacturing teams for cabinet specifications,
- Double checking hardware quantities,
- Confirming the appliance cut-outs,
- Mentioning the exact dimensions of countertops,
- Reviewing the timelines and following up with the client for approvals and the team to get the work done on time, and more.
Documentation is as important to us as the work we do. Our interior designers for kitchen are required to note down all their instructions in writing - to prevent any confusions later.
Sometimes, Kitchen Design Projects Get Stuck
On some occasions, we see delays and derailments in kitchen projects for unforeseen reasons, such as a wall turning out uneven, an unexpected veining in a slab, and a factory batch of tiles look slightly different than others.
Kitchen designers take it all in their stride. They are great at finding solutions. Can the error be corrected on-site, and is it possible to make some adjustments without really impacting the look, feel, and usability of the kitchen. They negotiate with vendors, converse with the clients - and find most creative and practical solutions to challenges that pop up from time to time.
Kitchen Installation Days are the Busiest
On the days installations are done, our kitchen designers reach the site early. They check modules, hardware, finishes, and alignment before the work begins.
Base units are put in first, followed by wall units. Shutters, gaps, soft-close hinges are all taken care of. Designers make sure that the countertops are installed correctly and everything aligns well with clients.
All Evenings are Reserved for Kitchen Design Reviews
Before ending the work day - after sites close - our kitchen designing experts review site photos, respond to client messages, update progress trackers, and start preparing for the next day.
We also discuss what works well, which accessory is useful, which finish needs to be reconsidered next time, and what we can improve in our ways of working to make future kitchens better.
