The Snaidero showroom has one kitchen exhibit designed by Paolo Pininfarina who also designs Ferraris. It is number 5 limited edition with special finishes available only for this kitchen. Shawn Dillon once designed a Pininfarina kitchen that was lacquer red to match her client’s red Ferrari. Photo by Shirley Ruhe/Gazette Packet
Shawna Dillon's mother let her pick out the furniture for her bedroom and rearrange it when she was 7 years old and, "I've always, always wanted to be an interior designer." Now Dillon and her husband, Jim, own Snaidero Kitchen + Design on N. Fairfax Street. Dillon says she graduated from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design, and then started at a residential firm in Alexandria. She worked at the Chicago showroom of Snaidero, an Italian custom kitchen design company with business in 80 countries as senior designer for eight years. Then she returned home to Alexandria to open her own Snaidero store with her husband. "Alexandria was a lovely place to grow up and there were a lot of things we missed."
It is 1 p.m. and a customer appears for an appointment, here to pick up samples for a developer to make final decisions. "Are you going warm or cooler?" Dillon asks and pulls out the mink elm and tundra for the final choice. Dillon says the process begins when a client goes through the showroom and Dillon gets a feel for what they are looking for. "I look at how they use their current kitchen, what they do or don't like about the one they have now. Also the types of shopping they do, is the kitchen used for entertainment, how many people cook there at the same time." Then she works out a budget pricing and draws the designs. "I take as long as the client wants to get it right."
She demonstrates the model behind the counter with integrated handles for all of the cupboards, drawers and appliances. "This kitchen is clean, perfect with nothing to hide. It has to be perfect because there is no fudge room." Dillon continues, "Every kitchen I design is different-no plug and play. Each one is a little puzzle that has to be functional, ergonomic."
Dillon says that when she got into residential design of the whole house she found the most enjoyable part was helping people function in homes. "In the kitchen you can really transform how they move and interact. It takes problem solving." She recalls one kitchen where a woman both cooked by herself and entertained with caterers in the same space. "So I broke the kitchen into work zones so the team could all have their area to work but she could have her own zone scaled to one person."
Dillon said when she first started "people loved to look but couldn't imagine buying a kitchen like the one you see here. But our life is extremely busy and the outside world very noisy so when people come home they don't want maintenance; they want simplicity." For instance, today she says people are using a lot of melamine that is not wood but a plastic finish applied to a door. "It has more texture than wood, is more durable and environmentally friendly. Europe has long been extremely environmentally conscious. They have a certain way of life." She said when she started going to the Milan Fair she realized things were happening over there way before in the U.S.
Dillon said she found Chicago customers to be more willing to take risks than those in the local area. "It surprised me about the Midwest. People in their ‘50s and ‘60s were willing to do something a little crazy, like have a red kitchen and let's have fun." She speculates that the more conservative nature of the D.C. area might be because real estate is a lot more expensive here and with so much turnover that people are looking toward resale."
Dillon moves around the corner to one of the demo kitchens in the showroom. “This is kitchen Number 5 of 84 limited edition designs by Paolo Pininfarina who also designs Ferraris.” A bright red toy Ferrari sits on the counter. This limited design kitchen has special finishes that are not available in any other kitchen. She pushes a button and an overhead curved door opens upward revealing neatly stacked dishes inside. "Men just love the gadgets and of course the Ferrari. Women tend to like the functionality.”
She says when she was in Chicago she designed one of the Pininfarina kitchens with racing red lacquer to match the client's Ferrari. His house was constructed with the kitchen adjoining the dining room but with a parking space in between to park the Ferrari. “Men go crazy for these kitchens."