Designing for Real Life: Custom Kitchens, Cabinet Details & the Naperville Showroom Experience

In this episode of DesignU, host Tina Guziec sits down with Carrie Skreens, manager of Studio41’s Naperville location, to explore what makes this showroom a design destination. From offering weekend-ready DIY outlet finds to crafting high-end, detail-driven kitchen projects, Carrie shares insider tips on cabinetry trends, client favorites like walnut grain-matching, and why thoughtful layout and storage can transform your space. Whether you’re a homeowner looking for inspiration or a designer seeking product insight, this episode offers an authentic look into what it means to design with both beauty and function in mind.

Auto-generated transcript:

---

Tina Guziec : You’re listening to design You sponsored by studio 41, your one stop podcast for everything home design. I’m your host, Tina Cusick, and each episode we dive into the expertise of designers, contractors, and brand representatives who will share with you their secrets behind beautifully crafted interiors. Join us as we explore the latest trends, find fresh inspiration, and make your design projects a success, no matter how big or small.

Carrie Skreens : Today I am joined by Carrie Skreens. Kari is the manager at our Naperville location for studio 41. Welcome, Kari. Hi, Tina. So, tell me about the Naperville location, because one of the things I get asked a lot here at studio 41 is, you know, I didn’t know you had so many stores. And how long ago was Naperville opened?

Tina Guziec : Where is it? Tell me a little bit about the location. Well, I’ve been there for 12 years, and it’s grown tremendously since I’ve been there. We were, one little storefront and we are now five since I started there. So it’s been pretty fun to, you know, have been there through all of the, the growing pains. The showrooms expanded quite a bit.

Carrie Skreens : We’ve brought in a lot of new product over the years. It’s really kind of turned into a nice, a nice hub for design and our area. So yeah, it really hits that South and West market, right? I mean, when people are coming from from the south suburbs or from Indiana, even, they can find. Yeah, we’re kind of out on our own island out there, I feel like.

Tina Guziec : But, you know, there’s a big need for that out in the South, like the southern suburbs and, certainly the we’ve seen so much pickup in traffic out there over the years. It’s just really it’s nice. Plus we have the Koehler store. Yeah, the color signature showroom and and the and the Naperville showroom. And then you have an outlet as well.

Carrie Skreens : So that outlet and take taken over the plaza. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. What’s in the outlet? All kinds of stuff. We’re, trying a new thing out there, which is exciting. We get a lot of customers that come in, especially on the weekends, that really just need something to take home with them, you know, at that time.

Tina Guziec : And the main showroom doesn’t really stock a lot of, product, obviously. So we are, gearing up to where you can take home, you know, a DIY project on the weekend, if you’re working on that, if you need a vanity, you can pick it up, take it home, need a bath? Faucets. So it’s kind of exciting.

Carrie Skreens : We’re going to make that change and, get stuff there that’s a little bit more available right away for customers. And as that’s, material that’s been, reduced in price or is that regular? We have a mix. So we do have we do have the things, you know, Vince, that, you know, have been there and we’re reducing the price on them.

Tina Guziec : But this is new product. So it’s new and box brand new, just as if you were going to, you know, a home store to get something. You can come to our showroom now and get something that’s maybe a little bit nicer quality around that same price point and a lot of different sizes of vanities and say, yeah, we tried to cover all the bases.

Carrie Skreens : You know, we worked with, you know, the designers and everybody, you know, did a pretty good, assessment of what do we need down there? And so I think you really could put together a nice project out of there with what we have. And when you have a little more time to do your project, then you have your full blown showroom and tell us how that lays out and what kind of things you have on display there.

Tina Guziec : So we have really everything that you could possibly need aside from appliances to do a full kitchen. So cabinetry, we have a we’re probably one of the larger cabinet showrooms of, studio 41. So we have a lot of cabinetry, countertops, tile, all the fixtures that you can need cabinet hardware. So really everything. One stop shop, one stop shop, which everybody loves about windows out of that location, I do tile.

Carrie Skreens : That’s been, an area we grew a lot in in the last year. I would say, really nice tile room out of Naperville now, with your help. What’s nice about it, I think, is, is that the collection is curated to really meet the needs of your particular market, even even as, you know, people from outside of Chicago will say, oh, well, Chicago.

