Design

Reimagining the Outdoor Kitchen

What You Will Learn

In this session, attendees will forget about the portable stainless steel BBQ grill and weather-worn furniture of backyard get-togethers long past. COVID forever disrupted the outdoor design game, transforming entertaining at home into a bona fide art form; with outdoor kitchens leading the pack as a top-requested feature among homebuyers and renovators alike.

Join Jessica Petrino Ball as she discusses the evolution of the outdoor kitchen with the added perspectives of Chef Andrew Forlines, Marty Gillow, and Robert Bell. This panel will discuss utilizing mindful materials and finishes along with sourcing the right appliances.

Learning Objectives:

Define the important characteristics of outdoor kitchen appliances including gas grills, alternate fuel grills, specialty cooking products, cooling, storage, and clean-up categories.
Identify top design trends utilizing outdoor rated appliances.
Understand the fundamentals of outdoor kitchen design and appliance specification.

Featured Presenter

Jessica Petrino Ball

Jessica Petrino Ball, Director of Trade Engagement and Education at AjMadison, is a proud home appliances matchmaker. It’s her goal to make it easier for everyone to shop for products they will enjoy for years to come. She regularly leads continuing education courses for the National Kitchen and Bath Association and AIA. She was a featured speaker for Voices from the Industry and serves as a Board Member for the NKBA Baltimore Washington DC Chapter. She was previously recognized as a NKBA 30 Under 30. Her expertise has been showcased in many publications including KBB, The New York Times, Forbes, The Washington Post, Design TV by Sandow, Martha Stewart Living, and The Real Deal, to name a few. She serves as co-host of the Ask the Appliance Experts podcast and Editorial Director of AJ The Appliance Journal.

Panelist

Andrew Forlines

Chef Andrew Forlines brings his extensive experience as a fine dining Chef, cooking technology specialist, and luxury showroom event producer to offer insights and resources for elevated customer engagement in the residential kitchen design and home builder industries. His firm, Appliance Academy, provides the luxury residential appliance retail industry with new and advanced cooking technology talking points, showroom event production support, sales staff training, cooking demo program standardization, and luxury appliance cooking marketing assets.

Panelist

Marty Gillow

Marty has over 20 years experience in consulting, sales, and servicing outdoor cooking equipment. Has worked with landscape architects, designers, and homeowners in a wide range of categories including outdoor grills, pizza ovens, refrigeration, icemakers, storage, and heaters. Marty been a speaker at NKBA events on trends on outdoor equipment, and has performed product demonstrations for brands including: XO Outdoor, Lynx Professional Grills, and Weber.

Panelist

Robert Bell

Robert Bell grew up gardening and designing in Easton, Maryland on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. As a child Bob enjoyed the natural world and had varied interests from growing herbs to Renaissance architecture. After graduating from Cornell University with a B.S. in landscape architecture, he moved to Washington, D.C to work with landscape architecture firm Oehme, van Sweden & Associates. Notable design projects Bob managed at Oehme, van Sweden included private residences on Nantucket, MA, on Palm Beach, FL, and in the Hamptons, NY as well as The National World War II Memorial in Washington, DC, and design and construction of US Embassy compounds in Barbados, Afghanistan, and Nepal.

In 2007 Bob left Oehme, van Sweden to start his own design firm. Bell Design, Inc. is a landscape architecture firm with current projects in Tahoe, California; Palm Beach, Florida; Oxford, Maryland, Southampton, New York; Incline Village, Nevada; Charleston, South Carolina; and Deer Valley, Utah. Bob believes each landscape project is unique and requires the utmost understanding of the client, the site, and the local climate to be a beautiful and sustainable long-term success. Bell Design, Inc.’s work has been featured in ADPro, Forbes, Town & Country, Luxe, Veranda, Elle Décor, Martha Stewart, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.

Curb Appeal: Your Outdoor Space Maximized

What You Will Learn

Let’s face it the recent pandemic created an environment where we would rather enjoy our own outdoor spaces than venture out to those in public. To replicate these experiences, we need to set up our homes as places where we can work, recreate, and entertain.

