Designer finds niche in kitchen blueprints
You pick colors; Nancy Cooper draws the plans
Maybe you're tall and elegant, and you like to chop celery on a granite counter top that's nearly elbow height. Or you want your pots and pans so close that you can whirl around to grab a saucepan while you stir herbs into olive oil. Whatever your custom kitchen flavors, Nancy Cooper can transform your ideas into blueprints that sail through approval and go straight to contractors' hands.
Cooper relishes cooking, so imagining what other people might want in a tailor-made kitchen comes easily. She thrives on detail; Cooper carved out a specialized slice of the design cycle: just drawings for residences. A kitchen designer since 1986, Cooper recently added bathrooms to her repertoire. The two realms share plumbing, cabinetry, tile and similar flooring.
"I originally wanted to be an architect," Cooper says, "but didn't want to be in school that long." Architecture training can take a decade. She earned a bachelor's degree at UC Berkeley.
In her first job out of college, Cooper worked as a women's lingerie buyer for the Emporium. After she had children she wanted to work part time for herself so she went back to UC's extension program for a certificate in interior architecture and design.
"Because I was raising kids, I wanted to keep my business narrow," she says. Cooper Kitchens, based in Santa Rosa, does only design drawings. She leaves kitchen aesthetics to other designers or her clients. "Somebody else colors it in," she says. "I can work with the client and be in and out of the project." Usually she finishes her work with four client meetings and charges $2,500 to $3,500 for finished plans. Hers is a crisp, clean business structure that allows her to work business hours, never weekends or evenings.
Interior designers often shop for clients, consult on colors, work with contractors and stay involved for months. Their fees can mount as involvement increases. "If you are an interior designer and you pick a color," Cooper says, "then it goes up on the wall and they don't like it, oh my god! It's scary to make decisions for other people."
Cooper has tailored her business to her lifestyle. "I have a natural talent for space planning," she says. "Aesthetics is pretty, but it's more stressful. I have confidence in scaled drawings. I know what will work." She never imagines the work in three dimensions, just floor plans and elevations.
"It's scary to make decisions for other people . . . . I have confidence in scaled drawings."
She picks the shape of cabinets, where pullouts are placed, which accessories are selected. Her assistant, skilled in computer-aided design (CAD), creates final plans. Cooper prefers to draw with pencil and pen. "Anybody who gets into this business needs to enjoy drawing," she says. "I still design on tissue even though hand drawing is archaic." A young woman who wants to become an interior designer must master CAD, according to Cooper. "I wouldn't hire anybody who didn't have CAD skills."
Her business has been hit hard by the housing downturn, off more than 75 percent. Because design work is vulnerable to economic weakness, Cooper notes, "better make it a second income. But it's fun. You can do it part time and make a whole lot more money than you can with anything else. The hours you put in, you get a good wage." The business survived recessions in 1990 and 1996 because remodeling remained strong. "I saw interior designers go under if they had to live off the income," she says. Her husband, a psychotherapist, has kept most of his clients. She has done more advertising during this recession, sending postcards, for example.
"It's still a fun business and a wonderful career," she says. "There are fresh clients" and each design has novel elements.
—James Dunn
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