I can recommend our KD. He was based in Sparkill NY (Rockland Cty) when we used him, but recently moved his showroom/office to Englewood, NJ. He is a really terrific designer. His design/layout was "outside" the box, compared to a few other KD's we'd visited (they were surprisingly limited when it came to envisioning our space). The drawings (design idea for us) that he brought to our initial meeting with him were exactly what we were looking for (his sketches are truly works of art, no exaggeration!).

Having lived with the kitchen for 5 years now, there are a few (very few) things I might have done slightly differently (I am horrible with space relations--it is so hard to envision sizes/spacing/layouts in my head!), but I realize they might have required trade-offs that we wouldn't have wanted to make. Luckily for us, we had David, who helped point out how changing or moving X might affect Y or Z in some instances, so were able to avoid any "buyer's remorse" or regrets, and we ended up with a kitchen we really love.

Feel free to contact me if you need or want to.

HTH!

Here is a link that might be useful: David Jefferson

I worked with Mark from Fine Woodworking in Brooklyn. He is a high end shop and does fantastic work. I went with Sapele cabinets with Anagre inserts in a Bordeaux finish. He can go from basic to wild and expensive. I can't recommend him enough...pm me if you want his contact info.

I like Ken Kelly Kitchens in Nassau County. They have a great showroom and their designs are fabulous. They were out of my price range, but still gave me some good ideas for layout by just taking a quick look at my plan.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ken KElly Kitchens

Thank you all so much for these ideas - will start checking out websites and making calls.

Before you go paying NYC area KD $$$, I would suggest you post your layout here on GW. There are professionals on the board, as well as some lay people who know more than a lot of pro KDs. I bet you'll get a ton of great ideas!

Thanks Kathy. I posted a couple of months back, wrangled with several layouts with lots of input the good folks here, and came up with what should be a plan that works for this house and how I cook and live. Then when I started plugging things into cabinets - not just "prep area here, cleanup area there" but actual "my grains and flours should go here, my drinking glasses need to go there, my knives need space here" - the allocated space doesn't work. Now the architect is adding wall cabinets, which I don't want, and I'm giving up dreams of drawers, which I really want. I think I need a KD with ties to a number of cabinet companies, who can look at this plan which I really want to work, and tell me if there are cabinet sizes and inserts that will make it happen, or if the compromises it will take aren't accepable to me, in which case I'm back at square one.

I don't want to impose on GWers again, because I think they've hashed out the problems to date on the plan I have. Just not sure anymore if this plan is going to work.

Really starting to hate this process. Off to read threads about "how to cope." :)