Our Kitchen Design Was Featured on DiY Network's Kitchen Crashers

Our Kitchen Design was Featured on Kitchen Crashers.jpg

Today, one of our kitchen designs was featured on the DiY Network’s hit reality TV show, Kitchen Crashers, Season 5, Episode 2.  This was a great experience getting to help design a kitchen for a hit reality TV show and we are excited with how the space turned out considering how quickly they gutted the kitchen and pulled everything together in 5 days.  Whenever we tell one of our customers, family or friends that we had involvement with this project, they always ask about how this all came together.  So, here is that story.

 

The Call From Kitchen Crashers

A few months ago, in the summer of 2013, our office received a call from one of the producers of Kitchen Crashers.  After talking on the phone we were invited to come on-site and learn more about their process and share with them a little about us and what kinds of kitchens we liked to design.  After this meeting and a follow-up phone call, we were informed that we were chosen to design a kitchen for Season 5 of Kitchen Crashers.  Unfortunately, we still didn’t know which project we were going to be working on.


A Small Kitchen in Evanston

After a few weeks, we found out that we were asked to design a kitchen space for a couple in Evanston, IL who had a tiny kitchen that was in need of help.  We were chosen for this project because of our past experience with designing small kitchens, specifically, another kitchen we designed for a home in Evanston, IL.  The only thing we knew about the customer was that they didn’t like their existing kitchen and that the husband owned a business in the coffee industry.


Initial Meeting

Bill’s notes from the kick-off meeting with Kitchen Crashers

Finally, the day came where we were able to meet the young family that was getting their kitchen “crashed” and we would finally get to see the space.  When Bill and I arrived on site, we got to meet the family (who were really nice), the contractor that was going to be working on the project, and some of the rest of the team that was helping shoot this episode.

The hardest part about this meeting was that we had 10 minutes to get to know the couple and ask them all of the questions we wanted about the project.  This was really tough for us considering we typically spend around 1 hour in our normal interior design projects getting to know the customer and what they are looking to accomplish.  The other tricky part about this meeting was that we couldn’t let them know what we were planning on designing, it had to be a complete surprise!

After the first meeting with the customer and the contractor, we had everything we needed to design the kitchen.

Designing the Kitchen

After the meeting, Bill and I discussed some kitchen design ideas over some lunch at Himalayan (our favorite Indian restaurant in the city).  We knew that we wanted to make a “coffee center” since the husband’s personal business revolved around coffee and provide as much counter space as possible since that was lacking in their old kitchen.  We also knew that we wanted to give the space a “homey” feel, just like a coffee house.

After many design iterations, we came up with a design that we loved and presented to the show.  With only a few modifications, we had the final design that was used for the final taping of Kitchen Crashers – Coffee Kitchen Crash.


Taping of the Show

The week that the show was scheduled to tape happened to land on probably one of our busiest weeks at our interior design firm.  Bill & I had a chance to make it out to the crashing of the kitchen.  Unfortunately, in such a small space we weren’t able to see much, but we did get to see the set, Alison Victoria (the host of Kitchen Crashers) and we got to meet the extended family of the couple that we designed the kitchen for.  It was great to see the energy and the renovation process in progress.  We were also around to witness the City of Evanston and their attempt to ticket the show’s crew for parking on the street during a street cleaning day. :-)

Throughout the week, we knew the project was being worked on but we were unable to make it back out to Evanston to see the project as it was being built.  This was really tough for Bill and I since we are used to being more involved in our clients projects.


The Big Reveal

Finally, it was October 14th and the day the new episode of Kitchen Crashers – Coffee Kitchen Crash which involved our kitchen design aired.  Up until this point, we didn’t see how the kitchen looked or was going to turn out.  For control freaks like everyone here at Design Inside, this was driving us crazy to not be move involved.  Luckily, everything in the kitchen turned out great!  We loved how the cabinets looked, the bead board ceilings and the coffee station turned out perfectly!  Maybe someday, we will get to see the kitchen in person.  In the mean time, we will have to settle for whatever we saw on TV (which is why we have such low quality photos of the project).

This was an amazing experience for Bill and I.  We had a blast designing the kitchen, meeting the customer (for 10 minutes) and getting to see someone else implement and tweak our design.  Who knows, maybe we will get to do it again someday.