Can you discuss the greater emphasis on hardware in a kitchen. Perhaps your feelings of hardware as "jewelry" in a kitchen?
You took the words right out of my mouth; that is exactly how I approach hardware, as jewels in a kitchen design. It puts that finishing touch on the kitchen, it's a great thing to mix, it adds to the tactile sense of the kitchen.
You're grabbing these handles and knobs every day. Especially now with all the artisans focusing on kitchen hardware. There are more things to choose from, keeping up with the industry is something we do here constantly. Mixing the hardware is another thing we do here. Not using the same handle or knob throughout the entire space, adds another artistic touch to the kitchen.
How do you take all the human senses into account when you are ruminating about a design?
Every sense needs to be made to come alive in a kitchen: the sights, the sounds, the touch, the smells. I think there is that last sense—the magic in a room. We all go for this, the thing that you can't even identify. It's a personality, it's a karma, it's a good flavor, as it were, to the space. I think a lot of that is brought about by a great "process of design." People are relaxed during the process and feel good about the give and take with their designer, that space reflects it forever.
It shows that there is something more going on here. It's a certain "spirituality" that is created by every element that is in the space. Alignment, proportion, color, everything flowing together in a well-designed kitchen.
I think the most important thing is that people go with their gut, their instinct, is so very important. And, not to move away from that, even when people tell you it's not the right thing to do. Stay true to yourself, and find people, the professionals, the kitchen designer who will work with that, rather than against it. A good designer is not going to let you do something that is obviously wrong, that is a part of the kitchen designer's job too. The instinct of how they want it to look and feel, it shouldn't be compromised on.
This is a long-term room, it's an expensive room no matter whom you do it with. You should work with people who understand that and help make your "instinctive" feelings a reality. It's all about "going "beyond"—striving to go beyond what's already there. That's the goal. That's the magic.
Mark McCauley is a professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and is author of Color Therapy at Home (Rockport Publishers) and Interior Design for Idiots (Great Quotations Publishing Company). He is senior designer at Darleen's Interiors in Naperville, Ill.