Tina Guziec : And they kind of paint it with a wide brushstroke. Naperville is different than Palatine, is different than Highland Park is different than Chicago, right? Our clientele is different. And tile in particular, I think, is one of those things that you really have to find the personality of the people and the homes and the architecture of the area. And I think you’ve done a good job of curating that collection out there, so that you’re really focused on what people who live in Lakewood will want to see in their home.

Carrie Skreens : And I think that’s true for cabinetry. I mean, our style is very different than what’s at our Pulaski or Hubbard location. And so we do we try to tailor our new displays when we switch those out to what fits the, the area and the style out there. And to the point if you’ve seen one studio for one, you have not seen them all.

Tina Guziec : No, we’re all different. Absolutely not. They are so different when you walk in the different showrooms. Yeah, it’s fun to see, you know, some of those other options out there and you can walk through and I could say like, oh, this would never work with any of our clients. But it’s beautiful, right? And so it is. But but to that point too, is we have a lot of clients that have a second home in the city, and so they do need both of those offerings.

Carrie Skreens : And so we can accomplish either style and do that either you know, remotely or they can go to Chicago. Whatever works for them. So do you keep, anything in stock that they can leave with today from the main, from the main, warehouse, not really in Naperville. So I have to think ahead a little. Yeah.

Tina Guziec : Yeah we do. And so what’s your specialty there. I specialize in kitchens. More of the custom kitchens. All right I love cabinetry and detailing out cabinetry. So I’m a top cabinet nerd. Yeah that’s okay. Talk about that. What does that mean when you’re going to detail it out. Well so there’s a lot of projects. So there’s different levels of cabinetry as you know I work primarily with some of our higher end brands.

Carrie Skreens : That do things a little bit more unique. One project I’m working on now, they’re very into the details of the cabinets. So grade matching, for example. They are surprisingly a little bit more contemporary of a home. So we’re doing some slab doors but in walnut, so unnatural wood. And they want the grain to match from top to bottom.

Tina Guziec : So there’s some extra work in specifying that and making sure that all flows in the design. So those little details, they’re fun to work through. So what what trips people up about cabinets. What’s what’s what’s hard about cabinets? Well, there’s a lot of choices. So you have your basic lines that are, you know, what you see is sort of what you get and, and what you don’t really have to make a choice.

Carrie Skreens : But then once you get up to a custom level, you know, you’re choosing your door style, your wood species. What finish do I want? What door edge profile do I want? And this is where people get overwhelmed and you really have to help guide them because they can’t see what a difference that edge profile might make on the door.

Tina Guziec : You know, you have your trim, your crown moldings, those make a huge difference in the overall esthetic of the kitchen. And so it’s important that, you know, if those details are important to somebody, you can work through that. And they understand what those differences are going to be. Which of the of our cabinet lines do you like to work in the most.

Carrie Skreens : Omega omega Omega. And it offers the most flexibility. It’s a nice quality product. But they offer, you know, great paint finishes. They have a lot of different wood species to choose from. They do offer walnut. They do offer, the quarters on oak that, as you know, is popular right now. People are kind of looking for some texture and wood, I think, which is why walnut and quarter sawn are so popular in their paint.

Tina Guziec : You can pick any Sherwin-Williams color. Yeah, you can really make it your own. So, you know, some of the more fun projects are always the ones that aren’t the white kitchens that everybody wanted for a while there. It’s the people that come in with an open mind, and all of a sudden they’re doing their whole kitchen green. But it’s a tailored classic look, you know, with our help.

Carrie Skreens : And, it’s not like a big hodgepodge mess, but they’re not scared to use a color because you’ve kind of shown them how that can be a nice neutral in that space. When you’re approaching kitchen design, are there certain elements that you’re keeping in mind on how to how to layout the space and things that you want to make sure every kitchen has included?

Tina Guziec : Yeah, I mean, everybody comes in with their wish list of storage features. And that’s really a big thing because when people come in remodeling a kitchen, they don’t have storage features. Right now, it’s just you’re built, you know, usually the builder basics, which is a shelf on the inside and a drawer on the top. And so there’s so many more features right now.

