Griffin Designs

02/28/2026

While the snow is melting, start dreaming about your new kitchen.

06/13/2025

The proof is in the pudding.
20 years experience and 23 Houzz Five Star reviews.
Check us out at www_GriffinDesigns_com.

You want something special. So bring in a specialist.

06/03/2025

Homeowner's Houzz Review from December 2019:

"We started down the kitchen renovation road with a few different companies until we found Alison, and I will be forever grateful that she came along when she did.

Our old house, built in 1937, had never had a renovation, and the kitchen was comprised of 3 small, dark, dysfunctional spaces. We had about 18" of countertop and multiple awkward doorways impeding foot traffic.

Immediately, Alison had a vision we'd not had after about 8-9 years of head scratching. Previous design consultants had not had Alison's clear vision either. She is the original "old house whisperer."

Fast forward from planning sessions and shopping trips in November and December, to demolition in February, to a finished project in May, and we are VERY happy customers.

I am so glad we decided to trust Alison. She has given our family a whole new life in this old house. Now, we have a place to gather, cook, eat, entertain, and enjoy one another. We're eating better. We're cooking more. We're spending more time together. We're hosting parties and holidays with relative ease.

This kitchen is a dream, and the fact that it was accomplished on budget and on time makes it kind of a miracle. You can count on Alison. She will give you the kitchen that works for your family, for the style of your home, and in a style that will stand the test of time. She works incredibly hard and makes herself available every day.

We learned so much about design and function from witnessing her expertise up close. Trust her. Listen to her. Let her work her magic on your home. You won't regret it!"

04/29/2025

This is why some clients have called me the "Old House Whisperer."

Check out the entire project, published in the Feb/March 2019 issue of Design New Jersey Magazine:
https://designnewjersey.com/features/new-kitchen-period-look/

04/16/2025

The eternal arguements about your dishwasher - how to load it and do you need to scrape and rinse before loading. Well, I can put at least one of these disagreements to bed!

"Rinsing isn’t necessary. Oma Blaise Ford, a senior executive editor at Better Homes and Gardens, told me that overrinsing is “one of the most common mistakes in modern dishwasher loading.” She recommends scraping leftover food off your dishes into the trash with a rubber spatula and immediately loading them into the machine, without even turning on the faucet. (The main exception, she said, is fatty proteins such as peanut butter or eggs, which tend to be stubborn.)

This is, indeed, new advice—I wasn’t wrong. Perhaps part of our problem is that the way dishwashers work has fundamentally changed since many of the people currently fighting with their loved ones about dishwashers learned to use them. In the late 2000s, according to Barnes, we switched from phosphate detergent to enzymatic detergent, which works like a little Pac-Man, eating dirt and making room for the soap to do its job. “So if you don’t leave a little bit of food for these enzymes,” she told me, “you run the risk of it starting to break down other materials,” such as your actual dishes. Everyone thinks the way they grew up loading the dishwasher is correct, so this one is hard for people to hear, but she was insistent: The detergent is designed to work on a little bit of dirt. You need, she said, to “trust the machine to do its job.”"

And only one of them really knows how to load it.

04/08/2025

Houzz Magazine's "Kitchen of the Week" March 6, 2025

01/19/2020

An easy way to have one of my kitchens without the hassle of renovating is to BUY a house with one of my kitchens.

18 Hobart Ave , Summit, NJ 07901-3619 is a single-family home listed for-sale at $2,150,000. The 5,000 sq. ft. home is a 5 bed, 5.0 bath property. Find 37 photos of the 18 Hobart Ave home on Zillow. View more property details, sales history and Zestimate data on Zillow. MLS # 3610022

01/15/2020

Thanks to my great clients and everyone who worked on this project with me!
- Adam @ Hacklebarney Contracting
- Jerry @ Elana Marble & Granite
- Jill @ Dente Trading
- Sean @ Hardware Designs
- Maria @ Mediterranean Tile

A white palette, a smart layout and floating elements expand the visual space in this New Jersey hall bath

01/02/2020

The Sub-Zero, Wolf, Cove design contest revealed some key kitchen

11/12/2019

Time to consider Induction Cooking!

Thirteen cities and one county in California have passed building codes encouraging — or requiring — all-electric appliances in new homes.

09/16/2019

So excited
to see this antique home saved!

EASTON, Md. – For over 250 years the Galloway Mansion has sat off of Chapel Road in Easton, Md., as time has passed it by. However now, it will be the house passing things as it will be moving to its new home in Queenstown. The man behind the move, Christian Neeley. Neeley fell in love with the ho...