A Better Way to Get Your New Luxury Kitchen

If there is a single room in your home that will yield the greatest return on investment both in literal increase in home valuation and in daily personal enjoyment — it is the kitchen.

The kitchen is the heart of the home. It is where you and your family spend the most waking hours of your life when at home. Whether it’s’ preparing food, enjoying meals or being the center of activity when entertaining guests — designing your kitchen and adjacent living areas to fit your lifestyle is a big part of making your life as enjoyable as possible.

You can’t fix function with pretty

There are three key aspects to a great kitchen design: function, form and aesthetics. We believe function drives the form. We use this principle to ensure your new kitchen is designed to perfectly compliment your lifestyle. The aesthetics of the design are only the final layering. Get the form wrong and the prettiest kitchen design will disappoint you with daily use.

Very often designing your perfect kitchen will require expanding or relocating the kitchen triggering a floor plan reconfiguration of surrounding areas. This is where Studio 818’s experience in creating the ideal floor plan and space plan with gut-rehabs and whole-house renovations will be key to your luxury kitchen design project being a success.

We go beyond the ‘lipstick’

Your kitchen is key to your quality of life and the value of your home, so you don’t want to leave its’ design in the hands of a “kitchen showroom” pushing their product line. If your kitchen just needs a simple cosmetic facelift without changing the footprint you may be able to get away with a typical interior designer.

At Studio 818 we consider the ideal floor plan the critical foundation for guaranteeing the most dramatic impact on the function, aesthetics and value of your property. All cabinetry and other millwork are built custom for complete flexibility and premium quality.

With nearly a decade of complete freedom and flexibility in designing kitchens in our Designer Spec Homes we’ve learned the hard way what works and what doesn’t. We’ve taken some big risks with our own money on some outside-the-box kitchen designs and we’re able to pass that understanding on to you with even the most radical of kitchen transformations.

The most effective and efficient way for you to end up with a stunning luxury kitchen as designed and planned is for us to take the lead on the design & build process from the start. That means the Studio 818 team begins working with you from your first serious intention to transform your existing kitchen and surrounding living areas.

Our full-service designer-led Design + Build Management for luxury kitchens handles all the headaches from concept to completion with a relentless focus on function, form and efficiency.

‘Full-Service’

 ‘Full-service’ means we oversee the hundreds of moving parts required to create your dream design, document it and bring it into reality with turn-key convenience. With our Design + Build Management framework for luxury kitchens we simplify your life as your single point of contact for the project. We handle all the headaches for you from concept to completion.

‘Designer-led’

With Studio 818’s designer-led framework the design team takes the lead from conceptual planning, into design development, through construction — all the way to completion. With this top-level design-focused oversight we’re able to keep your project on-target with a relentless focus on efficiency.

Before the contractor swings a hammer or the cabinet maker begins the millwork every detail is pre-planned to control project costs and increase timeline efficiency. When construction begins we stand in the gap for you handling all the challenges that arise while protecting you, your design and your budget.

Your luxury kitchen deserves the same attention given to a whole-house renovation or new custom home. Through our six-phase Full-Service Design + Build Management process and partnership with select architects Studio 818 provides all you need to make your design dreams a reality; from concept to completed construction.

Six phases to cover all the bases

Phase 1: Discovery and documentation; to understand your vision and ensure your new kitchen is designed to perfectly complement the way you live

Phase 2: Conceptual design; to provide the critical guideposts for all design and development on your project moving forward

Phase 3: Design development; where all of the information we’ve gathered is translated into one cohesive design to meet your specific needs and design aesthetic

Phase 4: Technical and construction documentation (aka the ‘project bible’). This is all the critical documentation that tells the contractors precisely how to build your new kitchen with details, measurements and specifications. This includes the complete plan set for permitting developed by the architect.

Phase 5: Procurement; we handle sourcing and order-management of all cabinets, millwork, finishes and fixtures to ensure an uninterrupted timeline for your project. Order management, tracking, receiving & inspection, handling damage claims and making sure the materials are on-site only when the contractor is ready for them.

Phase 6: Construction administration; to handle the headaches of keeping your project on track, minimizing change-orders and ensuring your dream design becomes reality.

As you can see, every aspect of your project is covered in these six phases. For permit plan sets we partner with select architects and engineers, choosing the ones that are best matched to the scope of your project.

Studio 818 is not a general contractor and that is by design. We eliminate conflicts of interest by not acting as both the master designer and general contractor like many design-build companies. This addresses the concern many owners have about increases the construction budget being made to benefit the contractor.

