How to Work With a Designer

Desi McAlister of Kitchen and Bath Galleries helps clients take their design ideas from dreams to reality

Photo by Jane Shealy

Desi McAlister, of Kitchen and Bath Galleries in Cary, was booked solid, but Kubiak would not be dissuaded. “I had to wait for Desi,” she says. “Everybody told me if I could get her, my rooms would turn out great.

“I was afraid of making a mistake,” Kubiak says. “It’s one of my greatest fears. And, I didn’t want any surprises.”

She’s not alone. High-end appliances, stone countertops and furniture-grade cabinetry mean there’s a lot of money riding on making good decisions when building or remodeling contemporary kitchens and baths. So, suppliers such as Kitchen and Bath Galleries sell more than product these days. They sell services from planning and purchasing to installation. Beyond that, it’s the reputation of the designer that often determines which store gets the sale.

McAlister, who’s been in the business since the ‘80s, has such a good reputation that Kubiak set aside her timetable until she could bring her onboard. Construction is slated to begin in September, and Kubiak is very happy with the project. 

In many ways, just as McAlister was Kubiak’s ideal designer, Kubiak was McAlister’s ideal client. She did five things a client should do to partner successfully with a designer:

1. Get multiple references when looking for a designer. Kubiak didn’t look for a designer in the yellow pages or in the newspaper. She saw what she liked in other people’s kitchens and baths, then asked who’d designed the rooms. Design-related articles often offer designers’ names along with examples of their work.

2. Have a budget in mind. It’s not as hard as you think. “I knew what I wanted to spend on each room,” Kubiak  says. “Then I had to see what I could get for that amount. McAlister priced out each element, suggested alternatives then re-priced the projects – until Kubiak  was satisfied.

3. Be prepared to wait until your satisfied and sure of preliminary decisions. Kubiak spent hours pouring over her alternatives. She wasn’t afraid to make changes or entertain new ideas. Likewise, McAlister waited until Kubiak was sure of the decisions they’d made.

4. Know you need help and accept it. “I needed her guidance,” Kubiak says of McAlister. “It was someone to bounce ideas off of. ‘Do I want to do this? What are the new and upcoming things?’ I wanted someone who knew what wouldn’t look outdated in a couple of years.”

5. Have an idea of what look you want to achieve. Contrary to popular myth, giving designers little to no guidance won’t make you the ideal client. Chances are the process will be exceedingly time consuming if a designer has to guess what you might like or worse, designs a room to her particular tastes. Kubiak actually started her rooms with a different designer, whose personal preferences from paint color to cramped layouts ultimately led to a parting of the ways. 

High-end appliances, stone countertops and furniture-grade
cabinetry mean there's a lot of money riding on making food decisions

when building or remodeling contemporary kitchens and baths.

That may be the biggest fear a novice has when considering whether to hire a designer – that a designer will take over and do whatever he or she wants. After all, some of the most appalling examples have been broadcast on the home improvement shows we’re all addicted to these days: bathroom walls covered in red and pink artificial flowers, a teetotaler’s kitchen covered in wine bottle labels, a textured wall made of hay picked from a bale and glued to the wall.

Why can’t designers keep the owner’s personality in the room?

The good ones do, McAlister says. The shows are a bit out there because it makes good TV, but “I can’t go into a traditional house with the idea of doing an Asian bath unless that’s what a client wants.”

It’s important to personalize each project for the individual, McAlister says. Often that means designing around a family heirloom or violet-colored wallpaper a client doesn’t want to change. (McAlister actually found marble tile to match.) “Sometimes it’s a budget issue. The heirloom replaces a piece I would have built. Other times, as in the case of the wallpaper, it’s a personality issue.”

“I also enjoy making each kitchen look different from anyone else’s,” McAlister says. “I don’t want someone to walk in and say, ‘Oh, Desi McAlister did your kitchen.’” There is no creativity in doing the same thing over and over again.

It’s been relatively easy to reassure clients that they will maintain control of their projects, McAlister says. What’s been hard is explaining why on the TV shows, they can build and furnish an entire house in a week, but it will take months to redo their kitchen.
 
To clarify the process, McAlister explains she sees two to five clients a day, depending on the size of the project. Following the initial meeting, she prepares up to three designs for each room. Subsequent meetings involve trying to blend the things a client likes from each of the designs.

Plans for a room usually take two weeks to a month to finalize. Cabinets take four to six weeks to arrive, then construction begins.

Budgets are the most important aspect of the project, Desi says, and they’re determined by tangibles as well as intangibles. “You need to ask yourself, ‘Are you going to live in this house for the rest of your life?’ If so, you may be willing to invest more money. Are you going to turn around and sell it in a few years? Then, you might just need to update.”

Even a simple update can be a bit tricky. Often clients have been saving magazine articles for years with ideas they’d like to incorporate in a remodel. Problem is, McAlister says, the products are already obsolete. There are new appliances on the market. Even the finish on cabinets like fashion on the runway has its season and quickly goes out of style. “No matter how much money you spend, if I let you leave the kitchen in the same shape as a ‘80s or ‘90s kitchen, I haven’t done a good job.”

Another fear clients face is that designers’ fees will add significantly to the cost of a project. “There are designers out there who do that,” McAlister says. “And, if you’re not buying a product, you will pay more for the service. But, in many cases, we’re working with the same client over and over again. They know what to expect. And, with new clients, I just need to know what their budgets are. I’ve got all different price lines.”

There was added value in having McAlister design her rooms, Kubiak says. “In the end, I felt I got more for my money.”