Carrie Skreens : The drawers are huge, as you know. Everybody wants the big drawers for everything. And like, why, why weren’t we doing that sooner? I know there’s so much more accessible, so easy. Even when you you look at the roll out tray comes up like, for me, I don’t like that. It’s you’re opening a door and you’re pulling out a shallow shelf.

Tina Guziec : The drawers are great. You can put so much on those. And that’s really I feel like the one thing people come in, I really want drawers. I just want a lot of drawers. The garbage pull out so you don’t have to see or trip over your garbage bins. That’s popular. You know, you’ve got your tray divider, pullouts and all kinds of other gadgets with the space storage and just, you know, I feel like there’s things that make higher up cabinets more accessible and pull downs.

Carrie Skreens : People like all those. And people are willing to invest a little bit more in those if it makes their life easier over time. So, it’s important that we spend a lot of time going through really what those features are. So they understand, like how much more usable of a space it is. It’s not only going to look much better, but it’s going to function much better for them and do you do you sit with the client and kind of go through each cabinet?

Tina Guziec : How do you what do you do? We do ask them to imagine how they’re going to use the space we do. Some people like to spend more time doing it than others. Some people just kind of trust, like, oh, you do this every day. You know what I need? And it’s like, oh, okay. And other people want to sit and assign what’s going to go in each drawer, and that’s okay.

Carrie Skreens : So we have a mix of clients and, you know, the people that need a little bit more time, we take our time with and the people that want to just trust, you know, your professional opinion. They do. Yeah. You know, how do you how do you interface with the contractor who’s going to do the installation, try to get involved with them?

Tina Guziec : I tend to go out and meet the contractor on the job site before we order, just because then we can go through everything together prior to make sure we’re all on the same page. When I, when I do more and more custom jobs, I want to go through molding, trim outs and things like that. So, you know, when you get a cabinet delivery, it’s just a lot of boxes.

Carrie Skreens : And, you know, it’s very easy to grab the wrong thing and use it in the wrong spot when there’s that much trim. So it’s important to, you know, meet the contractor, make sure everyone knows where everything goes for a successful job. Yeah, I feel like no matter how beautiful of a job you do designing a kitchen, the contractor can make it or break it.

Tina Guziec : If they don’t, it’s not work that it will not work. So especially when you get into those higher, more custom jobs because trim work is, you know, that’s a talent and you can’t just pick anybody off the street to do that. And so it’s important that you have someone qualified to, you know, do that and trim it all out the right way.

Carrie Skreens : And do you have people that you recommend in the. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. The list of. Yeah we do with. Yeah. So what is the project that you’re working on right now that you’re enjoying the most. So the one that I just mentioned with the grain matching with the walnut, but we’re just doing a really, cool mix of materials.

Tina Guziec : So they really like this, one slab of Cambria. So that’s going to be the island and kind of everything is Harlow. Oh, it’s a newer one. Yeah, it’s a newer one. And it’s beautiful with this walnut. But they’re also mixing some slim, black metal doors on the cabinetry with walnut. Yeah. And so we’ve got all custom appliances.

Carrie Skreens : You know, they have a great appliance package that is really like they’re really doing some showpiece things with that, floating shelves with like, lighting incorporated into them. So just some really neat, you know, toe kick lighting, fun stuff like that. Doing their laundry room as well. So they’re doing some of those cool new, drying rack pull outs.

Tina Guziec : Have you seen those? Yeah, those are super cool. Yeah. Everyone likes those. So just some neat, you know, neat custom stuff. One of the things that a customer, bought from me, for their laundry room. I hadn’t thought of it before. And after she had done it, I thought, why? Why doesn’t everybody do this as a heated Talbert?

Carrie Skreens : Yeah. Put a heated towel bar in the laundry room, and I was like, the people that do a warming drawer and their bathroom. Further towels. Brilliant. Yeah, it’s like it is. And I think of that. Yes. Yeah, I that’s so it is. It’s funny because people do not think of those things. And so sometimes when you suggest them they’re all excited and they’re like oh my gosh.

