What to Take to Your Home Depot Designer

You've made the decision. You're ready to start building the kitchen of your dreams. Now what?

Now is the time to start gathering up your ideas to take to The Home Depot store nearest you. You can find it by visiting the store locator or you can use The Home Depot's convenient scheduling tool to arrange an appointment directly with one of their skilled kitchen designers.

But before you leave your driveway, we have some suggestions of things you might want to bring to your first meeting:

Your wish list. We've made it easy to craft a wish list on our website. As you are browsing this site, you'll be able to click to add the items onto your own personal wish list, which you can then take with you to your meeting. But having a printed list is hardly a requirement. Just give some thought to the features you'd like to have in your space and the problems you currently have in your kitchen, and be ready to talk those over at length with your The Home Depot designer. It may seem like they will have a lot of questions for you, but it's all a part of bringing your dreams to life.

Basic measurements. A kitchen designer will not be able to give you a binding quote until they have measured your space on site. But for the purposes of your first discussion, bring along some dimensions for the room where your cabinets will go. Do you have doors, hallways, or windows in the space? Letting the designer know this will also facilitate your discussion.

Important Color Samples. Are you trying to match your cabinets to flooring you've already chosen? Do you have wood tone woodwork that would need to coordinate? Do you have fabrics or wall colors that already exist, and need to be factored into the design? These things will be important to have with you when you visit the store, so you can compare them against the finish samples in the Decora Selling Center at The Home Depot.

Photos that have caught your eye. Have you seen a room in a design magazine that's caught your eye? Have you found a certain feature or embellishment that's perfect for your space? Don't limit yourself just to what you find on our Decorá website. Show your kitchen designer everything. It will help them understand your overall taste and style preferences. And remember, you can create nearly any look with Decorá. So if you don't see that look in one of our brochures or on our website, your The Home Depot designer can find a way to create it for you.

Important members of your team. The Home Depot designers have the expertise and the product to help you plan your kitchen from scratch, with no outside design assistance. But they will gladly welcome your architect or interior designer to assist in creating your ideal space. Your The Home Depot designer can work in tandem with them to fulfill the plans they have drawn for your home. In fact, if you are working closely with an interior designer, we highly recommend their involvement, especially in the meetings where cabinet colors and configurations are chosen.

Once you've had a chance to communicate your specific desires, and make some preliminary cabinet choices, your kitchen designer will be ready to measure your space. Then, they can provide you with a detailed architectural drawing of what the cabinets will look like in your space, and provide an estimate. Curious about what you might spend? Try The Home Depot's helpful budgeting tool to explore options for your project.