Cramped kitchen? A solution may not be far away
- Kathie Maughan, owner
Beaverton, OR — A reasonable person might suspect that half the kitchens built 50 years ago had been designed by a very thin cook who had spent 20 years in the galley of the Navy’s smallest submarine.
How else could you explain the limited counter space, tiny sinks, claustrophobic floor space and poor lighting in those benighted cooking quarters?
Sound familiar? Take heart! Kathie Maughan feels your pain. Better than that, she has a stack of photo albums filled with before-and-after pictures showing how she and her staff of four have taken kitchens — much worse than yours — and made amazing changes to convert them from short order shells to innovative, functional and handsome cooking areas.
Not unlike the jobs taken on by television’s “This Old House” experts, Maughan finds ingenious means to recover an inch here and two inches there. These small gains in space can add up to a significant gain in elbow room and counter space adequate for a presidential dinner. Most importantly, the rooms seem to open up and breathe.
“I’ve evolved from a one-person to a five-person company with a carpenter on staff, another designer, a design assistant and a bookkeeper,” she says. She will soon have a sales person to develop more clients.
The services at Maughan Design & Remodel range from drawing up plans for your remodeling project to handling the construction.
Those who dream of a bigger, better, well-organized kitchen will find the Maughan Design Studio the door to realizing their culinary dream room.
Part of Maughan’s success is her flexibility. She sees the customers’ needs as always coming first. Consequently she is always willing to collaborate with other builders, or deliver plans (and advice) to home owners who want to do the remodeling themselves.
“It serves our company better to have many approaches to the market,” Maughan says. “I don’t have to turn jobs away because they don’t fit our model.”
“A lot of the clients choose us because of the pre-planning — pinning everything down, (having it) all thought through so that everything is clear,” she says. She aims to have clients understand the process so thoroughly that they can to do it themselves if they want or hire a building contractor.
The Castle Project
- Kathie proudly shows some of her design treatments.
Maughan has been involved with the study of interior design since her youth. Her ongoing formal education has included classwork at the Southwest Oregon Community College and at the Art Institute of Portland (then known as Bassist College).
Maughan says she learned “the nuts and bolts of how kitchens go together” by working for Parr Lumber in Portland in their cabinets and appliances division. Along the way, she earned her contractor’s license.
As her skills grew, more and more contractors took note of Maughan’s creativity. When she launched her own business in 1995, she had established a solid reputation to attract clients to her original showroom near Cedar Mill.
In addition to bringing dormant kitchens to life, Maughan took on other remodeling tasks such as additions, basements, and master bathrooms since “people like to enjoy that spa feeling in their own homes.”
She has even designed and built some small free standing buildings such as a handsome wooden structure for a tai chi school “from scratch” (her kitchen terminology is never far away).
Much in tune with Frank Lloyd Wright, Maughan thinks in terms of a “partnership of buildings and environment.” She sees her goal as “building a bridge between the two.”
Her most unusual project started with a minor disaster.
A collector of antique weapons had an unfortunate Halloween when a candle-lit decoration caught the stairs on fire, causing extensive damage. He had long wanted to update his home and this provided the catalyst he needed to start multiple projects.
Maughan designed the transformation, including turning the main living areas into a 16th century castle — complete with faux stone walls and a dining room addition to fit the client’s 12 foot antique table.
Upstairs, a second addition included designs for an expanded master suite with a second story outdoor deck and fireplace. The project is nearly completed, with the home owner still enjoying putting his own finishing touches in place.
Expanding the business
Having started as a one-person, work-at-home operation, Maughan Design has steadily expanded its workload. From a cottage industry, she now operates out of a studio at 1910 NW Lovejoy three blocks east of Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital.
She now reports her annual gross income ranging from $600,000 to $900,000 per year.
Looking to grow even further, Maughan visited Albina Community Bank to take advantage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The bank referred her to Terry Brandt, Executive Director of nonprofit lender Albina Opportunities Corporation (AOC), whose office is situated within the Albina Community Bank branch at NW Glisan and 10th Ave.
“They had a program that seemed to be a good match for my business,” Maughan says. AOC’s lending program, designed to serve women, minority, immigrant and disabled owned businesses, allowed her to take on some debt necessary for expansion.
“I’m excited about (having) the ability to work with (AOC’s) advisers,” Maughan says, referring to a team of experienced business people who volunteer to work with AOC’s clients to help them succeed.
With Maughan’s team and AOC’s team working together, a lot of people in the Portland-Vancouver region can look forward to having more efficient and comfortable homes.
And if you see a very old, very grizzled, very skinny seaman posing as an architect, tell him that Kathie Maughan has a little helpful advice for him.