Rasa Kirtiklyte

Senior Designer

"Given that kitchens are one-off purchases, I ensure that someone's current 'dream kitchen' is also flexible enough to suit their future needs and potential lifestyle changes"

Rasa Kirtiklyte, Senior Designer

Experience

Rasa has been a kitchen designer for over eight years, and joined Elements Kitchens in 2021. Her degree in Civil Engineering and subsequent Architecture courses have provided her with a good technical background, which is invaluable for kitchen design. This knowledge complements Rasa's interest in interior design, on which she's currently doing a course. Overall, Rasa's technical skills, combined with her creative flair, give her the perfect set of skills to be a formidable designer.

What ignited your passion for kitchen design?

Rasa enjoys being creative and working closely with customers; in kitchen design she gets to do both. It's a big responsibility designing a kitchen which someone could use for decades to come, and having an opportunity to be a part of that is a great privilege for her.

Over the years, she's designed dozens of kitchens. Knowing that she's been able to improve the homes and daily lives of her customers in a small way gives her a great sense of satisfaction.

What tips do you have for anyone in the market for a new kitchen?

According to Rasa, there are two important things to consider. Firstly, you need to consider what is most important to you in the kitchen. If there is more than one of you who uses the kitchen regularly, then you each need to think about this.

Secondly, consider how you, or each of you, would like to use the kitchen. Once you are clear on these two points then your designer will be able to help you to create a kitchen that suits all your needs.

Rasa's Design Philosophy

Rasa's approach to kitchen design centres on combining skills and areas of expertise to provide customers with unique designs. This can involve combining her technical background with her creativity to produce designs that are beautiful and maximise the potential of the available space. She also enjoys combining different styles and so the combinations are unique to every customer: 'I' see many of my designs as either traditional with a contemporary twist, or modern with a classic touch.'

One of the creative challenges that Rasa particularly enjoys is thinking about how her customer's needs could change over time. "Given that kitchens are one-off purchases, I ensure that someone's current 'dream kitchen' is also flexible enough to suit their future needs and potential lifestyle changes".

She is currently continuing her professional development through an interior design course for residential spaces. This course will not only help increase her creativity, but provide her with another way in which she can help her customers. 'I'm hoping that this course will improve my communication with the interior designers who we work with, and help me to provide my customers with extra value.

Rasa enjoys working on a variety of projects. However, the projects closest to her heart are those where she has an opportunity to incorporate natural features that can be seen form the kitchen into the design. "One home that I worked on was beside a river, so I suggested that we opened up with window to prevent the view from being obstructed. We also changed the layout slightly so the countertops were facing the river and seating area, and used beautiful neutral grey tones."

Customer testimonials

"Thanks, Rasa - such a beautiful design and works so well - everyone has said how amazing our new kitchen is- we love it!"

Mrs Wheatman

Rasa's case studies

A Bespoke Family Kitchen

Creating a kitchen that felt connected and in tune with the outside space, along with ample room for entertaining, was the challenge when designing this kitchen.

The existing kitchen was very traditional in style, with lots of busy detail in the wall and floor tiles with ornate detailing to the furniture and mantle. The client wanted to simplify both the space and the overall styling of the kitchen itself.

As a keen gardener and a big fan of entertaining, the client wanted the space to be functional and practical as well as sympathetic to its surroundings, with good access to the outside area and lots of natural light. The client was keen to soften the space with more decorative areas and was eager to create a welcoming and inviting environment.