The good news is that the sky’s the limit when it comes to outfitting your outdoor living space with smart home technology. The same creature comforts, peace of mind, and efficiency you enjoy indoors can be matched outside. A well-designed network infrastructure can not only provide impeccable indoor Wi-Fi but outdoor as well, allowing you to work or stream your favorite entertainment.

When your workday is done, imagine lounging in your favorite chair with your family and friends. Your landscape lighting illuminates your foliage and your pool, music emanates from your outdoor speakers, and your home team plays on your outdoor television. Your home’s surveillance alerts you when yet another one of your spouse’s packages arrives! In this session, Ashley Bancroft will explore these options and educate attendees on the possibilities smart home technology can bring to outdoor spaces.

Learning Objectives:

Understand how outdoor audio and landscape lighting can be integrated seamlessly on your property.
Learn which options exist for outdoor home entertainment. / How surveillance and automated lighting schedules can give homeowners peace of mind.

Featured Presenter

Ashley Bancroft

Ashley Bancroft is Operations Manager and Systems Designer at Premiere Systems Design. She manages projects from inception to completion, working directly with clients, ordering, and inventorying smart home products, and keeping the trains running.

She knows that smart home technology is here to stay. “My phone is basically my life,” she says. “Being able to control everything just from my phone is insane. It makes everything easier.” Her latest project launch is personal. Ashley and her husband welcomed their first child in November 2023!

What Your Kitchen and Financial Plan Should Not Have in Common

What You Will Learn

Handling family’s personal finances can be overwhelming and confusing but this session can make them simpler to understand and show you how to make concrete progress if you have the right analogies and tools while following some basic truths. The “basic truths” can be downright simple to understand: Ever heard the phrases “trust your gut” and “your intuition is always right?” Well, those are true with your family finances as well.

In a fun and interactive way, Todd Crowley, will walk attendees through a new way of viewing their family’s (and parts of their business’) finances. He will dive into objective one by explaining how a financial “junk drawer trap” makes family finances so overwhelming and hard for so many. Hint: It’s not all your fault. But we need to know more about the “junk drawer” to make concrete steps, move forward and feel good about our progress.

Diving into objective two, most know we’re “supposed to save for retirement” so why is it so hard for so many to do so? Or pay down debt? Or save money into an “emergency fund?” Or accomplish many of the “long term” financial planning tasks? Todd will walk through some fun ways to make immediate “short-term” progress that feels great and leads to making bigger steps and progress.

Which will lead viewers into learning objective three, making the basics of good financial planning easy to remember and understand by using simple and fun analogies from your home, kitchen & baths: the bathtub, ceiling, lighting fixtures, stovetops and more will all be used to help better understand and plan family finances in the years to come.

Learning Objectives:

Learn how to avoid the “junk drawer” trap by taking control and organizing your finances.
Understand two easy ways to make progress that make you feel good about your finances and embrace long-term planning.
Learn how to use your kitchen and bathroom to create an easy, new way to understand your finances with multiple simple scenarios

Featured Presenter

Todd Crowley

Todd and his team adopt a holistic, family office approach to financial planning, ensuring individuals and families can focus on their businesses while we handle their financial matters. His team of CFPs serves as valuable thought partners, helping clients build and safeguard their wealth over the long term.

Todd holds a BA from Colgate University and co-founded The Mending Minds Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to enhancing the diagnosis and treatment of Childhood Post-Infectious Neuroimmune Disorders such as PANDAS and PANS. He has also served on the Board of Directors of Riverside Community Care, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit health and human services organization.

Todd resides in Wellesley, MA with his wife and three children.

Bar Design for Home

What You Will Learn

Join Corrinne Walenda for a lively review of the best bar designs used by master mixologists and how you can incorporate these theories into your design plans for the modern home bartender. Equipment for ice, garnishes, mixers and spirits (wine and beer too) will be examined. Not only will you learn the ideal layout for a home bar, but you will also gain an understanding of current trends in cocktails and perhaps some new drinks recipes too.

