Susan Rocco, president of Kitchenworks, specializes in providing luxury designs, quality products, and a design team who ensures each clients vision in executed flawlessly. While Kitchenworks provides exceptional designs for kitchens, bathrooms and other spaces, it also is a source for luxury appliances, ensuring its status as a well-rounded company. Rocco sat down with Haute Design to discuss where she finds inspiration from, her favorite designing trends, the most challenging space to decorate and much more.
HD: Describe the overall design of your home?
SR: We remodeled our 1958 ranch home about twelve years ago. Even though we have lived in our house for over thirty years, that remodel gave us everything we ever wanted in our house. It's an Old Florida Style, with coastal influences like clapboard porches, clean columns, and painted cypress tongue and groove ceilings around the exterior. I would describe the interior as collected and comfortable. It's a paired down, clean-lined traditional. I wanted our house to be a reflection of who we are, what we love, and what is important to us. It has an open floor plan with wood floors throughout, louvered interior doors, detailed casings and trim, light colored walls, paired with a blue horsehair wallcovering. This gives an interesting texture and is the perfect backdrop for colorful artwork. We have detailed beamed ceilings in the family room and kitchen and clearstory windows that allow a flood of natural light in the kitchen. We have a variety of comfortable seating options, and in a variety of fabrics- so there is a seat for everybody. The kitchen with the connected family room is my favorite part of the house. The cabinetry is done in finishes that will hold up to a large family and grandchildren... it gets a lot of use and abuse! It's the place where we enjoy cooking, relaxing and having fun with our family and friends. I hope the memories that are made here will last a lifetime!
HD: Where do you find inspiration from?
SR: I am inspired by geographical design styles. I am moved by the different feelings evoked by each of these styles. With travel, the internet, magazines, we have access to an immense database that allows us to admire design as it varies by area and see what other designers in other parts of the world are doing. That is just so inspirational. When your clientele is diverse, the advent of being able to relate to them through a worldly knowledge of design is indispensable. A client can request a relaxed, coastal inspired kitchen and immediately, I think of the travels and images that transport me to that location and the can think of the elements that I can incorporate in order to deliver that same feeling.
HD: What are some of your favorite decorating trends right now?
SR: I am enjoying seeing contemporary being paired with natural finishes and organic elements. Though it may feel like it’s trending at the moment, this timeless combination will never go out of style.
Also, we are starting to see the embrace of a paired down, traditional decorating style. It's clean lined but exudes the warmth and comfortable feeling of traditional decor.
HD: What are clients typically looking for when seeking your services?
SR: Our clients are looking for the highest degree of customer service and individual design that reflects their own personal tastes and needs. They are looking for professionalism, creativity and knowledge. They know that we value quality and they look to us to deliver the kitchen of their dreams that they can trust will stand the test of time.
HD: What sets Kitchenworks apart from other design services?
SR: We strive to provide our clients with the same kind of individualized service we would all want to receive when undertaking such a personal project and large investment. We know just how important a kitchen is to a home and to our clients, who come to us with the desire to create their dream kitchen. It means that every step of the way should be enjoyable and as stress-free as possible. We want them to feel confident through the process and trust that the end result will in fact be their dream kitchen. We are driven by personal attention, by a commitment to quality products and by a goal to excel in our professional duties. All of these motivating factors have kept us in business for over thirty years continue to set us apart from our competitors.
HD: What is your favorite space to decorate in any home?
SR: The kitchen of course is number one. Nothing better than to have a kitchen that everyone wants to be in!
HD: What is the most challenging space to decorate?
SR: The living room because it sets the tone for the rest of the house. It gives the first impression. It's very telling of the type of persons who live there. The style and items they are drawn to, be it formal, casual, bold, quirky, sentimental, artistic, all of these- tell a story, typically revealed the moment you walk into the first main room in the house, the living room.
HD: Describe your designing philosophy in three words?
SR: Functional, Inviting, Authentic
Photos courtesy of Susan Rocco
