Kitchen design
KBIS Design Studios: Susan Serra’s Baby Boomer Kitchen
In addition to being a highly successful and well published kitchen designer, Long Island based, Susan Serra of Susan Serra Associates is also a design blog and social media pioneer, owner of her own collection of custom cabinetry, Bornholm Kitchen, and importer of fabulous Scandinavian design collections through her site Scandinavianmade.com.Whew!
We’re thrilled that Susan could find time in a ridiculously busy schedule to participate in KBIS Design Studios at KBIS in New Orleans so please join us as she shares her vision in creating her concept for the ideal baby boomer kitchen. If you have questions, please leave them in comments below or contact Susan directly on Twitter at @SusanSerraCKD or through her website at Susanserraassociates.com
With special thanks to Susan’s sponsor brand The Size with its Neolith collection for helping make KBIS Design Studios become a reality.
Why did you choose to design for the generation you did?
I know a little bit about baby boomers – what is the very last year the baby boomers were born again? I’ll take that age!
Generational groups are useful shorthand – but what are the other big demographic factors you consider when creating a design concept for a client?
First and foremost, how long do they expect to stay in the home which helps determine budget and design, what are the many ways that the kitchen needs to serve the family’s lifestyle and uncovering perceived needs vs. wants, aesthetically and functionally.
When you designed your project did you have a specific client, imaginary or otherwise, in mind? Could you picture them?
I looked in the mirror but after awhile decided to do some research on baby boomers so it wasn’t, like, TOTALLY a narcissistic endeavor!!
Tools of the trade – do you draw early sketches with pencil and paper – or work digitally exclusively?
I’ve worked digitally since the early 90s
Tell us a bit more about yourself:
What’s the first song that comes into your head NOW?
Smooth by Carlos Santana
What’s the last thing you bought yourself, as a gift?
Modern coffee mugs by Royal Copenhagen in different bright colors
Whose home interiors would you most like to see?
Borge Mogensen, Danish furniture designer
For whom, living or dead, would you most like to design an interior?
My children
Which superhero power would you most like to possess?
Savant-type knowledge of Scandinavian design past/present/future
And what would your superhero name be?
Mistress Savant of Scandinavia
If you weren’t a designer (or a superhero) what would you be?
A psychologist or a photographer