An appropriate subtitle here would be “you need to count the spoons.”

I have long told people that achieving 80% design success is actually quite simple. In kitchen design, for example, a few appliances, some cabinetry, and a counter can create a perfectly functional and attractive kitchen.

The trick with achieving the last 20% is to understand what makes that kitchen right for you. And to know what makes up that 20%, we have to understand the data. I joke that I make my clients count their spoons when I am designing a kitchen, which may not be literally true, but the reality is not far off from that step.

Do you drink coffee each morning? What do you like to cook? How many pots do you have? Pans? Do you have a collection of cast iron? What types of glasses do you use daily? Do you entertain from your kitchen? What types of collections do you have? What containers do you use to store food? Who cooks? When? How many meals are prepared in your kitchen? What types of linens do you use? How often do you visit the grocery store?Farmers markets? How interactive do you want your kitchen to be? Do you wish you could spend more time or less time cooking? And that list of questions is just the beginning of good kitchen design.

The data does not need to be overwhelming, and the answers to the questions are often easily identifiable; we just need to know what the answers are in order to be able to design to them.

The idea of data is just as important for materials only projects as it is for renovations. A client once told me, years later, that she knew I was really serious about data when I asked about the types of stains her family experienced in their living room. The question is so common to me that I did not even remember the specific conversation she was referencing, but I knew exactly why I had asked it: I was trying to determine if their young children spilled milk in the living room because dairy creates some of the most challenging stains in upholstery. Her answer informed the type of upholstery that I recommended with the furniture plan.

Fixture updates can create dramatic transformations, such as with a small renovation, and having the right data allows us to make those updates as simple as possible. For example, a client wanted to update a small bath without gutting it. The floors and shower were in great condition, so we focused on the outdated vanity area. The trick? We were not sure what flooring was under the existing vanity or what, if any, plumbing issues we may find when we removed it. Rather than just hoping for the best, we had the old vanity and medicine cabinet and light removed prior to ordering any new materials, allowing us to see the area in full to address any potential issues. With that data, we could then order materials knowing that we were not causing new problems.

Data does not provide the final answers; instead, it allows us to know if the proposed ideas can lead to success or if we need to continue planning and iterating creatively.