A designer owns this company, and it shows

Kitchen Cabinets and Beyond is not a franchise and not a sales office. It is Emad Kloub's company, and Emad is a designer — which is the single fact that explains most of how the business runs.

“I am not a salesman. I am a designer, somebody you invite into your home and trust to analyze your tastes, desires, and needs for improving a living space, whether it is a kitchen, a bathroom, an alcove, a foyer, or any other area of the home. I'm somebody you trust to take in all the little details, to recognize what it is that makes your personal style unique, and to connect in a way that I am able to be your instrument for making the dreams you have for your home come true. I love what I do, and I take it very seriously.”

That distinction is not a slogan. In most remodeling companies the person who sits at your kitchen table is paid to close, and hands the drawing to somebody you never meet. Here the person analysing the room is the person answerable for it, and he has been doing it from the same Anaheim address since 1995.

What it means in practice is that the conversation starts with the room rather than the quote. A galley that frustrates you at 7am is a layout problem before it is a budget problem, and it gets treated that way — which is why the first appointment is spent measuring and asking rather than presenting a price.