Learning Objectives:

Recognize and describe restaurant bar design concepts and how they can be employed in a client’s entertaining space, indoors or outside, for engaging cocktail parties.
Identify bartender ergonomic standards and mise-en-place and apply them to modern cocktail creations and the design of a client’s home bar.
Specify the ideal refrigeration equipment, including accessories, finishes and door styles to achieve clients’ entertaining needs and wants for their home bartender mixology experiments, informal gatherings and fun, interactive cocktail parties.

Featured Presenter

Corrinne Walenda

Corrinne Walenda is Perlick’s Corporate Training Manager and Brand Ambassador.

With more than 11 years at Perlick and an extensive background in restaurant equipment sales, Corrinne specializes in creating training programs that engender an understanding of the hospitality working environment while respecting the architect’s and owner’s aesthetics.

Corrinne’s presentations include storytelling, interactive audience activities and personal anecdotes. Her passion for consultative selling and client-centric designs drive her unending enthusiasm for Perlick customers in residential and commercial spaces.

During her free time, Corrinne enjoys hiking with her German Shepherd, gardening in her tiny backyard in Chicago and acting as roadie for her drummer husband’s rock band.

How to Enhance Your Social Media Brand

What You Will Learn

In this session, NKBA’s Social Media Manager, Helen Ross, will dive into the four main pillars behind a successful social media presence. The four pillars include Creating Content, Engaging your Audience, Measuring your Success and How to Adapt to the Changing Online Landscape.

Learning Objectives:

Understand why content is a vital and necessary component for not only a visually appealing profile but also one that helps generate a connection between you and your audience.
Comprehend why starting with a strategy and basic KPI’s will ensure you stay on task and amplify your business’s voice.
Know how to successfully adapt to changing trends and platforms will ensure longterm growth.
Hone in your content creation skills and learn how to enhance your online presence to expand your repertoire, clientele and followers.

Featured Presenter

Helen Ross

Helen Ross has been NKBA’s Social Media Manager since 2022; armed with a strategic mindset and a keen eye for trends, she specializes in crafting content that not only resonates with our audience but also sparks conversations that build lasting connections in our community. Her background includes hands-on experience in kitchen and bath marketing, neuro-scientific/psychological/traditional market research and trade show coverage.

7 Steps to Clarity in Your Business

Ignite your passion and take your business to the next level! In this session, Debra Scarpa and Ashley Blaesing will guide attendees through 7 essential steps to achieve clarity in your business.

Step 1: Your Why – Discover the true essence of why you do what you do. Uncover your purpose and reconnect with your deepest passions. When you align your business with your authentic why, you’ll find renewed motivation and an unwavering drive to succeed.

Step 2: Your Who – Define your ideal audience and pinpoint exactly who you want to work with. Identify why they are the perfect fit for your business and why they should choose you over your competitors. By understanding your target market on a profound level, you can tailor your offerings to meet their exact needs.

Step 3: Your What – What problems are you solving? Explore the unique solutions that your business offers and understand how they add value to your customers’ lives. Articulate your offer with clarity and precision, ensuring that potential clients fully grasp the benefits they will receive by choosing you.

Learning Objectives:

Your Why: Understand why you do what you do, your purpose, and your passion.
Your Who: Define who you want to work with, why them, and why they should choose you.
Your What: Understand what problems you are solving and what it is that you offer.

7 Steps to Clarity in Your Business

Debra Scarpa and Ashley Blaesing

Home Designer Marketing is a team of marketing gurus dedicated to helping design professionals (like you!) showcase their work online and get the results they want. With over 45 years of experience between them, Owner Debra Scarpa and Operations Manager Ashley Blaesing, and their talented team guide your business to success with branding, websites, social media, SEO, email marketing, ads, and improved processes. Through a unique collaborative process based on open communication, quality design, and results-driven marketing, Home Designer Marketing helps streamline your marketing and your day-to-day workload.

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Back

Business

Sharing Your Creative Spark to Build Better Projects and Your Bottom Line

What You Will Learn

Sharing can be challenging; anyone who grew up with siblings or had a school “group” project where they landed most of the work knows firsthand. In a design-based position, sharing our ideas and technical knowledge can be intimidating. We all fear our design work or intellectual property being handed over to the competition or our hard-earned expertise and time wasted by clients with low commitments.

