What Is Design Worth? – Thyme & Place Design

How much will my new kitchen, bath, living room, home office cost? That is a question I often hear from clients and it is an important one. Everyone wants to know what the investment will be for whatever interior design project they are embarking on. I believe the more important questions are what do I expect from my designer and what is that design worth?  Let’s take a different view, How much time and investment will your designer make to see your interior design project come to life. I will try to answer that question through the eyes of a new kitchen.

800+ Kitchen Remodel Decisions

Most homeowners begin a kitchen remodel by thinking about the things they can see. Cabinets, countertops, appliances, tile, lighting and paint colors. Those choices matter. They help define how the kitchen will look and feel when the project is complete. However, after more than twenty years of designing kitchens, bathrooms, and homes, I can tell you that the visible choices are only part of the story.

A well-designed kitchen does not happen because someone picked a pretty cabinet finish or found a beautiful stone slab. It happens because hundreds of questions, decisions, revisions, details, conversations, and solutions come together in the right order. Recently, I started thinking about how many individual kitchen remodel decisions go into designing one space. Not a whole home. Not a large renovation. Just one kitchen.

What Is Design Worth: What Designers Do.

Once I considered the client conversations, lifestyle questions, layout decisions, appliance specifications, cabinetry details, storage solutions, lighting choices, electrical needs, plumbing requirements, material selections, procurement steps, site visits, and problem solving, the number moved quickly beyond 200.

In reality, one kitchen can easily involve 800 or more individual decisions and details. That is the part most homeowners never see but that is where the value of a professional design begins.

Kitchen Design Begins Before the Kitchen

One of the biggest misconceptions about kitchen design is that it starts with products, but not really. A successful kitchen begins with people. Before we talk about inset cabinetry, quartzite countertops, panel-ready appliances, or decorative lighting, we need to understand the family who will live in the space now, five years from now, ten or even twenty years from now? These questions may seem simple. However, the answers shape almost every decision that follows. For example, a family with young children needs something different from a couple planning for retirement. A client who cooks every night has different needs than someone who entertains often but rarely prepares  meals during the week. Likewise, a household that wants to age in place needs different planning than one preparing a home for resale.

This is why good design starts with listening. The getting-to-know-you phase is not small talk. It is research. Here is where we learn what works, what does not work, what frustrates the client, what they value, and how the home needs to support their daily routines.

Most Clients Do Not Ask for What They Actually Need

No one calls me and says, “I need better task lighting.” They do not usually ask for improved traffic flow or they want a better relationship between the sink, refrigerator, and cooking zone. Instead, they call because something feels wrong, the kitchen feels crowded, storage isn’t working and cooking is stressful. “Our counter tops seem to collect everything, and there never seems to be enough room for how we live.”

Those frustrations are important because they are clues. The designer’s job is to listen to what the client is saying and understand what the space is not doing. Sometimes the answer is a new layout or better storage. Maybe the answer is better lighting, appliance placement, seating, traffic flow, or a more thoughtful connection to the rooms around the kitchen. Most often, it is all of those things working together.

That is why a kitchen remodel is never one decision, it’s hundreds of connected kitchen remodel decisions.

Kitchen Category Decisions Designers Manage

• Layout type Galley, L-shape, U-shape, island, peninsula, or open plan
• Appliance planning Refrigerator, range, cooktop, ovens, dishwasher, ventilation, and refrigeration drawers
• Appliance specifications Size, fuel type, panel-ready vs. stainless, clearances, and rough-ins
• Cabinet construction Custom, semi-custom, framed, frameless, inset, or overlay
• Door and drawer style Profile, rail and stile, slab, shaker, and specialty details
• Cabinet finish Paint, stain, glaze, texture, sheen, and specialty finish
• Interior storage Rollouts, dividers, inserts, trays, spice storage, trash, recycling, and pantry systems
• Countertops Material, thickness, edge, slab selection, seam locations, and overhangs
• Sink and faucet Size, material, style, finish, accessories, filtration, and disposal
• Backsplash Material, color, layout, pattern, grout, and trim pieces
• Lighting: ask, decorative, recessed, under-cabinet, toe-kick, and accent lighting
• Electrical outlets, appliance circuits, switches, dimmers, charging, and code requirements
• Plumbing: sink, pot filler, refrigerator water line, dishwasher, and disposal
• Flooring Material, direction, transitions, and durability
• Window and door trim Profile, paint or stain, casing, sill, and header details
• Hardware Style, size, finish, and placement
• Window treatments for privacy, light control, fabric, motorization, and hardware

Now you see why one kitchen can include hundreds of decisions before construction even begins.

One Decision Creates Ten More

This is where kitchen design becomes more complex than most homeowners expect. A client may say, “Can we move this wall?” That sounds like one question however, from a design and construction standpoint, that one question opens the door to many more.

• Is the wall load-bearing?
• Do we need an engineer?
• What happens to the electrical?
• Does plumbing run through that wall?
• Will HVAC be affected?
• Will the flooring need to be patched or replaced?
• Does the ceiling need repair?
• Will the lighting plan change?
• Does the cabinetry layout need to be revised?
• How does this affect the budget?
• That is one decision.
• Now imagine that same ripple effect happening with appliances, cabinetry, countertops, lighting, plumbing, flooring, tile, hardware, window placement, storage, and installation.

Here is where a design professional has real value. Your designer is not only looking at the choice in front of the client but is thinking about the next several decisions that choice will create.

The Design Decisions Clients Can See

Some parts of the kitchen design process are easy for clients to recognize. They can see the cabinetry and touch the countertop, stand under the pendant lights and feel the flooring underfoot.

These decisions matter, and each one deserves careful thought.

