THE Art OF THE BEAUTIFUL KITCHEN

by Clay Cox
Owner/President • Kitchens by Clay

In my entire career I’ve never had anyone stop into one of my showrooms and say, “could you help me design an ugly kitchen”?

Nope, that’s never happened. It goes without saying that we want our kitchens to be beautiful and that’s what a good kitchen designer strives for. But we, as designers, must remember that
beauty “is in the eye of the beholder”.

It’s not for us to decide what makes a beautiful kitchen. Our job is to find out what the customers idea of beautiful is. We accomplish that by listening and then listening some more. We encourage the homeowner to clip photos out of magazines to get their message across. It also helps that our showroom is comprehensive with full kitchen and bath displays. It really isn’t difficult to follow along with someone’s wishes if they are clear about what they desire. Then we will help them visualize what we will do together. With our private label, Kitchens by Clay can produce virtually any look which helps us with a wide variety of clients and their wishes. And we certainly never have to
“push” a product line that doesn’t fit the customer.

But… “beauty is only skin deep”.

This is a phrase we’ve all heard before and you might wonder how it fits into our discussion about the Art of Beautiful Kitchens. This is my thinking on this. If a kitchen functions as well as it looks it will only enhance the beauty of the kitchen. So, when we design a kitchen of any size or style we are as interested in how it works just as much as how it looks.

We make sure that all the conveniences available are there for our customers. We also make sure they understand what we are doing and why we are doing it. Some of these conveniences can add to the bottom line so it is important for us to be clear about how they will affect the lives of those who use the kitchen which also allows our customers to make educated decisions.

So, remember when you want that beautiful kitchen, keep in mind that the beauty is not only in the looks but in how the kitchen works for you as well.
Clay Cox
Feel free to send an e-mail to me at clay@kitchensbyclay.com