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Deborah Smith’s spectacular residential kitchen design for TV chef  Charlie Trotter.

Background...

"Charlie Trotter came to me with a unique design challenge: to create a combination test kitchen, photography set, and TV program location for him. The result is as you see here. I wanted it to say 'understated elegance with a dash of style' but it could not overshadow the chef's creations!"

- Deborah Smith.

Photographs ©The Chicago Home Book

Deborah James Coastal Kitchens was launched in 2007 as the culmination of over three decades in the custom kitchen industry by the USA’s leading kitchen designer Deborah Smith (formerly Oertle).

Deborah has for many years seen the need for a totally new working procedure in the industry; whereby high-end kitchen remodeling projects are overseen by interior designers using specialist kitchen designers. Deborah James Coastal Kitchens is the rationale behind this concept.

Deborah launched the concept with her Coastal Collection series of design inspirations, the first of which are Amalfi Coast and English Riviera. Within these themes, Deborah and the Deborah James engineering and design team have devised a selection of specific color choices and finishes from which a client can choose. Deborah then produces a design which is totally bespoke according to the client’s likes and dislikes, lifestyle, and functionality – and with a design flair that is second-to-none.

A further series of design inspirations was launched at the beginning of 2011. Entitled d’Artisan Elite, these themes encompass original design offerings in kitchens, bathrooms, and furniture from elite design professionals.

Highly stylized, these various contributions represent decades of experience in the design of furnishings for upper-end homes throughout the United States.

Deborah Smith (formerly Oertle) is recognized as one of the USA's leading designers of high-end kitchen projects: her high-end design principles incorporate a high level of detail and spatial integrity.  Deborah appreciates detailed and exacting efforts by allied architects, designers, and design/build firms.

Deborah began her career in Chicago 1982 and,  with a special gift for spatial design, her creations quickly became recognizable. During the 1980s her designer showcase kitchens for Central DuPage Hospital were featured in the Chicago Tribune Sunday Edition; included were the showcase kitchens at Morton Salt Mansion in West Chicago and the Dan and Ada Rice home in Wheaton, Illinois.

The Colvin House kitchen, in Wheaton’s Historical Society home, was also featured by The Chicago Tribune. Subsequently, Clayton and Clara McCormick Kirkpatrick of the Tribune family, selected Deborah to design the kitchen and bathrooms for their new home, built in the 1980’s in the Glen Ellyn area.

From 1994-2001 Deborah represented Rutt Custom Cabinetry as the owner of Rutt of Chicago in the Chicago Merchandise Mart, and, in 1997, designed and installed the residential TV demonstration kitchen for celebrity chef Charlie Trotter; the kitchen has been a major feature of Charlie Trotter’s television show Cooking Sessions and has been spotlighted in Interior Design Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and Chicago Home and Garden.

Deborah has since worked closely with designers to bring their concepts to life with spectacular design engineering and attention to detail for which she is famed.