It's All About The Process

June 2, 2012 Courtney Foster Shearer

3 day weekends = 4 day work weeks = Ahhhh!!!

Four day work weeks are always fast paced, but add to it the fact that I leave on Sunday for a week in Jamaica.... and this week has been uber super duper oh my gosh I need a drink/massage/nap crazy!

Amongst other things that have been going on this week, I have a big job that started installation yesterday! I'm excited to watch as this project comes to life, as it has been a fun job for me to work on. This is one of those projects with a lot of depth. Hours of thought, consideration and tweaking have gone into this project as we (myself and the homeowner) have striven to make these cabinets more than just boxes, but functional aesthetic anchors to the space.

This is a new construction project and the homeowner came to me at the end of last year interested in Inspirations Kitchen & Bath Studio doing the cabinetry for the kitchen and the master bath. As we worked on these spaces we eventually were given the opportunity to provide cabinetry for the laundry room, mudroom/desk area, children's baths and all secondary bathrooms. The best part about this project is that every room is different, and the decisions made regarding the design, wood species, cabinet finishes, hardware selections and door styles were not made lightly. Thankfully, we came upon each of these decisions one at a time so as to avoid making the process overwhelming.

Here's a glimpse into the process of creating beautiful rooms with beautiful cabinetry.

Designs usually start like this - graph paper sketches. Drawings like these are conceptual and a starting point to build on.

From my sketches come 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional drawings. For this project we went through several versions of the designs as we tweaked here and there, really thinking about how the space would be used. We moved several key pieces, specifically the microwave and prep sink a few times until we settled on the location we felt would work the best.

Here is one of the kitchen perspectives. As you can see, it's as if you are in the space, and really gives the client the opportunity to get a feel for what the space will really look like.

Once the design layouts have been confirmed, we start looking at door styles and finishes. This is where the space really starts to get it's personality!

Here is our door gallery.

As I mentioned above, we used several different door styles and finishes for the cabinetry in this home. Interestingly despite the plethora of door styles we have to look through, we came upon the decisions for the various door styles fairly quickly. It was the finishes that took some time and consideration.

These are just some of the finish samples we have to look through.

All of the rooms have painted cabinetry except for the kitchen and powder room, which are stained. The stained finishes for both spaces were fairly easy decisions, it was the paints that took some time to select. Because Bell Cabinetry is custom, you can pick any color out there and we can match it!

And I mean literally ANY color..............

And finally it's time to choose the cabinet jewelry aka the hardware. This process is very important and requires attention to scale. We go through every room and choose the pieces of hardware that would work best given the decisions we've already made - design, door style and finish.

Once we have chosen the specific pieces of hardware for each room, I draw the hardware on the cabinet elevations to acquire the hardware count as well as get a visual on what the hardware will look like on each and every door and drawer front. I love, love, love the hardware selections for this project. We are still buttoning up some final decisions but we are tossing around using some really cool pieces!

This may seem like a lot of decisions and detail, and it is. But, these are the elements that make a space unique. And believe it or not, there are even MORE decisions and details that I'm not including - think drawer organizers, spice pullouts, trash/recycling, roll outs, tray dividers, appliance lifts, etc...Yeah, it's a lot, but it's fun. And at the end of the day when you are living in the space that you have poured so much thought into, you will be happy and forever thankful for the time you spent fine tuning these decisions. I know this will be the case for this client.

Confession: As I write this blog, I don't hope my client will be happy, I already know she is. She called me this yesterday, very excited (best calls ever) about the cabinets that had been installed so far (kitchen & laundry)!! I can't wait to see for myself this afternoon!

Here are the cabinets all packed up on Thursday, ready to go! Stay tuned, finished shots coming soon!

All photographs included in this post are my own.