Intelligent Kitchen

Lauren and Olga of Intelligent Kitchens fulfilled all of the objectives I had for my kitchen renovation. I was able to develop an excellent working relationship with them based on mutual respect and great communication. They promptly responded to my emails and questions, and addressed issues quickly. I have a small, narrow rectangular NYC condo apartment with a bedroom and bath at each end and an open “living area,” kitchen, dining and living room, in the middle. The entry is directly into the middle of this living area. The best feature is a wall of windows with an open city view opposite the entry, with a door onto a large terrace. The kitchen was dark — brown cupboards, poor lighting — and the space was not well utilized. There was a line of low-hanging, dark cabinets over a peninsula that essentially created a wall, and a closet with a stacked washer and dryer and otherwise inaccessible space. My objectives: to open up the space and to integrate it with my living room decor; to utilize every inch of available space; to find someone with whom I could work on my vision but who would also give me their alternative ideas, with experience in Manhattan renovations; and to have some who would oversee the project, including the condo board review process and construction. Before finding Lauren and Olga, I had talked with a few architects and contractors. Through that process, I came up with some ideas about how to reconfigure the space and had a color scheme in mind. However, I had gotten wildly divergent cost estimates. Lauren did a great job of laying out her cost estimate and then had two contractors with whom she works come to my apartment to give initial estimates prior to a bid based on a final design. The construction estimates were higher than she initially expected but the two estimates were within the same ballpark. The combined final estimates for design, appliances, cabinets, fixtures, and construction ended up at just 2% over the original estimates. More importantly, there were no additional charges. From a design perspective, Lauren and Olga were great to work with. They understood what I was looking for and embraced my vision while also providing valuable additions. The contractor, Roger Dookheran of B & M Construction, was also an important part of team. He, Lauren and Olga work together very well and addressed construction issues quickly. Roger and his crew do excellent work, with great attention to detail. They were also very respectful and considerate. I love the result — the space is functional for someone who likes to cook and bake, there is ample storage and it is gives me joy when I walk into my apartment.

Intelligent Kitchen is a GEM and located in my UWS neighborhood too. I came across Intelligent Kitchen (IK) as my family was in need of design and project management help for our apartment renovation. We had met with a number of design build firms but were not finding what we were looking for in personalized attention. When I first met IK, the project was a certain size - one kitchen and one bathroom, possibly two bathrooms. After we met IK, heard their ideas and shared some of our dream items for our family home, we decided to re-design our ENTIRE apartment using IK as our design team for architectural services and selections across 2300 interior square feet. This included redesigning our apartment layout, tripling the size of our kitchen and gutting 3 full bathrooms and enhancing one other bathroom. We could not have done it without Lauren, Olga, Adriana and the entire IK team of designers and project managers. IK is on top of it all. We had weekly design and logistics meetings that included our budget tracking and our selection tracking. They were able to show us what our apartment was going to look like through amazing renderings that were so life-like, it was the first time I was able to truly see what I was putting together. They worked with us on finishing selections, coordination with the contracting team over 6 months with multiple weekly visits, the architect and expeditors, the ancillary services and resources for glass, marble, cabinetry and more. IK was able to deliver us the home of our dreams in NYC. Although it was a complicated and nearly year long project, we felt ready to take it all on because of IK and their team and their contacts. They were there for us every step of the way, kept us on budget and were able to meet with varying providers when we weren't, acting like our own right hand. I would recommend IK to anyone looking to do a bathroom or a kitchen or a complete and total renovation just like ours. Matter of fact, I have already referred several friends and neighbors to them. IK makes you feel like you are the only client they are working with and acted with transparency and charm each and every time. Thank you IK!

Working with Lauren at Intelligent Kitchen was fantastic. She walked us through every aspect of our kitchen remodel. Lauren has a keen eye and great sense of design. We also had a great experience with Roger, the contractor she recommended. Everything was done with the intention of making sure we were satisfied. I would not hesitate to work with Lauren from intelligent kitchen again...it was a terrific experience!

Intelligent Kitchen worked with us on a complete apartment galley kitchen renovation and some modifications to our bathroom. They were outstanding to work with from start to finish. We appreciated their professionalism, ideas, regular and thorough communications, and how they owned managing the project with the contractor. The results are super functional, attractive and high quality with nothing left undone. We would recommend that anyone undertaking a large or small project save yourselves the time and just begin working with Intelligent Kitchen. They are the best. Special thanks to Lisa and Lauren.

My husband and I waited a long time to make the decision to remodel our kitchen and bathroom. When we chose to work with Lauren at Intelligent Kitchen, it was obvious we would be in good hands. Lauren was professional but in an easy, friendly manner. Her design expertise resulted in a well-planned, extremely attractive makeover. In addition, the process went smoothly, efficiently, and according to the timetable established. The entire experience was a positive one, and we would recommend her services to anyone interested in such a project. And now we have beautiful spaces to enjoy!

