Article on Designing and Remodeling Kitchens
Most newspaper/magazine articles on designing and remodeling a kitchen are deficient in some way or another. They usually contain misperceptions and outright errors that cloud the whole article.
I just ran across a great article called Get Cooking on a Dream Kitchen, by Matthew M. F. Miller of CTW Features, that calls me to task on my opinions. Great job Matthew!
I then Googled his name to try to figure out why he is so on-target in his writing and came up with his blog, Maybe Baby, about his ongoing attempt to become a father. He's a Chicago twenty-something who lost a lot of weight in the past and is married to a feminist. They just bought their first home. He writes well there too.
I then found his bio on Content That Works, the company that he works for. He's a content writer!
I then found another great article by Matthew called RETRO Fit or miss for your kitchen? on the use of retro appliances and strong colors in kitchens. He's spot-on again!
Then I found another one, Test your energy-saving savvy to save big bucks, on energy conservation in the home. Again, very well presented.
This guy is just a great researcher who really does his homework!
So great in this day of misinformation masquerading as gospel.
My faith in writers is reborn!
Peggy
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Hi Peggy!
ReplyDeleteI have appreciated your design acumen from your articles you wrote for your web site. So, you can't leave me hanging on what you posted here, what features did Mathew Miller write about that took you to task on your opinions?
Did you read Matthew's article Laurie?
ReplyDeleteI think it is a short and cogent explanation of all the steps in the process of remodeling a kitchen, with suggestions for the potential problem areas that many homeowners overlook when contemplating such a project.
It's a road map, showing all the detours and blockages that should be avoided or navigated around and through.
Writing about a process that takes months, and sometimes years, in such a compact and complete piece as this, is extremely rare.
Experienced designers and contractors are aware of all these potential problems. But writers without industry experience are usually not aware, so they often misinform in their articles. I expected to find that Matthew was a contractor or designer who had turned to writing. That doesn’t seem to be the case.
Matthew got his information from the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI); so it is well vetted. But he wrote the article only BASED on the NARI 12 step suggestions...in his own words. It is really far better than the NARI press release he based it upon (which can be viewed at http://www.nari.org/level2/pressroom/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewarticle&rowid=18000000000000043).
When I ran across his article on the web, I first made a comment on it, in the one area I felt he was a not quite as detailed as he might have been. As I wrote "nice article" at the end to compliment his writing I realized how seldom it is that I see writing on the subject of remodeling kitchens that I really agree with in the whole. That's when I decided he deserved a comment on my blog.
Another great writer is my idol, Ellen Cheever, who writes mostly for the consumption of kitchen designers and not the public. As a kitchen designer yourself, you must have a file of Ellen’s articles in your desk just as I do. She writes about our complex work in ways that both teach and inspire us.
Another writer I love to read is an architect who writes in the San Francisco Chronicle, Arrol Gellner (Google his name to find articles). Arrol really "tells it like it is" and generates some controversy as a result.
I have learned so much about the practice of architecture from reading his short columns over the years. And I really just can't thank writers like Matthew and Ellen and Arrol enough. They take a complex subject and condense it down to its most meaningful words and put those words together in such a way as to help the masses understand the subject as well as the experts do. It's a gift and I pay tribute to their mastery.
Peggy
Hi Peggy,
ReplyDeleteMatthew Miller's article, Get Cooking on a Dream Kitchen, was a cogent summary I can agree with on all points. Matthew's writing style is very good, clear and to the point. I like that. His point, "Refuse to join the I-Didn’t-Know-It-Would-Look-Like-That” club" is one I drive home all the time for my customers. I call it the "No surprises club".
Arrol Gellner, Architect, is a new reference for me, thank you. Talented, I agree. I read one of his articles and look forward for more. I perused his website and am wondering about that kitchen exhibited in the Emeryville Featured Project. It looks surprisingly generic and out of place in comparison to the beautiful soaring arched ceilings. I see a white microwave over an electric range on one leg and on the other a self riming stainless
steel sink placed in a Formica top-maybe it's granite, can't really tell. The cabinets could be stock with exposed hinges and standard overlay doors. Truly a vanilla kitchen in a world of 31 Flavors. Could it have been an "owner decision", the viewer will never know.
Ellen Cheever is in my "hall of fame" category. Truly a Kitchen Designer to watch. I read everything she writes.
Another Designer, I love to see what she is working on next, well known from HGTV is Candace Olsen. As an Interior Designer, her work encompasses more than kitchens. What I really appreciate are her hand rendered colored renderings. Her style is magnificent. Although I wish she didn't make it look so easy for TV. She simply picks fabric and stone and paint and tile and nimbly assembles them in her tray. Viola! I wish it was that easy!