In this webinar, Anneke Huisman, will explore how to build client and builder team trust by sharing the right information in the right format at the right time with the right audience. She will demonstrate how storytelling through the design process can increase communication and lead to improved projects, leading to more pipeline referrals. This session will also address some concerns over AI’s entrance into interior design, intellectual property theft, parting ways with troublesome clients, and managing trade partners along the way.

Learning Objectives:

Learn how to review and improve your design presentation process to be more engaging.
Explore and further develop strategies for working with new and existing clients and builders through a storytelling process.
Develop additional strategies to build trust with clients and builder team members through sharing their knowledge and guidance.

Featured Presenter

Anneke Huisman

Anneke Huisman lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is the volunteer president for the West Michigan NKBA chapter. She began her career as a clinic leader, manager, and designer in retail home improvement, helping builders and DIY homeowners “get more done” for 15 years. Since exiting the retail workforce, Anneke has worked for Standale Home Studio, improving client and builder experiences and relationships. She currently works for KSI Kitchen and Bath in Grand Rapids, helping specialty home builders, independent designers, and individual homeowners with residential design and remodel projects. Anneke enjoys writing educational and design articles for local magazines and has contributed nationally to the KBB blog.

Pull vs. Push Sales Strategies: Increasing Closing Ratios and Profit

What You Will Learn

Sales is the lifeblood of every organization, yet all too often much time, effort, and money is spent with the lack of focus and discipline, yielding poor or insufficient results. Today’s kitchen and bath customers don’t want to be sold; they want to be served and the difference is the tipping point between average and excellence when it comes to keeping your sales pipeline robust and healthy, producing higher closing ratios and profitability.

Getting to that point is a function of disciplined leadership skills that start with a pull style approach versus the traditional push style manipulative approach. The subtle difference, though easily implemented, is a skill that must first be learned and practiced. In this session, Fred Reikowsky will clearly describe how to create the process and deploy the skills necessary to optimize your finite resources, increase closing ratios, and demand higher profit margins.

Learning Objectives:

Understanding the difference between pull and push systems.
Learn how to define your sales and marketing process.
Understand how to deploy pull leadership into the sales and marketing process.

Featured Presenter

Fred Reikowsky

Fred Reikowsky is a Professional Business Coach, Leadership Trainer and speaker. He founded Legacy Business Leaders LLC, a business coaching and leadership training firm, in January 2012 after a 33 year career as a building contractor and 5 years of non-profit leadership in the Middle East. His work overseas focused on developing a micro-business initiative in the Nile River Valley region of Egypt.

Focused primarily on the construction and related industries, Legacy Business Leaders collaborates with business owners, executives and leadership teams to find actionable solutions, overcome chronic problems and optimize profitability.

The Legacy Process is designed to uniquely address the entire spectrum of troublesome business challenges including people, profit, processes, production, and exit / succession planning.

Additionally, Fred is an Area Director with ACT Capital Advisors, providing sell-side Merger and Acquisition advisory services to lower middle-market business owners across all industries.Fred presents regularly at leadership and business development conferences and events throughout the year, including IBS, KBIS, chapter events, Builder 20 Clubs, strategic planning Accelerators for builders, remodelers and K/B professionals nationwide. Fred and his wife Barbara have lived in Northeast Ohio over 30 years and are the proud parents of 5 children and 10 grandchildren.

The 5 Mega Consumer Trends Driving Home Improvement and Design

What You Will Learn

Is the market for residential remodeling and design growing or slowing? How is the post-Covid consumer thinking and acting differently? In this session, Liza Hausman, Vice President of Industry Marketing at Houzz, the leading platform for home remodeling and design, will share the latest research on massive macro-trends in consumer behavior, and what homeowners want – and expect from the residential design industry.

