Classic Kitchens Design Studio

I felt a little guilty wandering in there with no intention to buy a new model kitchen for my home (I’m sorry, but what 20 year old can do that in this lifetime?! Some I’m sure, but no one I want to know…) I live for model kitchen stores (like Kitchens by Kleweno is Westport) but my visits are no less sincere than a little girl playing dress up. I clearly can’t afford a dazzling silver modern Manhattan kitchen — but in Kansas I can look at a few and dream can’t I?
I was greeted by an older man who showered me with thick kitchen design magazines (thanks for the coffee table reads) and then he told me I could take a look around. I appreciated how he gave me space to wander — not like those damn Hallmark women that would rather claw onto your shoulder and be carried with you through the store like a black-​feathered crow. I couldn’t steal a stove or anything, so there honestly was no need to ‘keep an eye on the kid.‘
And for the next twenty minutes, in the lull of the elevator music, I drifted from kitchen set to kitchen set — each one invoking a different emotion in me, a different story told. The first kitchen was like the playboy’s serious no-​frills kitchen complete with hard stainless steel appliances, dark wooded cabinetry and even darker tiled walls — it was masterfully designed — but I’m not a playboy (I thought it was funny how they added little frills like the SKYY vodka and martini glasses filled with crystal — it was so me — kidding).
Other kitchens were more Johnson County-​approved, with softer woods and cabinetry, spring greens and fall oranges and colorful vases and plate-​ware. Once I had looked through the eight or nine sets they had built (the owner I had talked to in the entry and his wife), I looked through a large collection of posters they had printed out describing the work they do and it sounded so interesting — all of the broadened design that they incorporate.
Of course, I thought — in Kansas? How surprisingly forward of this place… they do kind of fool you with a title like «Classic Kitchens» because that’s only the half of it. I looked through their work of contemporary and metropolitan kitchens as well as American and European traditional kitchens. Kitchens for beach homes with waterfront views and kitchens for a wine connoisseur and hundreds more I will not bore you to write about — but it was fascinating to look though.
When I asked the man if he had a pamphlet about the different styles I might take home with me — he pulled out an actual book and told me it would cost $ 5. I thought it was a joke and laughed — but he was serious and felt bad about sticking me with a cost, so instead he gave me more free magazines to take home. Sweet, sweet man!
So, I left with his wife’s business card — and falsely made him believe I would discuss ‘my homes kitchen redecoration’ with my father — LIES (I’m awful) but otherwise just too poor to walk into a store like that. To be fair, CK offers two lines of design — one higher end and one less expensive option — and both still too much for me. Some day… sigh.