Richard Landon Design CREDENTIALS, APPEARANCES, AWARDS AND EXPERIENCE

Appearances ~ Through 2013, national magazines have featured Landon's client's projects well over 60 times. (More specifics below.)

Credentials ~ Certified Master Kitchen & Bath Designer
    To attain this credential, one must first receive their Certified Kitchen Designer (CKD) and Certified Bath Designer (CBD) credentials which require seven years experience, 60 hours of NKBA education within two years of testing, and then passing a grueling academic and practical exam for each certification. (@45% "Pass" rate) In the practical exam, candidates are given four hours to prepare a complete set of drawings for a kitchen or bath remodel. To next attain CMKBD credentials, candidates must have an additional ten years experience beyond the time of their first certification, as CKD or CBD, and have accumulated a minimum of 100 hours of CEUs. Finally, they must document three Third Party Endorsements, such as design competition placement, projects published, show house, or TV/magazine interview. In February, 2006, when Landon received his credential, the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA) had endorsed less than one hundred CMKBDs in the United States.  
Awards ~ Landon has been recognized by the NKBA as the designer of the best kitchen in the nation.

    RLD3100090000.gif 2012 1st & 3rd place in NKBA Puget Sound Chapter Design Competition. Projects were featured in 425 magazine.

    RLD3100090000.gif 2011 REX Award for "Bathroom Excellence: Best Remodel Under $40,000" from the Master Builders Association of King & Snohomish Counties.

    RLD3100090000.gif 2010 1st, 2nd, 3rd place in NKBA Puget Sound Chapter Design Competition. Projects were featured in 425 magazine in Sept/Oct, 2010.

    RLD3100090000.gif 2010 NKBA "Art of the Industry" Design Competition Judge

    RLD3100090000.gif 2009: REX Award for "Kitchen Excellence" from the Master Builders Association of the State of Washington.

    RLD3100090000.gif 2009: REX Awards for "Kitchen Excellence" and "Bathroom Excellence" from the Master Builders Association of Pierce County.

    RLD3100090000.gif Spring 2008: Sub-Zero/Wolf  Kitchen Design Contest Third Place Regional Winner awarded for the years 2006/2007. 

    RLD3100090000.gif 2008 President's Award. The Puget Sound Chapter of the NKBA  gave Landon First Place in the "Large Kitchen" category and then honored him as the "Best of the Best." See this kitchen!

    RLD3100090000.gif 2007 Best Overall Kitchen Winner. In the annual national competition adjudicated by the NKBA, Landon received First Place in the "Small Kitchen" category. (This means the kitchen had less than 35 square feet of countertops.) Landon was then recognized as the best overall designer among all the "First Place" winners within the competition's kitchen categories for his kitchen, "Floating On Air."

    RLD3100090000.gif 2006 President's Award. The Puget Sound Chapter of the NKBA  gave Landon First Place in the "Large Kitchen" category and then honored him as the "Best of the Best." (Magazine cover shot below.) See this kitchen!

    RLD3100090000.gif 2006 NKBA Puget Sound Chapter Design Competition. Landon also received second and third place honors for two of his projects in the "Small to Medium Kitchen" category! When Italians Gather  Raised Oceans Apart

Experience ~ 
    RLD3100090000.gif Seven years of building fitted cabinetry. Landon's portfolio has pictures, in particular, of a table and a three-section furniture rosewood piece built in his woodworking shop. This experience caused a recent client to note, "Richard's value far exceeds what we paid. His eye for detail and on site presence made all the difference, especially when it comes to cabinets. It is the rare designer that is so hand's-on involved in their installation. He personally re-installed our Sub-Zero wine refrigerator when he noted the doors were askew. Our kitchen looks 'just right' because of him."

    RLD3100090000.gif 3 years of training in music theory and composition, (Hence, Landon claims that a well-designed kitchen has a certain musicality to it and that designing a kitchen is tantamount to composing with shapes in lieu of notes).

    RLD3100090000.gif A chemistry degree with an analytical emphasis from Seattle Pacific University.

    RLD3100090000.gif Many years spent as a remodeling contractor, during which time he designed and oversaw construction of a new home in Juneau, Alaska.

    Combine all of the above with his clear five-phase program of services (Designed By L.I.F.E.TM), the genetic gift of a analytical~artistic brain (from his mother, the chemist, and his father, the internationally-renowned panoramic photographer, Will Landon, www.muralspanoramic.com), add a dash of joie de vivre, and a cheerful lack of conventionality, and you can be assured you will get a project that:

    LOOKS GREAT, WORKS WELL & FEELS RIGHT.
    Click to see the Bon Vivant Cooking School Kitchen
    Double-click on the man to read about the Bon Vivant Cooking School kitchen.
Now over sixty appearances in national and regional magazines

    Magazines such as Trends, HOME, Ladies Home Journal, Woman's Day, Better Homes and Gardens,  House Beautiful, Fine Homebuilding, Qualified Remodeler, and the trade press have published Landon's projects. Rooms featured have been: kitchens, master baths, secondary baths, powder rooms, office/libraries, craft rooms, and family/media rooms.

    In 2013, look for more projects in Kitchen Trends and Meredith Press' Kitchen & Bath Ideas. A summary of some of Landon's favorite appearances is below.

