Vision

Joan Kohn's It's Your Kitchen: Over 100 Inspirational Kitchens
by Joan Kohn

Hardwood floors or linoleum? Marble countertops or formica? When designing or renovating a kitchen, there are a million choices, and each one must reflect personal taste, lifestyle, and budget. Now, Joan Kohn offers advice to help readers get the kitchen they've always dreamed of. Richly illustrated with 230 full-color photographs of beautiful kitchens by top designers and architects, Joan Kohn's It's Your Kitchen will inspire readers to make the best possible decisions with the myriad of design choices that are available today.

Organized by concept, this book teaches readers to think like a designer. Broken into two parts, "Design Essentials," addresses such considerations as budget, style, assessing the existing kitchen, working with a design team and sustaining one's personal vision. "The Five Building Blocks of Kitchen Design," covers function, space, floor plans, and personal touch. Readers will learn how to confront the critical design choices that will turn their kitchen dream into a reality.

Chapter 1

Every beautiful kitchen begins with a vivid dream. Let your imagination soar!

Every kitchen has a personality. How do you see yours? Is it a quiet, gentle room or an opinionated space with a bit of attitude? Is it nostalgic or forward-looking? Has this kitchen been traveling to Italy, Japan, France, or Morocco? Does it like to party or does it prefer to be alone with a cup of tea and a good book? Does it wear denim or silk? Does it let you lean back and kick off your shoes or make you sit up straight? Is this a kitchen you can really talk to or does it demand your "best behavior"? Is your new kitchen a generous room that will pay you back for all the time and effort you put into planning it, or will it continually demand more time and effort? Will this room be sensitive to you and everyone else in your family? Will it support who you are today and the person that you are becoming? Will this new design be fun to live with?

Like an Olympic runner who visualizes herself crossing the finish line in record time; a chef who knows exactly how a dish will taste even before it's finished; or the acclaimed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who completed his drawings in his mind before pencil ever met paper, you must have a clear vision of your new kitchen before you build it - a vision to excite and inspire you, to guide you through the many design choices that will confront you along the way, and to sustain you when you're ankle-deep in plaster dust.

Arriving at that vision is a two-step process. Step one is to dream, no matter how fantastically. Step two is to interpret those dreams, refining them in light of more practical considerations, such as the square footage and configuration of your available space, your specific functional needs, and your resources. Like a string on a kite, each consideration will help you hold on to your dream and prevent it from soaring out of sight. When this second step is completed, you will have a highly evolved and detailed concept of how your new kitchen will look and function.

Generating a kitchen vision should be a fluid process, evolving as new ideas spark your imagination. You may begin with a fixed concept of how you want your kitchen to look, but once you immerse yourself in the design process, your ideas may change. This can be especially true when remodeling an existing kitchen. It could be that the wall you planned to tear down turns out to be load bearing and will have to stay, or that you ripped out a dropped soffit only to discover it conceals plumbing for the apartment upstairs. Be prepared for such unexpected discoveries, and welcome them as opportunities to unleash your creative energies. In a way, they are gifts.

Step One: Spinning Kitchen Dreams

There are only a few rules to keep in mind when conjuring up kitchen dreams:

First, they must be your dreams - not your friend's, not your decorator's, and not even your mother's. It can be important to consider the views of others. Input from family members can be invaluable. But fundamentally, it's your kitchen, and the dreams it reflects must be yours.

Second, your dreams should be sweet. The creative process demands flights of fancy, so dream wide and dream big! Don't edit your imagination. Even bad ideas have their place. I know one designer who always asks new clients to bring in a list of what they love, and what they don't. Ask yourself, "What kitchen would I design if I were not afraid of making a mistake, or had no budgetary constraints?" Push the limits of your personal rules of order and design. Dare to consider the unexpected, and even the impossible. Indulge in free association. Remember, ideas pop up for a reason. Your creative brain has a powerful, built-in logic; learn to trust it. Don't restrict yourself by what you have known or done in the past. At this point, the only consideration is what makes you smile.

Third, don't rush the process. Schedules, alarms, and deadlines come later. For now, take your time. Going slowly may seem like an indulgence, but it is actually a wise investment that will pay you back with big dividends. The more specifically and deliberately you plan today, the clearer and better your kitchen vision will be.

If your kitchen dreams are not yet fully formed, there are many ways to stimulate your imagination. One obvious way is to collect pictures from magazines and books - not to mention your favorite TV shows! - using the techniques discussed in chapter five. Or perhaps the kitchen seating areas assembled in chapter six will help you to recognize your kitchen dream when you feel it.

But there are other great ways to spark your imagination:

Analyze precisely why you want a new kitchen, and how you want to use it. You'll find checklists to help you along with this process in chapter eight.

Decide what you like, and what you do not like, about your existing kitchen, and interview your family members to get their thoughts.

Through it all, keep a detailed written wish list chronicling your observations as they occur to you.

Step Two: Interpreting Your Kitchen Dreams

Once you have collected your kitchen dreams, you can begin to interpret them - to refine them by making adjustments and revisions that are just right for you. Balancing your design fantasies with your realities will give you a sustainable vision - the perfect blueprint for success.

Ask yourself these questions:

How can my dream be realized in the space available? Will I have to break down walls, punch holes for new windows, add skylights, or make other major architectural adjustments? Will I have to modify existing traffic patterns in my home?

Does my dream fit my budget? If not, don't despair. Even though you may not be able to re-create the kitchen you saw in your favorite design magazine, you may be able to capture the essence of it in an affordable way by adopting the same color palette, or including just a few of its key elements in your kitchen design. Or you may be able to realize your dream in stages, perhaps using plastic laminate countertops now and upgrading to another material later.

Copyright © 2003 by Joan Kohn

About the Author

I was a Navy brat, born in Brooklyn and raised around Naval bases in the East and Midwest. I received my undergraduate degree from The University of Michigan, where I attended the College of Architecture and Design and the Liberal Arts College. After my husband and I moved to Chicago, I taught high school for a few years, and then went back to school, receiving my Masters Degree from Northwestern University's School of Speech. While raising our two daughters in Chicago, I did free-lance work in television and in industrial films, and as a booth announcer and on-camera spokesperson for WTTW (Chicago's public television station), and even had small parts in a few feature films (including The Fugitive and Chain Reaction). In 1991, I went behind the camera to work as a director, co-writer and producer of Energy Express, a syndicated TV series for kids on health, fitness, and adventure that won two Chicago/Midwest Emmies and other awards.