All of this mistakes this woman made could have been avoided if she sat down for 5 minutes and actually used her brain. No need to spend months on gardenweb to know that you need storage space and counters in a kitchen. Its amazing how some people lack common sense.

True enough. I exaggerate. It's one of my character flaws.

Sorry I wasn't trying to put you down, it was more of a comment on how absolutely ridiculous this woman's issues were. She just completely ignored the basics.

I totally agree. Her "moment of insight" involved the discovery that designing a kitchen was different from picking out fabric for pillows, or some such thing! (Sorry if I sounded defensive, though.) I just wonder how often this sort of thing happens? I don't think I'd admit it if it were me! But I'd be jumping out that kitchen window if I had to put pans on my kitchen floor in order to bake...

I would definitely not admit it - especially if I were an interior designer!

How many people, after reading this, would trust her to make decisions about anything in their own home??!!

I would not trust her to pick out my toilet paper after reading this;)

I think her lack of common sense extends to how much she chooses to share. At first I applauded her honesty, then I realized she works in PR for the design business. Would you hire someone this bad at planning and organization to promote your business?

It is sad/funny, but she could so easily fix some of those problems. First off, she does NOT need all those pots!!! Just keep a 12 inch skillet/lid, a dutch oven and a sauce pan; she could probably cook a lot just with those three items. Then completely clean off both counters on either side of the range. That would give you more than enough prep space (given the city she lives in). Then go through everything else in the kitchen and purge. If she doesn't cook, why does she have all those serving pieces?

What a dork. Why doesn't she just sell the Le Creuset, which she can't even spell?

I think it may be meant as satire? The size of the appliances can't be that big a deal, what is 6" going to change about that kitchen? There is simply too much stuff in it, which as mentioned she could sell. I think it's meant to be funny, but I didn't really get it.

I question how genuine her love of cooking is.

If you really like to cook, you already have a lot of ideas of where you'd want things. If you don't, and the appeal of a kitchen is the statement it makes about you rather than the environment in which you want to work, then it's pretty easy to end up with the mess described.

She has two jars of utensils full of wooden spoons--one on her stove and one on the counter. I think she staged her kitchen for the article. ;)

Cultivate.com has helpful articles. They'll email you a topic every day. It's not obvious from the blog but it's Williams Sonoma.

In her defense... if all you see is beautifully designed kitchens and you're an esthete (like I am), you place form high on the list because you have a certain way you want things to look and certain appliances you want. I wanted to squeeze in a 36" rangetop AND two 15" wok burners into a 9' cooking center, until wiser kitchen gurus on GW told me I needed a LOT more landing space than what I proposed (12" between the rangetop and wok burners + 18" on either side). So I deleted the wok burners and increased my landing areas to 24" on either side.

A balanced approach to kitchen design is key: balancing esthetics and function. And yes, a critique thread on GW would have cured her of her ridiculously ill-conceived kitchen. :)

She says, "...I actually have a full-sized kitchen...," but that isn't what we see. There must at least be a sink on the parallel run of the kitchen. Maybe she decided that a Kohler Stages 45 was just the thing for her space? I'm not sure what the definition of "full size" is, but I don't think this is it. May I point out that no one who actually uses a stove for even light duty cooking would put framed silhouettes directly above and behind? And honestly, the sum effect of all the stacked cookware and the appalling amount of paper stuff attached to the fridge is to make this photo look like an introduction to the show Hoarders (I saw a bit of that yesterday while waiting for my Greek wrap).

Do you think this is an example of that journalistic fluff that came up the other day? You know, gotta hit those keywords and fill a certain amount of space, and who cares about the content?

I absolutely think "this is an example of that journalistic fluff" that suzannesl noted above. It seems to me that the writer's intent is to garner business for the designers she works with.

The kitchen appears to be staged to underline every design mistake - form & function. Perhaps it was an attempt to reach potential clients who don't have the expansive kitchen spaces shown in magazines. A way to say, "You, too, can benefit from the expertise of professionals even if you have an apartment-sized kitchen."

In one of the first paragraphs she says she most often eats out, then she bemoans not having enough space to cook while those stacks of what-did-she-call-them "Cruesits"? are piled on her stove.

I don't buy any bit of this article.

Ditto
Even if she had all of those "Crudites" - yes I changed it to have fun, she would have them stacked somewhere else in the little apartment!

When I first read this, I think I flashed back to those dreams-- you know the ones where you go to school and then realize you forgot to get dressed? Or you have a final in calculus and forgot to go to class? Only in this one, you get giant appliances and forget you have no place to put them. I have had some remodeling nightmares before (something to do with a door that was only 4 feet high and nobody noticed until it was built) but none about appliances. Yet.

this is such BS on this link she talks about how she loves her kitchen
http://mydeco.com/blog/through-the-keyhole-elizabeth-blitzer/#more-11346

OMG. A hoarder for sure.

I love seeing the home-ownerâÂÂs personality in the kitchen as opposed to prescribed starkness. Her white Le Creuset pans stack neatly on the burners instead of taking up space in the cupboard.

{{!gwi}}

And if that wasn't enough:

... a case study in living with what you love, no matter how eclectic your taste range."

{{!gwi}}{{!gwi}}

She evidently also has an aversion to being able to dust surfaces as well as being opposed to her pots "taking up space in the cupboard." God forbid she should actually light that candle! There is a lovely silver candy dish on that beat up dresser that is lost in the clutter, as well as what might be a Lenox bowl filled with plastic cr*p. Are those treasured old family photos buried down there at the bottom of the mirror? Yikes.

call me crazy, but isn't that what the cupboards are for? LOL...

Yeah, I love eclectic, I love collections, I'm good with all that...but this is a bit............something. and it's not good.

Rowrrrr. Catty much, ladies? The estrogen's getting a bit thick up in here. :)

Funny, I told my husband how much I hated it when men assumed women were catty when they were just criticizing one another. I tried to tell him what the original article is about, and he was like "Poor woman. At least she admits it and is trying to help others not make the same mistakes!" And I kept saying, "no, no, she is really an idiot," proving, I guess, that the estrogen is spiking in this cat lair! Rowrrrr!

wow if the story is true she made about every mistake you could make on 1 project. i am so lucky to have found GW early in my project, i have a kitchen i absolutely love cooking in and am so proud of!

if the story is made up to garner i do not know what - she did a good job, we are all talking about it! :)