Westchester Home Magazine: How to Design the Perfect Kitchen
Honored to Be Included
Hudson Valley Magazine and Westchester Home is publishing a joint feature on how to build a dream home in the Hudson Valley throughout 2026. This April, they gathered perspectives from seven interior designers on designing their dream kitchen, I was glad to be among them. It is the kind of press that comes from a conversation about craft, not a promotional brief.
Writer Jonna Gallo Weppler shaped the piece around a question that comes up in nearly every client conversation I have: when should you bring in a designer, and what does it actually change? Most people call after the contractor is already booked. Some call after demo has started. A few, fortunately, call first.
The difference in outcome between those starting points is not small.
The foundation of the 2026 Hudson Valley Dream Home
What ASID Membership Actually Means for Your Project
The American Society of Interior Designers requires its members to meet ongoing education standards, hold to a code of ethics, and put client interests first. That is not marketing language. It is a structural commitment that changes how a designer shows up in your project.
In practice: your designer knows current building codes. They understand accessibility standards. They can read a set of plans and identify problems before those problems become change orders. They are required to stay current — not just on aesthetics, but on the technical foundations that determine whether a design actually functions.
The distinction I keep returning to: it is the difference between hiring someone who makes things look good and hiring someone who makes things work.
The Cost of Starting Late
Here is a number worth sitting with. Within the first 30 to 60 days of a project, you are talking about 80 percent of your spend. That was my contribution to the feature, and I mean it exactly as stated.
This is not an argument for spending more. It is an argument for spending earlier. When a designer is involved before construction starts — before materials are ordered, before walls are framed, before the contractor has committed to a sequence — the decisions that get made are integrated and intentional rather than reactive and cosmetic.
What does that look like in practice?
A kitchen island sized for how you actually cook, not how it photographs. Lighting layered with task, ambient, and accent sources, rather than recessed cans every four feet that flatten the room and are unkind to everyone standing under them. Appliance storage, pantry infrastructure, and prep space that reflects how your household actually moves through the kitchen. These are not upgrades. They are the starting conditions of a kitchen that functions.
For bath renovations, the same logic applies. The spa-like bathroom that clients consistently ask for is not a fixture category. It is a sequence of decisions about light, material, and spatial proportion that either work together from the beginning or get compromised one trade at a time.
The Question Is Not Whether You Can Afford a Designer
The question is whether you can afford to make irreversible decisions without one.
The biggest regret I hear from clients is some version of: "I wish we had thought about this before the walls went up." The sauna off the gym that was not roughed in during framing. The mudroom relocated to where the family actually enters the house, not where the original plan put it. The storage that would have cost almost nothing to build in at the start.
A designer's job at the beginning of a project is not to add expense. It is to protect the investment already being made, and to make sure the home that emerges from a renovation is one that actually supports your life.
That is what the restorative home is. Not a style. Not a price point. A set of decisions, made deliberately and in the right sequence, that produce a space where the body comes down from the day rather than staying on alert. It is achievable in a New York City co-op kitchen renovation. It is achievable in a Hudson Valley bathroom remodel. It requires starting with someone who knows the difference between what looks good in a photograph and what works at six in the morning.
What does an ASID interior designer do differently than other designers?
ASID-certified designers meet ongoing education requirements, follow a professional code of ethics, and are trained on current building codes, accessibility standards, and material specifications — not just aesthetics. They are accountable to a professional standard that goes beyond personal taste or visual skill.
When should you hire an interior designer for a kitchen renovation?
Before construction begins, ideally before a contractor is booked. Within the first 30 to 60 days of a project, roughly 80 percent of your total spend gets determined. Early involvement means space planning, materials, and construction sequencing are coordinated from the start rather than corrected at each stage.
Does hiring an interior designer save money on a kitchen renovation?
Early design involvement typically reduces costly change orders, prevents layout and material mistakes, and produces specifications that work with your contractor rather than around them. Minor kitchen remodels that are well-planned consistently recoup 70 to 80 percent of their cost at resale. The return is not only financial: it is living in a home that functions for your actual life rather than working against it.
What are the must-haves in a kitchen renovation in 2026?
The consistent priorities across clients right now are smarter layouts with real prep space, dedicated pantry and appliance storage, layered lighting, and materials that perform as well as they look. Sophisticated durability — leather that ages, performance fabrics that do not look like performance fabrics, finishes that do not require white-glove maintenance — is not a trend. It is a response to how people actually live.
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A Note on the Feature
This editorial grew out of a joint feature between Hudson Valley Magazine and Westchester Home, two publications that consistently cover the intersection of design, quality of life, and the particular way people in this region think about home. I am grateful for the conversation and for the chance to bring these ideas into a wider editorial context.
Read the feature in Hudson Valley Magazine
If you are planning a kitchen or bath renovation in the Hudson Valley, Westchester, or New York City area and want to think through what early design involvement could mean for your project, I would be glad to have that conversation.