Cabinetry alone can include decisions about framed or frameless construction, inset or overlay doors, door style, drawer style, paint or stain, interior finish, crown molding, light rail, toe kick details, decorative panels, end panels, appliance panels, and hardware placement. The client needs to choose the material. In many cases, they also need to view and approve the slab. Thickness matters. Edge details matter. Seam locations matter. Overhangs matter. Support matters. Maintenance matters.

Lighting is another project inside the project.

A kitchen needs task lighting, ambient lighting, decorative lighting, and sometimes accent lighting. Fixture size, placement, finish, bulb type, color temperature, wattage, dimming, and switching all need to be considered.

Even the backsplash, which may look like a single design choice, includes material, size, layout, pattern, grout color, trim details, range wall treatment, outlet placement, and installation direction. Each visible decision has many invisible decisions behind it.

The Technical Decisions Behind the Beauty

A beautiful kitchen also has to function which means the technical details matter. Designers coordinate appliance specifications before cabinet plans are finalized. The refrigerator, range, cooktop, wall ovens, dishwasher, ventilation, microwave, steam oven, wine refrigeration, or specialty appliances all have requirements.

Some need dedicated electrical circuits, plumbing connections and supplies or ventilation. Considerations about clearances that affect cabinetry doors and drawers opening against walls or even other cabinets.  In addition, the sink and faucet require coordination. Sink size, material, depth, mounting style, faucet height, finish, filtration, disposal, soap dispenser, air gap, and drain location all affect the final plan.

Kitchen design is not simply about selecting finishes but understanding the details that make the finished space work.

Electrical planning touches almost every part of the kitchen. Outlets, switches, under-cabinet lighting, island power, appliance circuits, dimmers, decorative fixtures, recessed lights, charging stations, and smart controls all need attention before walls close. Meanwhile, plumbing, HVAC, flooring transitions, window and door locations, trim profiles, and ceiling conditions also need to be reviewed.

Procurement Is Not Shopping

Clients understand the design selections however, they may not understand what happens after those selections are approved.  Procurement is not shopping but it is researching, quoting, ordering, tracking, confirming, receiving, inspecting, troubleshooting, and coordinating. A designer may need to confirm model numbers, finish names, lead times, freight requirements, warranties, quantities, installation needs, and delivery windows.

What Is Design Worth When Something Goes Wrong?

What happens when something is delayed, discontinued, damaged, backordered, or incorrect, another round of decisions begins. Can we wait? Do we need to reselect? Will the replacement work with the design? How about the budget and the schedule? Procurement is one of the least visible parts of a design project. However, it can have a major impact on the client experience.

A beautiful selection means very little if it never arrives, arrives damaged, arrives too late, or does not work with the rest of the project.

The Work That Happens During Construction

Many homeowners assume the designer’s work ends when the plans and selections are complete. In reality, construction often brings another layer of responsibility. The designer visits the site, answers contractor questions, reviews cabinet shop drawings, reviews tile layouts, addresses electrical questions, adjusts lighting, confirms plumbing details, reviews stone templates, measures for window treatments, respond to field conditions, and help resolve punch list items.

Sometimes a decision made months earlier needs to be reviewed again because construction has revealed a glitch. This is where experience matters. Designers help protect the design intent while adapting to site conditions. Projects always require flexibility. However, thoughtful changes protect the result where reactive changes can create new problems.

Why Design Fees Can Be Misunderstood

When homeowners look at a finished kitchen, they see the visible result, cabinetry, countertops, appliances, tile, lighting, hardware, flooring, and paint. What they may not see is the experience behind those decisions.

What’s not apparent? time spent understanding lifestyle, the research behind the product selections or the coordination between the cabinet maker, contractor, electrician, plumber, tile installer, stone fabricator, lighting showroom, appliance vendor, and painter.

Often hidden in plain sight, are the mistakes avoided because someone asked the right question early enough or the hundreds of small kitchen remodel decisions that prevented the project from becoming more stressful, more expensive, or less functional. 

What Homeowners Are Really Paying For

A homeowner is not simply paying a designer to choose cabinets or countertops. They are paying for a professional process, experience, judgment, coordination and problem solving. Designers fill the role of someone who understands how one decision affects ten others and a professional who can see the problems and provide solutions. If the devil is in the details, success is in the execution. 

The 800 Decisions Are the Value

Depending on the size, scope, and complexity of the project, a kitchen may include 500 decisions, 800 decisions, or more than 1,000 individual details. A successful kitchen never comes from one big decision. It is the result of all the questions, decisions, research, planning, coordination, ordering, site visits, and problem solving that happened along the way.

The peace of mind that all of these decisions are being managed by your design professional is what design is worth.

Sharon L. Sherman, ASID, NCIDQ, CID, CKD

Sharon founded Thyme and Place Design, headquartered in Wyckoff, New Jersey, and has been practicing kitchen, bath, and interior design for over 20 years across New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and the Eastern Seaboard. She is the Past President of the American Society of Interior Designers, New Jersey chapter, a professional member of ASID, as well as a Certified Interior Designer in New Jersey, and a Certified Kitchen Designer, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Interior Design Community.

She is a current member of the editorial board of KBB Magazine,  the official magazine of the National Kitchen and Bath Association. Sharon was named KBB Person of the Year 2025 and received the Kitchen Bath Design News 2022 Innovator of the Year Award. Her award-winning designs and editorial comments have been featured in Forbes, The New York Times, Design Milk, Furniture Lighting and Decor, Designers Today, Kitchen & Bath Design News, Country Decorating, Design NJ, New Jersey Home Magazine, 201 Magazine, as well as several books. She has authored the Interior Designers’ Guide to Kitchen and Bath Business Success, available through the website. Sharon is a sought-after conference speaker and CEU provider. You can contact her through the website www.thymeandplacedesign.com.