kitchen interiors

elcome, I'm glad you found your way here. Please take some time to explore our information-packed online design studio. My goal, simply put, is to provide you with a design-through-installation experience that is attentive and patient, originally creative, and professional in its execution. The result? A space that will enhance your quality of life, providing great satisfaction and enjoyment, for many years to come. See "About Us" below.

As you peruse the site, you will soon gain insight into the global way your project will evolve, as I share the inner workings of the entire design process with you. You can view inspiring images (120-my original work) in the Portfolio, and get to know me along the way as well. Our website evolves too, with an ebb and flow of new ideas, images, discussions, and news, to keep it fresh and relevant, it's never "done".

Look for these letters (SS-SVC) around the site. These letters represent truly innovative, and largely exclusive, services that I have personally developed, or adopted, to offer the best experience I can to my valued clients. These special services will make your project the best it can be, and will offer superb added value (and fun too). We represent the state of the art in enhanced customer services in today's kitchen and bath design firms.

I hope that you can feel my passion for my work, and the desire to deliver the (often, only once in a lifetime) dream to my valued clients. Please pass along our web address to those you know planning a kitchen/other room. Now, I would like very much to hear about your project! Call or email me, and let's begin the conversation. Talk soon, Susan........It's nice to be home.



Breaking News...
February 5, 2007 - Start of "The Kitchen Designer" blog...give me a little time to get up and running, but please join in the conversation with questions, comments, etc., and feel free to send it to your friends!
The Kitchen Designer

January 22, 2007 -- NARI (National Association of Remodeling Industry) has selected our kitchen project as winner of "Residential Kitchen Over $100,000" for the 2007 Contractor of the Year (CotY) Awards (NYC/LI Region 1 Northeast). We are pleased to have been part of NARI's awards program!

Just out...Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest Publications, Remodel magazine Feb/Mar '07...see our kitchen, pages 88-99!

Recently out, maybe still around...Dream Kitchens magazine...see our kitchen, pages 24-29.

KBIS, the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show, is coming soon. It's in April, in Las Vegas, and it is SO huge, it can only be in a few venues in the country. Having legitimate press access, we'll get "first looks" invitations, send home 500 press kits, and get press only tours at the booths & more. Look for a report on the show!

An interview with Susan Serra, CKD is in Better Homes & Gardens "New Home" magazine, coming out in mid February.

On Saturday, April 21, at 1 pm, I have been invited to give a talk at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, NY, on American Kitchens. Here's the link, hope to see you there: Parrish Art Museum



About Us...
Susan Serra Associates, Inc. has designed kitchen interiors and other rooms for nearly 20 years in the Long Island/NY metro area. Susan Serra, CKD designs cabinetry for your entire home, including:

Kitchen, Bath, Media Room, Library, Bar, Bedroom, Free Standing Custom Furniture Pieces, and Built Ins, everywhere.

Our diverse experience includes working directly with the homeowner, serving as designer/supplier for builders' spec homes, multi-volume middle and high end condominiums, Manhattan apartments and more. The geographic area we serve is Long Island, from the Hamptons to NYC, Westchester, New Jersey, Connecticut and beyond as required. We will provide complete design/product/installation services for clients anywhere in the U.S. We are based in Long Island, New York, with a satellite location in New York City's Upper West Side.



(SS-SVC) For clients out of the NY area (and for our local clients too): We are managing our projects via our exclusive, web-based, project management system, which archives many critical details of your project. Our innovative system, made expressly for us, manages our communications, uploaded files, images, to-dos, job scheduling issues and much more. All in one place. Always accessible, anywhere, anytime. It's easy, incredibly efficient, and it's amazing! After you read below, please go to the PROCESS page and prepare to be impressed!

Susan Serra, CKD (Certified Kitchen Designer) and NKBA member, has won national awards for her design work, has served as a judge for design contests, as a national mentor to design professionals and as a speaker at national industry conferences. Education: Parsons School of Design, NKBA's program for Kitchen Design Certification (CKD), and countless conferences and seminars presently, and over the years. Susan is the founder and publisher of the first (and only) online community for kitchen and bath designers, now 6 years old, resulting in national trade press coverage. Our industry's largest trade magazine publishes a bimonthly column on the website. Thus, Susan continually seeks out new products, trends, and information to share with her online professional audience, and our office receives new product information from around the (figurative and literal) kitchen and bath world, a quite amazing benefit to our clients.