Attendees will come away with a better understanding of their customers and prospects, what they want for their homes as well as from the experience with their designers. Armed with insights gathered from Houzz’s community of more than 70 million homeowners and home design enthusiasts, and over 3 million industry professionals, Ms. Hausman will also report on leading project trends and design preferences, including those influenced by technology, health, and accessibility.

Learning Objectives:

Discover what demographic and consumer behavior shifts are impacting residential remodeling and design.
Find out how physical and mental health are influencing homeowners’ design preferences.
Learn how to leverage technology to meet changing homeowner demands and deliver five-star customer service with less effort.

Featured Presenter

Liza Hausman

Liza Hausman is Vice President of Industry Marketing at Houzz, an innovative residential building and design platform and community. Houzz has transformed the process of home design in the luxury market and beyond by applying mobile, visual and other technologies that are driving design in today’s digital age. Ms. Hausman is a frequent speaker at design events across the country, from High Point Market to the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS), and is a board member of the Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI) In her role at Houzz, Ms. Hausman is focused exclusively on the trade community, from architects, interior designers, and luxury builders to brands and manufacturers. Ms. Hausman has experience spanning advertising, consulting, marketing and social strategy for Fortune 500 brands and a host of innovative startups, and shares her expertise on topics ranging from brand-building to the economic and structural trends that are changing the home design and construction industries. Ms Hausman graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and earned her MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. Over decade-long tenure at Houzz, she’s brought in architects as well as interior and landscape designers to create a special home for herself and her husband, two children and dog Suki in Palo Alto, California.

Sponsor Highlight

Blum

The Blum name stands for quality, innovation and great customer service. We manufacture hardware that makes working in the kitchen easier. Each of our products has been designed carefully, with the customer experience in mind, and research to back them. We specialize in engineering and manufacturing concealed hinges, drawer systems and systems for lift-up doors. From our touch-to-open technology, to the soft-closing door or drawer, our hardware helps modernize the kitchen experience.

Elevating Outdoor Kitchen Design

What You Will Learn

Building on the principles explored in Winning Outdoor Kitchen Design, this course, led by Ashley Smith, is designed to help architects, designers, contractors and other specifiers understand the evolving trends and best practices in outdoor kitchen design through analyzing the natural landscape, the existing architecture and the human component.

Learning Objectives:

Analyze the key considerations for creating sophisticated and functional outdoor cooking and entertaining spaces.
Learn techniques for incorporating natural landscape and architecture into outdoor kitchen designs.
Recognize the importance of the human element in outdoor living spaces, and create outdoor kitchen designs that prioritize client needs and comfort while ensuring longevity.

Featured Presenter

Ashley Smith

Ashley Smith is the Director of Architecture and Design Professionals at Pleina Group, whose mission is to bring forward the world’s finest outdoor kitchens with products, designs, and experiences to create powerful, lasting memories outdoors. Beginning her career as an Interior Designer, Ashley has nearly a decade of experience in the outdoor space industry. She oversees all marketing, sales and training efforts by Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet and Urban Bonfire tailored towards Architects and Design professionals, fostering relationships with industry professionals and associations across North America.

Unlocking Success: The Power of a Narrow Niche in Interior Design

What You Will Learn

Are you tired of doing Everything for Everybody? Want to level up your expertise, make it easier for new clients to trust you, and make your marketing a million times easier? Join NKBA for an engaging one-hour webinar on the importance of embracing a narrow niche as a residential Interior Designer.

In this session, business coach Rebecca West will share how nailing your niche makes you more memorable, hirable, referable and makes your marketing efforts clearer, easier, and more effective, and helps you set clear expectations from the moment a new client meets you.

Learning Objectives:

Learn how a narrow niche makes it easier to market & sell your services.
Rethink how you view what a niche is (and isn’t).
Get ideas on how to narrow down your niche.

