Kitchen & Bath Designer
Dream Kitchens | Brighton, Michigan
Founded in 2009 by local designer Colleen Vanderhovel, Dream Kitchens began as her vision for a different service based kitchen and bath company. Not long after, she convinced her sons, Jason and Nick, to join her. What started as a small family business has grown into one of the state's largest privately owned kitchen and bath design firms.
Today, we work primarily throughout Livingston, Oakland, Genesee, and Washtenaw Counties, while an increasing number of our projects take us well beyond Michigan to a national stage.
Over the past several years, Nick was based in Nashville traveling the country designing luxury residential spaces and Jason ran the Dream Kitchens' showroom and even took the firm international with our first project outside of the United States. With Colleen now retired, both brothers are back together in Michigan and focused on what comes next.
We don't believe every talented kitchen designer needs to be the same. Dream Kitchens serves a wide range of clients, and we're currently looking for designers who fit one of two paths:
Kitchen & Bath Designer
You know cabinetry.
You understand how kitchens are actually built, not just how to make them look good on a screen. You're comfortable talking through construction details, cabinetry, materials, appliances, countertops, and the hundred small decisions that make a project successful.
You should be highly competent in 2020 Design and comfortable managing residential kitchen and bath projects from the initial conversation through final ordering and everything beyond.
We're looking for someone who can sit across from a homeowner, understand what they need, and confidently guide them toward a great solution.
Upscale Residential Designer
This position is for a designer who wants to work at a different level.
These projects require more than selecting cabinets and finishes. They involve architecture, proportion, millwork, material relationships, custom detailing, and collaboration with architects, interior designers, builders, trades, and highly involved homeowners.
For this role, AutoCAD experience is required.
We're looking for someone with strong design instincts who can think beyond the cabinet catalog and contribute to spaces that feel considered, original, and appropriate to the architecture around them.
What We Care About
We're less interested in buzzwords and more interested in whether you can actually do the work.
A strong candidate will have:
- Professional kitchen, bath, cabinetry, millwork, interior design, or closely related experience
- A strong understanding of cabinetry and residential construction
- The ability to communicate confidently with clients
- Good judgment with proportion, materials, finishes, and detailing
- The ability to manage multiple active projects without losing track of the details
- 2020 Design proficiency for our traditional design position
- AutoCAD proficiency for our upscale design position
- The confidence to make recommendations rather than simply take orders
We value designers who can explain why something should be done a certain way — and who are willing to stand behind a good design decision. Not just confidence, but conviction. To quote our founder Colleen, "If you don't have an opinion, you shouldn't work here".
Compensation
Both pathways include a generous base salary plus additional compensation based on project workload. The sky is the limit here. We expect a traditional kitchen designer to produce between $750k-$1.25M in cabinetry, countertops, and accessory sales. With an increased project size, we expect an upscale designer to produce between $1.25M-$2.0M+.
Our goal is to create a compensation structure that gives designers stability without putting a ceiling on the value they can create. Specific compensation will depend on experience, capabilities, portfolio, and the type of design work you're qualified to handle.
You won't find minimum education requirements or minimum experience. I've found that designers with 20+ experience often struggle to create more modern designs. I've found that younger designers struggle with understanding construction. As a business and Japanese major, I've also found that education means very little. Most things can be learned. Passion cannot. Designers passionate about what they do is ultimately what I am searching for.
Why Dream Kitchens?
We're not trying to become a giant national kitchen company. We're not trying to push as many cabinets as we can out the door. We haven't even posted on social media in years - to our own detriment (inquire for a link to my portfolio). We're striving to produce the best in kitchen and bath design and service that Michigan has to offer.
That means giving talented designers access to better projects, better products, unusual materials, custom capabilities, and the freedom to actually design.
It also means there is room here for different kinds of talent. Some of the best designers are exceptional at creating beautiful, highly functional kitchens for everyday families. Others thrive when they're handed an architectural plan, a complicated room, and a client who wants something nobody else has.
And with the second generation now leading Dream Kitchens together in Michigan, we're entering what we believe will be the most interesting chapter of the company yet.
If you're an experienced designer who's proud of your work, we'd like to see it.
Please submit your resume along with examples of projects you've personally designed. and a little about the type of work you want to be doing next.
Thank you for your interest in this position
Nick Vanderhovel, CMKBD
Creative Director of Dream Kitchens
Certified Master Kitchen & Bath Designer
Named Best Kitchen Designer in Detroit by Hour Magazine
Praiseworthy Pick for Kitchen & Bath Business' Person of the Year
Pay: $70,000.00 - $130,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Professional development assistance
Work Location: In person
