Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part story on kitchen design, following designer Carol Sager through the process from start to finish. The project, part of a home being built on Bar Harbor’s Shore Path, is scheduled to be finished in about eight weeks. The second part of this series will appear in the Home & Garden section shortly after the house’s completion.

Carol Sager has style.

It’s not the kind you buy off a rack or a runway, though she is fashionable. When she says she’s a designer, it’s no surprise. She went to college for fashion design and it shows. Her outfit is impeccable. Her dark hair is cropped in a neat pageboy. She is very put-together.

But wait. She doesn’t design clothes; she designs kitchens.

Though her look is more Vogue than Martha Stewart Living, Sager is a home-design force to be reckoned with. Trained as a Cordon Bleu chef, Sager knows her way around a kitchen. About eight months ago, when the she saw the position open for a kitchen designer at Ellsworth Builders Supply in the Bar Harbor village of Town Hill, Sager found an opportunity to mesh two complementary talents. She’s a natural.

“One of the things that makes kitchen design easy for me is that I cook,” Sager said. “I know I can stand myself in that kitchen and say, `OK, this works or this doesn’t work.”‘

Kitchen design is a growing trend in Maine and throughout the nation. As interest in home improvement has grown, building supply stores and independent firms have answered the call for custom kitchens by hiring designers to work with their clients. Homeowners who were once left at the whim of their contractor or carpenter are now able to get custom, often free, guidance from specialists who tailor cooking space to their individual needs.

Depending on where you go, kitchen design can take an hour — for, say, cabinet replacement — to months, such as Sager’s current project. Gus Grason, a Maryland-based developer who owns several parcels in Bar Harbor, has worked with Sager for seven months to design the kitchen of a home he is building on the town’s Shore Path.

The process

If God is in the details, Sager is a saint. Her designs are unique to each customer, taking nearly everything into consideration. Are you tall? She’ll raise the cabinets a bit. Have high ceilings? She’ll fill the space with some extra storage, or top off the cabinets with a crown, which looks a bit like a railing. Like to socialize while you cook? She’ll set up an island so it faces the dining area. Don’t cook? That’s OK, too.

“Some people want their kitchen designed so that all they do is microwave. … A surprising number of people know they have to have a kitchen but they never use one.”

And Sager won’t sell a kitchen the homeowner can’t afford.

“We really try to guide the customer,” she said. “We want all of your ideas. We really want to know what you want, but we want you to end up with a complete kitchen that you can afford. We don’t want to have a contractor or a person come in and say we have $7,000 to do this and we sell you $7,000 worth of cabinets. … Then you’re heartbroken because you have no floor, you have no counters and you have no money to install it, so we really try to put together the whole package.”

The first meeting is spent learning what a customer wants, his ideas, the shape and dimensions of the kitchen. If a customer calls beforehand, Sager or her colleague Andrea Hamilton will go to the home and measure the kitchen.

“We take your information,” Sager said. “We’ll call you back in and we’ll discuss plans.”

Sager then enters the dimensions into a computer program, adds doors and windows, and prints out a three-dimensional picture, adding details to give the customer an idea of how his kitchen would look with certain cabinets or wall tiles.

This is where personality comes into play. The choices are myriad and people’s tastes vary widely.

Wood floors or tile. Tile floors or vinyl. Corian countertop or laminate. Have young kids? Maybe those solid maple cabinets with the fine furniture finish aren’t for you.

“We give you as much information [as we can] and it totally boggles your mind,” Sager said. She then gives customers price quotes on a variety of products — floors, cabinets, countertops, appliances — to fit their preferences and their budget.

“Then you go home and decide what’s the most important.”

Once the products are chosen, Sager maps out the order of installation, orders the components so they arrive as needed — “just basically take you all the way through the whole project.”

Bar Harbor project

At the end of Derby Lane in Bar Harbor, a whimsical cottage stands with a stunning backdrop of ocean and islands. A woman stands in front sanding molding with a palm sander. A man delicately paints the trim.

“When I first came in here there was nothing but steps, with no real concept of what was going to happen,” Sager said.

For developer Grason, money wasn’t really an issue. The cedar-shingle cottage is a replica of a historic home in Massachusetts. It is on the market for around $500,000.