Susan travels throughout the year to attend trade shows, participate in industry meetings, visit manufacturers' facilities, and attend industry seminars, to be current as well as ahead of the curve.



Press Coverage...
The design work of Susan Serra Associates Inc. is very widely published, and is frequently seen in these Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest Publications multiple times over:

Kitchen & Bath Ideas, Dream Kitchens, Beautiful New Homes, Kitchen Makeovers, Remodeling Ideas, Country Kitchen Ideas, Kitchen Planning Guide, Kitchen & Bath Products Guide, Better Homes & Gardens, Window & Wall Ideas

We have also been featured in: Woman's Day Kitchens & Baths, KBDN Magazine, Newsday, Remodeling Magazine, House Magazine, Macy's Home catalog, and more.

Susan's work has appeared on three magazine covers and the cover of a cabinet manufacturer's brochure. Susan's kitchens and baths are featured within two manufacturers' brochures and on their respective websites. Quality Custom Cabinetry has recently chosen an image of one of our kitchens to be placed on their new fleet of 18-wheel trucks, one of our most exciting accomplishments to date!

In addition to continued published work, Susan's point of view and advice on kitchen design issues is frequently requested for consumer publications. Susan is a frequent contributor to the kitchen and bath industry's trade magazines as well. And, "as seen on TV", one of our projects was on a recent episode of NBC's "Law and Order" and we will soon be consulted for an upcoming book on Kitchen Design.

In 2006, Cynthia Bogart, Regional Field Editor and scout for the northeast region (Long Island, NY metro area, southern New England) for Better Homes & Gardens publications, asked our firm to redesign the editor's own kitchen in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. We are proud, given Cynthia's unique regional perspective, to have been asked to design and supply Cynthia's kitchen cabinetry and consult in other areas of her home. The kitchen is part of a major feature story in Better Homes & Gardens' Remodel magazine, for Spring '07. The kitchen may be seen here (7 images): BH&G Editor's Kitchen



Also of note...
Today's environmental issues are such that our collective awareness has been dramatically increased in regard to issues of deforestation, sustainable resources, green building/design, global warming and more. While our firm claims no scientific expertise in these areas, our interest and awareness has risen substantially. (SS-SVC) If you are interested in producing a project which includes green products, we can help you. We have products and resources available to help you express yourself via a full or partial "green" project.

As a client of ours, whether or not you choose to pursue this green design route, Susan Serra Associates, Inc. will donate the funds to plant 50 new trees, in your behalf, in an area of the country where they are most needed. The donation, to americanforests.org, will be in your name. You will receive a certificate and acknowledgement of this commitment. Please spread the word to other acquaintances, considering a project involving cabinetry. We will repay far more, in terms of resources, than we have used.



A little more about Susan...
A different source of creativity, Susan's obsessive garden includes nearly 200 antique and modern roses, plus perennials, decorative garden structures and more. Ask for a tour if you are garden-obsessed too! A life long passion for photography is also an intensely enjoyable form of creative expression. Susan's interest in cooking is diverse, from making scratch pizzas to healthy grilling all the time on the kitchen's (real lava rocks) grill (it's a Gaggenau), to mixing it up with new and interesting fresh fruits and vegetables. Try: Urban Organic - A Home Delivery Service of Organic Produce & Groceries (they deliver). Inside the home, Susan's Danish heritage is the driving force behind her collections of Scandinavian artwork and artifacts, and an interest in Scandinavian interior design. Many weekends are spent in New York City, always being open to fresh ideas, products, and inspiration for our clients' projects.



Of personal note...
Life is good. Susan has a husband, since forever, and 3 nearly grown children. A family member has a neurological disorder called Asperger's Syndrome. If a family member has been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, or exhibits questionable behaviors, please check further, as ADD/ADHD can be a common misdiagnosis for Asperger's Syndrome, a high functioning Autistic spectrum disorder. For further information, please check this link. Local L.I. support is available: Asperger Syndrome