contract cabinets built to his own specifications for residential projects. “It works out great because we don’t sell a [well-known] brand, so you don’t have to pay for the name. You get a better value and a better product. It’s a win-win,” he reports. BUSINESS EVOLUTION The business’ corporate name is still IDI North Inc., which was chosen by the original owners. However, a few years after Ilin took over, an adver-tising agency thought it would be a good idea to include the German and Italian words for kitchen – Küche and cucina, respectively – in an ad since the company sold both German and Italian kitch-en furniture. The name caught on. “I remember the first time that somebody called and said ‘Is this Küche Cucina?’ and the girl who answered the phone said, ‘No, wrong number’ and she hung up,” says Ilin. The second and third time this happened, Ilin figured out that people were relating better to the name Küche Cucina, so they decided to stick with it and ended up legally filing a DBA (“Doing Business As”), designating the company as Küche+Cucina. Over time, in addition to the company’s name change, Ilin’s role also evolved as a designer. With no prior design experience or training, Ilin’s do-main had been sales. However, slowly over time he became more involved in the design process with clients, and they eventually started asking him directly for designs. “It probably took about five to six years to get to that point where, all of a sudden, it was all of my ideas on this kitchen, and people said, ‘We want you to do the kitchen for us, we don’t want somebody else,’” he notes. Since he did not have formal design training, Ilin built up a support team around him that would handle drawing the designs and ordering products, while he had face time with the clients, came up with the ideas and focused on the big picture. His designs have grown in popularity, so much so that he is even called upon by developers to give input on kitchen design and room layout for multi-unit buildings before they are built. “I guess I have a knack for it,” says Ilin. “Not to make a comparison, because I don’t think it’s fair, but it’s like a musician that doesn’t read notes – because I don’t do drawings.” INTERNATIONAL APPEAL Küche+Cucina is truly an international firm. In addition to Ilin, who comes from Israel, members of the staff hail from Singapore, Italy and the U.S. They do projects all over the world, including a large multi-unit project done in Angola. When discussing the opportunity for international projects, Ilin explains, “It doesn’t really matter where the job is. In this day and age, with emails and everything else, it’s so easy. Even before email, you just [got] on a plane and you [went] there.” Another aspect of the firm’s business is as a wholesaler for an Italian cabinet company. Küche+Cucina is the exclusive distributor in the U.S. and Canada for Italian brand Pedini. Ilin says this is also a large part of the business, for which the company has expanded its net-work over the years. When discussing the future of his firm, which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, Ilin only sees more work on the horizon. The firm is in the midst of finishing the Toll Brothers’ Pierhouse at Brooklyn Bridge Park condo project, and has new projects coming in every day, in-cluding a 287-unit project in western New York. “I’m always interested in talking to designers if somebody’s good. We have so much work that there’s room for more people here. But,” he stress-es, “they have to be good.” ▪ AMBIENCE. TASK. AMAZING. Photo: Ken Lauben Your inspired design deserves Häfele’s innovative Loox LED lighting system. ENGINEERED BY The owners of this Saddle River, NJ Mid-Century home did a gut renovation. The walnut colored cab-inets against the high-gloss white lacquer created a beautiful palette, finished with a splash of blue in the painted glass backsplash. LET OUR EXPERTS HELP GET YOUR NEXT PROJECT STARTED! Online & Livechat: www.hafele.com/us Phone: 800.325.6202 E-mail: experts@hafele.us Circle No. 23 on Product Card January 2017 • KitchenBathDesign.com 39
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