Tina Guziec : Like you just, you know, solved a huge world problem. Right. But and you just dried their clothes. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. It’s kind of fun. Yeah. So when you think back on all the different kitchen projects that you’ve done, do you have a favorite that you worked on that was was that has a good story? I think, you know, I can’t think of one off the top of my head.

Carrie Skreens : I, I’ve been very lucky with clients and I have a really great referral business and I had the sweetest couple, that I worked with last year. They were fan favorites in the showroom. They would come in and everybody was so happy to see them, and they were just really sweet. But she, she had suffered from a stroke.

Tina Guziec : And so we had to be a little more conscious again of choices. And one of them was they picked this oven that had the lights that, you know, stay on so that you can see it from far away if you leave on the oven. And she was afraid she was going to burn her new kitchen down. And she would tell me that all the time.

Carrie Skreens : But they were just they were really great to work with. And their kitchen turned out beautiful. They did some fun, you know, Green Island, but they did do white and then just a fun stone. So it really turned out nice. So what’s interesting about your answer to that question is I asked what your favorite kitchen was and you told me about the people.

Tina Guziec : Yeah. And I think that that says a lot about how you approach design. Yeah. That you’re doing it with the client and for the client. But that’s why I like design. I like working with the different people. And, you know, over the years I it’s funny, I can go back to clients I worked with 15 years ago and I still I’m friends with them or they’ve, you know, found me on social media and I know all about their kids.

Carrie Skreens : Or it’s like now their kids have grown up since I did their project. And it’s it is really neat over the years that, you know, you can go back and still find these people that you worked with or they’re still finding me to do new projects for them, and they’re tracking me down from where I came from before.

Tina Guziec : And it’s that’s, you know, that means something. That’s what makes it worth while. How long have you been doing this work? 20 years. That’s a 20 year career, isn’t it? Yeah, yeah. Experience, right. Makes you feel old, but. Yes, but you know what I think? What I think it speaks to is, you know, when someone’s coming into your show room, they’re not coming in and talking to somebody who’s who, who’s just out of design school.

Carrie Skreens : Right? Yeah. You’ve seen you’ve seen a few. Yes. Yeah. For sure. That that brings to the experience, some ease. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, I know I love when people leave, after an appointment, they’re like, wow, you really made that easy. Yeah, that’s all we have to do. And they expect it to be so much more complicated than it actually was.

Tina Guziec : So yeah, well, I think it can be very overwhelming for an average consumer to try to come in and work through a kitchen or a bathroom because they’re trying to pick every individual thing that they like, instead of looking at the big picture and then handing it over to. Right. Oh, and then you walk in one of our showrooms and it’s just walls of faucets, and they’re just, where do I even start?

Carrie Skreens : So it is you have to, you know, recognize what their goal is and then ask the right questions to get them there. So you have a pretty, knowledgeable staff at Naperville as well. Talk a little bit about some of their background, where they come from and why people are coming to see them. Sure. So, we have a lot of, full service designers and I, I pride myself on that because, you know, I, I, we offer so much and so I don’t want, clients to come in and just feel like they can only get help with their faucets.

Tina Guziec : And I think it’s really important if you have one person that can really pull the whole space together. And so I’m lucky because a lot of my staff, they can do a full bathroom, they can select the tile, the cabinetry and really just guide you through all the selections versus work with, you know, one person for tile, one person for cabinetry, and it just doesn’t get pulled together.

Carrie Skreens : And then they get more overwhelmed. So it does nice that you can schedule with somebody that can really walk you through the whole entire thing and pull the space together. And collect appointments are recommended. Absolutely. Yeah. Because somebody can give you the time that. Yes. As big as our showroom has gone, we still don’t seem to ever have enough people there to help.

Tina Guziec : So yes, appointments would be preferred. Yeah, absolutely. So, in the kitchen space, when you’re bringing in tile, are you still seeing tile on backsplash. What are you still seeing it. Still doing a lot of tile on the backsplash. I feel like a lot of neutrals. Every once in a while, you get a customer who just wants to have some fun, and they pick a patterned tile or cool glass or a texture.