Featured Presenter

Rebecca West

Interior designer Rebecca West is CEO of her Seattle-based residential design company “Seriously Happy Homes”, author of the book “Happy Starts at Home,” and host of the podcast “Creating Your Happy Place.” She’s been seen on TV on New Day Northwest and Seattle Refined, spoken at Town Hall and Ignite Seattle, and been featured in Seattle Magazine, Success Magazine, the UK Times, and more. She’s also a business consultant to her fellow residential interior designers through Seriously Happy Coaching & Consulting, on the board of the Heritage Design School, and a small business mentor with SCORE Seattle. She can’t resist a costume party or a cat video, and has a weakness for Oreos, Taco Bell, and Scotch whiskey. Find her on Instagram @beseriouslyhappy.

Functional Hardware for Functional Living

What You Will Learn

A well functioning kitchen can be the difference between one a project your client loves to look at or one they love to work in. During this webinar, led by Karen Smith, Brand Communication Manager of Blum, attendees will dive into the core aspects of what creates a truly functional kitchen.

Designers will explore the balance between form and function, emphasizing how choosing the right functional hardware can transform a kitchen’s usability without compromising on style.

Learning Objectives:

Understand the longevity of function over form
Discover common zones for better workflow planning
Explore applications that enhance usability and satisfaction

Featured Presenter

Karen Smith

As Blum’s Brand Communication Manager, Karen Smith does a lot more than create press releases. She’s also responsible for some of Blum’s research topics, which work to help industry professionals look beyond traditional ways of designing cabinets. This includes sharing Blum’s ideas about how to squeeze every possible inch out of spaces and information about Blum’s AgeExplorer® suit. Blum uses this suit to ensure cabinets are usable by people of all ages and abilities. Not only is she passionate about sharing Blum’s ideas, she also has a history of graphic design and works closely with her team, continuing to find new ways to share Blum’s story.

Sponsor Highlight

Blum

The Kitchen That Works

What You Will Learn

As the desire for calm and orderly spaces becomes a growing trend in residential interiors, there is an increasing need for methodical design and high-efficiency in the kitchen. This session led by Andreas Gommeringer equips designers and homeowners with the tools and best practices to achieve maximum storage, order and organization in this space. In addition, the course defines ways to find and organize hidden or underused storage space. Finally, case studies are presented to illustrate the use of sophisticated organization strategies.

Learning Objectives:

Learn to discuss how an organized kitchen adds to occupants’ health, safety, and well-being.
Gain comprehension to describe the factors of a well-ordered kitchen.
Identify options for drawer and cabinet organization.

Featured Presenter

Andreas Gommeringer

Andreas Gommeringer is the President of Häcker Kitchens North America. Previously he held the position of Sales Director for Overseas. Gommeringer has held sales, logistics and strategic leadership roles in the kitchen design industry for nearly 20 years.

Sponsor Highlight

Blum

Safe Surfaces: Creating Safe and Healthy Living Spaces

Safety and well-being have never been more crucial in the spaces we call home. Designers possess the power to transform clients’ living environments into havens of safety, wellness, sustainability, and anti-microbial resilience.

In this enlightening session, Paula Kennedy, CMKBD, will categorize residential surfaces into four key design domains: Universal Design, Wellness Design, Sustainable Design, and Anti-Microbial Solutions. Our homes are our sanctuaries, and it’s essential to ensure that they meet not just aesthetic, but also functional and health-driven criteria.

Attendees will explore how to create seamless transitions from the outside world into our homes while considering surfaces that support universal accessibility for all household members and visitors. Wellness-centric design principles will guide viewers as they investigate surfaces that promote physical and mental well-being. Sustainable design practices will lead designers toward choices that lessen our environmental impact, and we will delve into innovative antimicrobial solutions that contribute to germ-free living. Join us in this seminar, where we will categorize and examine these four vital aspects of surface design to craft living spaces that prioritize safety, health, sustainability, and inclusivity.

Learning Objectives:

Categorize Residential Surfaces: Gain a comprehensive understanding of the different categories of surfaces found within residential living spaces, ranging from floors and walls to countertops and more.
Identify Surface Considerations: Obtain an overview of surfaces that fall within these categories, and recognize the unique properties and attributes that make certain surfaces safer and more conducive to overall wellness.
Leverage Design for Safety and Wellness: Learn how to effectively utilize existing surfaces within a home to better support the health and safety of clients, considering factors such as germ resistance, glare reduction, and universal design principles.