Jennifer Cohen from Intelligent Kitchen did a fantastic job with our kitchen. She was easy to work with, flexible with changes we requested, super knowledgeable, responsive with communications and various requests and, as seen in the pictures, is a talented designer! We absolutely love our kitchen. The quality of the cabinets is fantastic and were very reasonable in terms of price. Also, the install team was fantastic - they obviously care about the quality of their work product, were diligent, pleasant, responsible and responsive.

Lauren and Intelligent Kitchens did an excellent renovation of my studio apartment kitchen. Efficient and professional throughout. Excellent design and finish. Thank you.

We recently completed installation of our new kitchen made by Miralis. Lauren @ Intelligent Kitchen was recommended to us by friends who were already in the process of designing their kitchen with Lauren. We could not be happier with our choice. Intelligent Kitchen provided a combination of great value, quick turnaround (6 weeks vs. 3-4 months for comparable European-made kitchens) and excellent service. Lauren spent several hours meeting with us and helping to design our new kitchen. She provided great recommendations throughout the process that helped us optimize our space and get all the features we wanted in our kitchen. Lauren visited our apartment four times to make sure everything would be done correctly - to do the initial measurement, to meet with the general contractor to validate measurements, to accept delivery and make sure everything was correct, and finally to review the finished product. As in all construction projects we expected some hick-ups, but there were none with our kitchen project. The kitchen was delivered in 6 weeks, as originally promised. Nothing was missing, and everything was measured correctly. An installer recommended by Lauren came in an had everything done in less than 2 days. We have been using the kitchen for a few months now, and we are happy with the quality of the cabinets, and we love the final product. Therefore we are very happy to recommend Intelligent Kitchen, as well as Miralis (the manufacturer) for your kitchen project. I should add that our friends who recommended Intelligent Kitchen are also very happy with their kitchen.

The name "Intelligent Kitchen" perfectly reflects the character of the company! My wife and I worked with Lauren on designing new cabinets for our kitchen. We are super happy with the results as well as with the experience! Lauren is very easy to work with. She managed to both listen to what we wanted and steer us in the right direction as well as anticipate potential issues. One of the things that very impressed us was Lauren's attitude. She is proud of her work and stands by it. She cares not only about the aspects directly relevant to her but overall end result ie functionality, look and cost of the kitchen. Also she is very thoughtful, experienced and detail oriented which helped us find creative answers to nontrivial dilemmas with our small Manhattan kitchen. Lauren met .every deadline and commitment she made to us. Overall very happy with our choice of the company and the results. We recommend IKNY without any hesitation.

We would highly recommend working with Lauren Park of Intelligent Kitchen. Lauren designed and coordinated the gut renovation of our kitchen. We couldn't be more pleased with the way our project turned out. It has transformed our apartment. Lauren had a genuine interest in our project, and we had close interaction and collaboration with her though every stage. We first discussed our vision of an open-kitchen concept and pictures of our style on Pinterest. Lauren then added her professional touch to our style and created 3D renderings of our new kitchen. These 3D renderings were very particularly helpful so we could see what really worked in our space. And when things didn’t look perfect to us or Lauren, she was very flexible and adjusted the plans and 3D renderings on numerous occasions to perfectly suit our taste. We also liked how Lauren did not push any products on us and she did not require us to use one of her contractors. Instead, she presented her professional suggestions, and we were able to check those against what we found online. It was helpful to bounce ideas off of her so that we didn’t make design mistakes – she alerted us of important functional considerations and then layered in a good sense of style and professionalism. Lauren also facilitated the project by liaising with our contractor (that we received from another recommendation) and with our other vendors (i.e. Cancos for tiles/counter, AJ Madison for appliances, etc).

We worked with Jen on the complete renovation of our kitchen and master bath. We were impressed not only by her professional expertise, but also by her collaborationist spirit, work ethic, design sense, and general good humor. Through Intelligent Kitchen we engaged B&M NY Construction which did a wonderful job, on-time, and on-budget. Roger, owner of B&M, is a problem solver with deep experience, both especially important to renovations in older buildings. He also is a good communicator and kept us up to date at all times. Renovating your home always is complicated, but Jen and Roger made it much easier and with beautiful results.

Wonderful experience, terrific outcome. Intelligent Kitchen did a fab job with my (very small) kitchen at a reasonable price. Brianna exceeded my expectations on the design and execution fronts, and she, Lauren, and Jen provided superb customer service. Can't wait to do another kitchen with IKD!