J and B Kitchen Designs

The designs they came up with were awesomely beautiful. Several options were presented and as we decreased our options, they took our comments back to the drawing board and made the new designs even more awesome. They spent a lot of time with us, and took notes indicating how we used the kitchen, what the kitchen meant to us in style, design, and cost. They recommended an equally awesome contractor and as we finalized our design, and made revisions they stuck with us in every small detail. Brigitte and John work together as a team. They not only helped us design the kitchen, the worked with us to pick out cabinets that would work for us, door design, colors, lights, they paid attention to every detail. The best issue is that they were both were willing to meet with us for help choosing granite, backsplash tile, and often became the mediator between husband and wife who frequently did not agree on things. They were always up to date with the status of the progression of the remodel, details as to where we were with choices, and had a list of recommended vendors for us to use for things. They also met with us at the contractors location. They were very responsive to emails, phone calls and timely meetings. This remodel was a very difficult process and expensive, and John and Brigitte made the process pleasant, less stressful and definitely came up with designs that created a "WOW" from us. When you begin to tear out walls and do that extensive type of remodel, you need someone like John & Brigitte and the vendors/contractors they recommend. They were charming and fun to work with. Organized. Cost conscious. Easy to work with.

I chose to work with John and Brigitte because, for a flat fee, they do the kitchen design without obligation to buy any product. The design fee is applied toward the purchase of cabinets if you do buy through them. They also use a computer program that allows you to see the flat layout on a grid as well as a 3-D picture of the design from any angle. The design phase went very well. I have a small kitchen and wanted to maximize storage and efficiency. We went through several iterations of the design, and each time John emailed the revision to me in a day or two of my change request. We ended up with a design that was semi-custom, so we decided to buy the cabinets through the distributor John and Brigitte represent (The Design Center for Kitchen and Bath in Niles) so they could be the ones working with the manufacturer to get the order right. Having a contractor we know and trust, we chose not to use the in-house contractor. John and Brigitte do not design lighting or electrical plans, so I worked that out in consultation with my contractor. Everything went smoothly until it was time to make the final measurements for the countertops. Our understanding was that once the cabinets were installed, John and Brigitte would come to the house to get the exact measurements for the countertop. My contractor called John repeatedly to have them come out, beginning on a Friday. John emailed me on Tuesday citing problems with getting information from the countertop fabricator. We had opted for a laminate countertop rather than granite to save funds for other parts of the remodel, and they don?t generally deal with laminate. As it turned out, neither John, Brigitte or the fabricator do measurements for laminate, so that job fell to my contractor. Once we had the measurements and it was time to arrange getting payment to the fabricator so he would begin work on our project, John did not return my calls. Fortunately, from a previous interaction, I had contact information for someone else at The Design Center for Kitchen and Bath. She told me John was out of town, but that she was able to arrange payment with fabricator, so the work could proceed. I felt very frustrated to have cabinets installed and be in the final stages of the project and have the designer leave town without making arrangements for someone else at the firm to guide the project to its conclusion. Now that the kitchen is finished and we?ve been using it for a couple of months I can say that I?m happy with the design and I?m happy with the line of cabinets we chose.

J&B were very friendly and warm. When they came to check out the kitchen, they listened well to our goals and hopes for the project. They explained how the process worked when working with them for the project. They told us that they could develop a plan in pretty much any price range and we just needed to tell them what we had budgeted for the project. After a few weeks, they had us come review the plans they had put together. Again, they were very willing to listen and explained lots of different things about kitchens and remodeling that we weren't familiar with. In the end, we decided not to move forward with J&B for 2 main reasons: 1) The quote they were able to give us was very "approximate." It was focused on cabinet cost (which to be fair is the largest cost in the ktichen) and then said that labor costs typically cost a certain % of the cabinet costs. 2) We have a relatively small amount of space to work with and we didn't feel their design was the best use of the space that we had. Another company we were working with to get an estimate had a lot of ideas that they shared with us early enough to make us feel like we were going to get a lot out of the space that we had. In addition, the other company provided very detailed quotes outlining exactly what was and what wasn't included in the quote. We really liked a lot of things about J&B Designs, but in the end, these two items tipped the scales. I'm sure they'll do many many more beautiful kitchens!

It was a pleasure and a privilege to work with this creative husband and wife team. I was entranced watching them bounce incredible ideas around, and I was entertained by the way they played off of each other's ideas and suggestions. It is clear that they love the work they do. Their excitement about my kitchen project got me super excited about the project! Clever ideas, excellent communication and an abundance of humor and patience. I would recommend this design team in a heartbeat. I love my kitchen design. Everyone who sees my new kitchen loves the design. And John and Brigitte- if you happen to stumble upon this review, a big THANK YOU to you for your wonderful work!