Safe Surfaces: Creating Safe and Healthy Living Spaces

Paula Kennedy, CMKBD

Paula’s industry experience of 25 years and her boutique firm, Timeless Kitchen Design L.L.C., is focused out of a love of kitchen and bath design. NKBA Certified Master Kitchen & Bath Designer, Certified Architectural Color Consultant, Certified Living in Place Professional. Paula is an award-winning designer and serves as a K+BB Advisory Council member, honored as an NKBA Lifetime Ambassador and is recognized as an NKBA Subject Matter Expert. She contributes to the Industry by speaking, teaching, curriculum creation, mentoring, and writing, most recently embracing topics of creativity, innovation, technology, wellness, and inclusive design. Inspiring others feeds her passion for design, mentorship, and teaching.

Safe Surfaces: Creating Safe and Healthy Living Spaces

Blum

From Main Street to Rodeo Drive: Details Clients are Demanding in their Projects

What You Will Learn

No matter what a client’s budget may be, consumers are enthralled to have a luxury experience—especially in the kitchen and bath space. Since a wider audience now almost always demands a luxurious experience with trend-forward and technically advanced features, kitchens and baths are the two most intricately detailed rooms in a house and the perfect opportunity to bring luxury elements to a project.

In this session, Christopher Grubb will explain how luxury has morphed into the “rule” rather than the “exception.” Using his own projects as examples, Grubb will explain which materials, finishes, fixtures, detailing, and other accouterments infuse a sense of luxury. From stone and tile to sinks and decorative hardware, attendees will learn what Grubb incorporates in his projects that resonate with today’s luxury-focused demand.

Learning Objectives:

Learn creative ideas for making “Wow” statements with exquisite design elements that artfully mix materials in ways that are interesting and give the client a one-of-a-kind experience.
Expand your knowledge of which details and products to incorporate into a luxury design that some may say are trending but are in fact becoming a norm.
Learn which products are splurge worth and which can help stretch a project budget.
Understand which materials are most requested for today’s countertops, flooring, cabinetry, hardware, and more, plus which stains and finishes resonate the most with today’s luxury-craving consumer.

Featured Presenter

Christopher Grubb

Christopher J. Grubb is President of internationally recognized Beverly Hills based Arch-Interiors Design Group, inc. Under his leadership, the residential and commercial design firm has won dozens of awards for their interior and exterior projects, been featured in hundreds of magazines including an entire issue of their projects in Hong Kong based World Architecture Review Magazine, books and newspapers globally, and named a top 10 interior design firm by Los Angeles Home and Décor Magazine.

Christopher is also a product designer with two design studios creating products for the affordable luxury market, and the high-end luxury market. His collaborations include Modern Bathroom, The Wyndham Collection, Theodore Alexander, California Faucets, Strasser Woodenworks, and Laguna Tecstone Tile. His products have garnered multiple awards and accolades including Best of Year Awards, Editors picks for Product of the Year, and even two video awards.

Multiple media outlets utilize his expertise to engage, educate and entertain their audiences ranging from BBC Radio, Martha Stuart Living on Sirius to HGTV, E Entertainment, Global News Canada, NBC/LXTV’s Open House and George to the Rescue. He’s a guest on a range of podcasts from NKBA to Designer’s Today.

Additionally, he is a guest editor with several publications and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Kitchen and Bath Business Magazine. He is recognized as one of the top 50 Innovators by Kitchen and Bath Design News and Person of the Year Praiseworthy Pick by Kitchen and Bath Business Magazine.

Educator is another of his titles teaching C.E.U. accredited courses and is a founder of the NKBA Educational Badge Program. He’s a key-note speaker, judge of design competitions, an ASID award ceremony host, and ARTS Award presenter. Adding to that, he has produced and hosted over 120 episodes for House Tipsters, interviewing top manufacturers, editors, and celebrities in the design world. He is also striving to add author to his resume soon.

Reminder

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Featured Presenter

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Panelist

Andrew Forlines

Panelist

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Robert Bell

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