A new kitchen boosts home's sales appeal

Homeowners are choosing to remodel their kitchens again after a retrenching and slow down that lasted about eight years.

Barbara Quatroke, owner of Q's Cabinet Shoppe in Naperville, said customers are once again streaming in the door and looking for ideas about how to update their kitchens, either for their own long-term enjoyment or for resale purposes.

“Realtors are telling me and their clients that prospective buyers today want to purchase a turnkey home. They want all of the modernization done by the time they move in. They don't want to have to do that work themselves, so if sellers want to get the best price, they need to make these updates before listing their home,” she said.

Eighty percent of those remodeling kitchens today are choosing a transitional look for their cabinets, which is somewhere between traditional and contemporary. They want a clean, crisp look with few lines. The “antiquey” glazed look that was so popular from the mid-1990s until about 2010 is gone. Quatroke said most buyers no longer want that look. Soffits above the cabinets are also decidedly “out.”

And despite homeowners' continuing worries that white cabinets will soon be “out of style,” Quatroke said they continue to be wildly popular with no sign of slowing down because people like the fact that they lighten up dark spaces.

She estimates that 75 percent of the cabinets she designs and installs are white, with the very dark, tailored espresso coming in a distant second.

As for countertops, she said quartz is now outpacing granite because of its low-maintenance qualities, its anti-bacterial properties and the fact that these counters come with a lifetime limited warranty. Quartz is often available in patterns that look like granite.

While any cabinet shop can fill your walls with cabinets, Quatroke warns that they may not be functional and aesthetically pleasing.

If you need cabinets for your kitchen, bath, laundry room, home office or family room, you can always find them for a lower price at a big box store, she said, but how will those low-price cabinets be constructed? Will their finish hold up over time? Will they contain the exact number of drawers and rollouts you need, located in the correct place within your space?

Quatroke encourages homeowners to consider these questions when choosing someone to make over their kitchen or bath, or to enhance any other room in their house with built-in cabinets.

“Our greatest strength is our design ability,” Quatroke said. “We have three designers, including myself, and two drafters who are also very good at design, so there are many eyes on each and every project we do. Our ability to solve a client's unique problems through a creative solution is what sets us apart.

“I believe in having everyone weigh in. I want to hear my staff's ideas because I want to present my clients with the best functioning kitchen or bath possible,” she said.

Quatroke began her career in commercial interior design, working as a salesperson for a firm that designed the interiors of offices and banks.

“I was working with so many designers that I decided to go back to school for interior design courses. Then, we got transferred to Arizona where I worked for a kitchen designer and fell in love with designing kitchens,” Quatroke said.

When Quatroke returned to Illinois, she managed the kitchen design section of a Handy Andy big box store and when it went out of business, was recruited to start up and manage a high-end kitchen design boutique in Lisle. After several years of working 70 to 80 hours a week, she decided to open her own store and work for herself.

During 2002, she worked from her home and had a partner. By 2003 she was totally on her own and that is when she started Q's Cabinet Shoppe. In 2005, she signed the lease on her current location, 2916 W. Ogden Ave., Naperville.

“I enjoy finding a challenging situation in a client's home and creating something to solve their problems. Clients are so appreciative and that is very rewarding,” Quatroke said.

When a potential client comes to Q's 2,500-square-foot showroom, Quatroke or one of her staff members gives them a tour of the showroom, explaining the attributes of the various cabinet lines so when they comparison shop, they can make an educated decision.

Next, staff schedules an in-home consultation during which the client is interviewed about his or her vision for the room, how she wants it to function, etc. Appliances are noted and measurements and photos are taken.

Then the designer goes to work, coming up with a floor plan and cabinet design and pricing it. The preview designs and price are then presented to the client and any necessary changes are made. Finally, the contract is signed and a six-week clock for construction and delivery of the cabinets starts ticking.

Installation is then done by one of Quatroke's bonded and insured partner contractors.

“I believe my clients get the best work and the best price from contractors who are not my employees because they know that if they want the client's referrals, they need to do their absolute best work,” she said. “I'm not marking up their work and they aren't marking up my cabinets, but we work as closely as if we are employed by each other.”

Q's Cabinet Shoppe carries Shiloh and Ovation cabinets, as well as a full-custom Amish line that is made in southern Illinois. When it comes to bathroom vanities, she carries Bertch Bath, Ronbow and Fairmont. In addition, she handles a variety of countertop lines made of granite, quartz and Cambria, as well as a limited number of plumbing fixtures.

“The biggest challenge we have is to get our clients to give us a realistic estimate of their budgets,” Quatroke said. “If we know the price point they have in their mind, we might consider a different cabinet line, not design in glass doors or cut back the number of drawers and rollouts, which are expensive. Otherwise, it is easy for us to over-design, wanting to give them everything, and then the price can scare them away. Clients need to understand that we can help them at any price level. If they are willing to give us a budget, it can act as our road map during design.

“Educating a client about what their money will actually buy is part of our job,” she added. “That is why we now break things down more, giving clients a base price for their project and then offering add-ons from which they can choose.”

Q's Cabinet Shoppe can be reached at (630) 848-1871 or at www.qscabinetshoppe.com.