With few budget constraints, Sager was able to creatively, and effectively, design a kitchen that will reflect the character of the house as well as its surroundings. And from this plan, Sager’s duties expanded.

“I’m helping to design the bathroom, the kitchen and all the floors, and that’s sort of grown out of just helping with the kitchen.”

Sager had a vision of continuity for the home, creating harmony from room to room, and from the exterior to the interior. Initially, Grason wanted a blue kitchen, but Sager talked him out of it.

“I said, `It’s your kitchen, and you can do what you want, but I am advising against it,”‘ she said, wanting to draw the outdoors in by having the kitchen echo the house’s deep green trim. “If he wanted it in Cape Cod blue or aquamarine blue, I would’ve done it.” But Grason agreed.

Continuity is key because the house is small and the rooms are open. Though the interior is now just sheetrock and wood, the finished elements will ensure a smooth transition, blending colors and materials and drawing from the playful exterior details.

“We’re really conscious that it’s a precise house,” Sager said. “It’s not a big cottage; it’s a little cottage, so you don’t want to chop it up into little chunks and have too many strong elements that draw you away.”

Sager’s attention to detail is obvious in the plan. The unobstructed view of the Porcupine Islands influenced the design of the kitchen and surrounding rooms. She and Grason chose kitchen tiles, hand painted by local artist Marilyn Baum, that depict the islands. The cabinets are the same deep green as the trim. The colors of the kitchen will continue in the dining room.

“I wanted to create a kitchen that was very usable, very social,” she said. “This is not just a kitchen that looks good. It’s a kitchen that really, really works.”

Kitchen design isn’t just about aesthetics. A good-looking kitchen is useless if it isn’t functional. For the Grason project, Sager determined where all the electrical outlets would go in the kitchen, bathroom and dining areas. She also selected the appliances and the lighting.

“Electrical wiring … is a little bit unusual for a kitchen design house,” she said. “We’re not just designing a kitchen; we get completely involved in the entire project.”

You don’t have to own a half-million-dollar home to get expert advice. Sager’s designs are free, and regardless of your budget, there are plenty of options.

“There’s a huge range, and what we try to do is put the whole package together that fits the person and fits the house,” Sager said.

Some Area Kitchen Designers

Atlantic Designs 1172 Hammond St., Bangor 945-6363, (800) 559-6365

Crestwood Kitchens Route 1, Rockport 236-3088, (800) 464-3088

Ellsworth Builders Supply

Route 3, Belfast (800) 339-9559

Main Street, Blue Hill 374-2814, (800) 244-6655

Route 1, Bucksport (800) 640-4328

South Street, Calais 454-2576, (800) 244-4329

Union Street, Camden 236-3371, (800) 683-3371

State Street, Ellsworth 667-7134, (800) 244-7134 National Kitchen Design certified designer, Donna Carrington, on staff

East Court Street, Machias 255-3328, (800) 427-4329

101 Maverick St., Rockland 594-4699, (800) 830-5379

Route 198, Town Hill, MDI 288-9756, (800) 834-7292

Granville Lumber Bar Harbor Road, East Holden 843-5183, (800) 244-6337

Home Depot 164 Longview Drive, Bangor 942-7400

L.A. Gray Home Center Routes 1 and 182, Hancock 422-3321

Lincoln Color Center West Broadway, Lincoln 794-2475

Mathews Brothers

130 Perry Road, Bangor 945-0063, (800) 639-7206

Spring and Cross streets, Belfast 338-3359, (800) 639-7204

Route 1, Rockland 596-0391, (800) 639-7205

Northwoods of Maine Cleftstone Road, Bar Harbor 288-9573, (800) 427-9573

Rankin’s Inc. 30 Union St., Camden 236-3275, (800) 640-5554

Rathbun Lumber Co. 43 State St., Presque Isle 764-4444

Sebco Kitchen & Bath 1156 Outer Hammond St. 941-1650, (800) 941-1650

Sunrise Home & Hearth

753 Stillwater Ave., Bangor 942-4231, (800) 930-0309

Bar Harbor Road, Ellsworth 667-3205, (800) 244-3205

S.W. Collins Co. 6 Washburn, Caribou 496-6723

Viking Inc.

Route 1, Belfast 338-3480, (800) 244-5211

Route 1, Lincolnville 236-3871, (800) 660-3605