Carrie Skreens : Overall, I think you see the neutrals still the most. And then people like the quartz or whatever their countertop surfaces, they’re bringing it up the wall. And, you know, there’s certainly like a clean aspect to that. And people like that. So just kind of a preference really. You mentioned Cambria. Are there other other, suppliers of Stone that you like to?

Tina Guziec : Yeah, we do a lot with MSI. I mean, they’re a really nice collection and a great price point. We have dal tile, via Tara. We work a lot without Naperville, so. Yeah, doubt tile has a countertop pro now, so they have a lot of quartz colors. Yeah. Doll. And, via Terra. Yeah, yeah. So. And when you’re when people are coming in, are you seeing a lot of an appetite for quartz countertops?

Carrie Skreens : Yes. I still think that’s the number one. A little bit more back to the natural stone style. I think there’s some really nice quartz sites out there. That really just are beautiful. And so people are kind of, you know, it depends. I think that comes with the, the fact that cabinets are kind of going back to the stains again versus the paints.

Tina Guziec : I think it’s kind of like that natural, look, people like. So I have a feeling that’s kind of why those natural stones are coming back. So talk a little bit about that. The stains that are coming back and what what tone of stain are we? So a lighter stain, and sort of like those brownish grays, kind of moved away from the gray and full.

Carrie Skreens : Yeah. I can’t remember the last time I did a grain with no gray or just white even. I mean, I feel like people really are back to the stains again. There’s some more mixing it. Yeah. They’re wanting. And again, like I said, they’re wanting the texture. With, with some of those wood species which are, you know, a little bit different.

Tina Guziec : So it’s not like your traditional oaks that people are pulling out. But the quarter sun, is beautiful. Yeah. It looks totally different than, you know, somebody has. Oh, exactly. Cabinets from 1980. Those are not the same. No, no, not the same cabinet at all. Get rid of that. Yeah, yeah. No, but, I think it’s, it’s fun to, to start using some of these wood stains.

Carrie Skreens : And I have a feeling a lot of the new product coming out this next year, which should be soon. We’ll be seeing that, I have a feeling those will be more stains than anything. So, yeah, one of the things I know people appreciate when they come into our showroom is that they can put their cabinet hardware right on the cabinet door and put their faucet and their countertops down next to each other.

Tina Guziec : The real materials. Yeah. So you’re not looking at just an idea board. Yeah. You’re looking at the actual materials and how they’re relating to each other. And getting a really good feel for that. And I think it’s nice that our showrooms all kind of have these workspaces set up in them, where you can pull all the samples and just kind of switch it out.

Carrie Skreens : And people like that, that they can see it and touch it versus, I mean, if you shop online, you can’t do that. Yeah. It’s it’s it’s it, it is so much better than buying your cabinets on the internet. Right? I mean, you know, how they I honestly, I don’t even know how people do that. But that’s me. Yeah, I don’t either.

Tina Guziec : Yeah, I have to. I can’t even buy shoes on the internet. I have to go into the store. I want to touch and feel them. So I got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that’s the nice part. You can turn the faucets on. You can, you know. How does the spray. Yeah, we should talk about that. I mean, we all have working showers and working kitchen faucets in the showroom, which is neat.

Carrie Skreens : And there’s a lot of technologies, especially in the kitchen for touch faucets, touchless faucets. And you can try all those out and see if those are a fit for you or not. Yeah. Because the kitchen faucets, when they have the touchless technology, they’re not like the public bathroom touch faucets, right where you’re waving your hands and trying desperately right the faucet to go on.

Tina Guziec : They really do perform quite better. Right? And there, there there’s like a sweet spot. And once you find that, you can turn those facets on. But everyone has like a, a tolerance to what they like for that. And so it is nice to be able to here’s the lineup. Go ahead and play with all of it and see what you like.

Carrie Skreens : Yeah. You know. Yeah. So you can turn the faucets on. You can turn on the shower heads on. You can see some of the, the digital technology on showers now. Yeah. So it really is a full range experience and you can see it all in person. Yeah. How do people find you? Well, you call me for. What’s the number?

Tina Guziec : (630) 357-1320. We are on route 59 and Naperville right off of 88, so not a bad day. I also find us on studio 41.com for anybody who’d like to take a peek. And we hope to see you soon at the Naperville Studio 41.