Thanks to our 20+ years of real estate investment and development experience the Studio 818 team provides you professional unbiased guidance construction administration. We oversee and manage contractor bidding, review and advise on requests for progress payments, and meet regularly with the contractor to ensure your project moves along smoothly. We maximize the efficiency of your project by treating it as if it were a Spec Home being developed for profit.

Under our watchful eye you can have confidence that you’re getting the best quality work, executed the most efficient way, and budgeted at the best possible value.

Finding the right team to entrust with your luxury kitchen project in South Florida is critical. Design, permitting and construction can take anywhere between 4 to 8+ months. This should be one of the most exciting and fulfilling experiences of your life. But making the wrong choice in who will lead your project could mean the process ends up feeling more like a very long bad date you can’t escape.

Ensuring we are the right match for you and your project is important to us. Our designer-led Design + Build Management framework is different and it’s not right for everyone. To help you decide for yourself here are some reasons clients have chosen to work with us. We may be the perfect fit for you IF:

♦ The fit, finishes & details in your home are important to you.

♦ It’s crucial that the flow & function of your floor plan perfectly compliment your lifestyle.

♦ You understand the upfront investment to design in-detail before the first hammer swings will minimize change orders & accelerate construction timelines.

♦ You want the security that comes with having a trusted team standing in the gap representing and protecting you throughout the entire design-build process.

♦ Your time is important and you’re happy to let professionals handle all the moving parts for you.

♦ You want to get the maximum ROI from every dollar invested.

♦ You want your home valuation after completion to put you in a good equity position.

Studio 818’s Design + Build Management framework works best with luxury kitchens that will have:

♦ A budget of at least $125,000* (* Including design, construction, management, fixtures, finishes & equipment. Exclusive of building lot, furniture & furnishings.)

♦ An after-improvement home valuation of at least $700,000

These general minimums provide a starting point where it makes good financial sense to employ our services. The benefits you gain in efficiency, cost savings and return on investment increase exponentially as the budget, scope and property valuation increase.

If you’re unsure what your construction budget is or should be check out this introduction to construction costs in South Florida for some valuable guidance, then schedule your free Discovery Call to review your project together.

For our Design + Build Management framework to deliver the results you expect there is a minimum amount of time and effort it will take to effectively deploy the system regardless the budget. Sometimes people have the misperception that a lower budget will mean a lower investment for our services, however the real-world math doesn’t work out that way.

On a larger design-build project it’s pretty obvious the broader scope and complexity will require more time, money and effort on our part. The cool thing is that as a construction budget increases the investment for our services actually decreases as a relative percentage of the construction budget. The more complex the scope of work the greater your return on investment for our services – in efficiency, cost savings and timelines.

On the flip side if a budget is too tight for a project, that lower budget doesn’t eliminate steps. It doesn’t reduce the work required to deliver stellar results. It still takes hundreds of hours and months of work on our part to successfully take a luxury kitchen project from concept to completion. In fact, it will proportionally more time to create a stunning result with a tight budget than it does with a larger one.

That’s because a lower budget brings with it more limitations to work around in the design phase. And when it comes to the planning, project management and execution of the masterplan those things take the same effort with a tight budget as they would on a project with a more substantial budget. 

With this in mind we know it won’t make good financial sense for you to make the investment in our full-service Design + Build Management services below a specific budget threshold. Unlike the typical Architect or Interior Design firm we’re not going to take your money just to create a design that in the end you can’t afford to build. That is why we provide this budget guidance.

Thanks to our extensive property development experience we know construction costs. And because of that expertise we know what the budget threshold is for diminishing returns with a new ground-up custom home project. That is what is reflected in the suggested minimum construction budget above.

Our framework covers much more than interior design, finishes and other ‘pretty stuff.’ Much of the value Studio 818 provides you comes from the master-planning at the start, project management throughout and owner’s representation during the construction phase.  

Studio 818’s full-service Design + Build Management services are always a fixed-fee making it easier to determine the total investment in your project up-front. We do not price projects based on a percentage of budget or square footage like many design professionals do, but is instead based on the number of design areas a project entails. This approach ensures you receive the level of attention and detail your project scope requires, and that our compensation is commensurate with the amount of work dedicated to executing stellar design 

The investment for our services is impacted by various conditions such as total square footage, challenges with the building site, complexity of architectural design, quantity/level of custom millwork and level of finishes. This white glove service includes everything you need outside construction labor and material costs, including:

♦ Conceptual design

♦ Final design with renderings

♦ Finish material specifications

♦ Architectural & engineering plans (for permitting)

♦ Detailed technical drawings & specifications (for contractors)

♦ Management of the contractor bidding process

♦ Procurement & order management for critical finish materials

♦ Designer-led project management from concept, through construction right up to completion and your move-in

To get a better understanding of what your total project investment is likely to be schedule a free Discovery Call.