      • Kitchen Trends, Volume 2903, pages 98ff, had a 4-page feaure showcasing a remarkable remodel of a 3-bedroom rambler, opening up the main living area to create a vaulted ceiling and relocating the kitchen into the former living room!
      • Kitchen Trends, Volume 2403, pages 30ff, featured an amazing kitchen in Madison Park with wide-ribbed, back-glazed glass on the walls, quarried lava for the island counter, and drawers hidden in the toe kick! Lavastone Kitchen
      • Renovation Style, Spring 2008, page 10f, "Renovation Journal" feature Richard as "An innovative designer [who] reveals the latest trends in kitchens." Also featured in the sidebar on page 16 and their article on aging in place, page 24.
      • In an article titled "kitchen miscues: avoid costly renovation mistakes," @home magazine, Winter 2007, two of Landon's kitchens show how to do it right.
      • A hospitality center; @home magazine,  Fall 2007, in an article, "Wine Anyone?" 
      • Kitchen & Bath, Premier Media's Puget Sound magazine, featured three of Landon's award-winning projects, including "First Place" Small Bath category.
      • "Floating on Air" featured in Profiles, Spring, 2007. This is the NKBA's official magazine.
      • Kitchen & Bath Design News, May, 2007. "Floating on Air."
      • Kitchen & Bath Ideas, Better Homes & Gardens, April, 2007, feature article.
      • Two master baths featured in @HOME, Spring, 2007, in an article, "No More Cold Feet."  
        The cover of Kitchen & Bath, issued annually each September. This kitchen was honored as "Best of the Best" by the Puget Sound Chapter of the NKBA in 2006.
      • Featured in 50 Dream Kitchens, published by Meredith Specials, Vol 2, No. 2, 2005. "Quieting the Kitchen"  was the title of this piece. "A functional, cozy space ensures guests stay out of the work center."
      • Showing a blend of industrial chic and whimsy, on the newstands in Fine Homebuilding's 2005 Annual Kitchens and Baths issue. Imagine fitting a master bath into less than 55 square feet! Link to this bath.
      • A six-page feature article, Fall, 2005, in Woman's Day Specials KITCHEN & BATHS, Volume XIV, Number 4, featuring a circular island in the midst of French elegance! Photos of this kitchen 
      • Better Homes & Gardens, Kitchen and Bath Ideas, May/Jun, 2004 issue. A bungalow kitchen that is a piece de resistance in spaceplanning. By changing the bottom run of a stair, Mr. Landon turned risers into drawers, hid the lower run of the basement stairs under one end of a peninsula, opened up the room and dramatically increased light levels. Stainless steel countertops and granite combine with maple and a La Canche Cormatin range to create a kitchen with a "feels right" atmosphere. Link to Cormatin range. (Use "Back" button to return to this page.) This kitchen was featured on the Great Kitchen and Bath Tour.  See tour photos! 
      • Ladies Home Journal featured a lower level family game/media room remodel. A perfect illustration of way The Room Compass approach guides the design process to "feels right" solutions. Published May, 2003. Link to photos of this remodel! 
      • An innovative solution to the ubiquitous split-level home was featured, October, 2001, in HOME.  This was Landon's 26th appearance in a national magazine.  Pictures of Split-Level Solution 
      • The Spring 1999 issue of BH&G's Remodeling presented a colorful maple kitchen in a small space.  This project perfectly illustrated Landon's ability to finesse a space by shaping elements in it to fit the client, the site and traffic patterns.  Link to excerpts from the text of this article
      •  The United Press Syndicate featured Landon in an article titled, "Recipes for Small Kitchens," written by Michael Walsh, on Sunday, May 2, 1999.
      •  Unusual cylindrical vanities in clear vertical-grain fir with tumbled marble counters, edged in oil-rubbed bronze, were featured in an article titled "Victorious Vanites" in Better Homes & Garden's Kitchen and Bath Ideas, Summer 1999, pages 112-113.  Link to a picture of these vanities
      •   While preparing an article in Better Homes & Gardens' Remodeling, Winter 1999, the editor commented that she knew of no other Northwest designer whose work so consistently attracts national attention.  This striking project combined a home office with a media room. 
      • One of Landon's most recognized projects appeared in Better Homes and Gardens Great Cooks and Their Kitchens, Summer 1997. This kitchen was designed for Bon Vivant, Louise Hasson's cooking school in Seattle, Washington, Landon's third cooking school project. (Link to the Bon Vivant site and see photos of this kitchen.)
    RLD3100090000.gif Cooking school kitchen for now-a-fond-memory Larry's Market in Bellevue, Washington.

    RLD3100090000.gif Eleven Street of Dreams homes, during "the best of times," including the original Seattle project in 1984, voted "Best Kitchen Design."

    RLD3100090000.gif An appearance on the original KING-TV's "Seattle Today" during which he stored an entire kitchen in a 4-1/2'-wide "Hoosier"-like cabinet he had designed.

    RLD3100090000.gif 1990 Seattle Symphony "Designer Show House" and 1985 MAME award for "Best Kitchen Design"   Link to see how timeless good design can be!

    RLD3100090000.gif 20+ years of attending KBIS, the national kitchen and bath trade show. In 1987, Landon discovered the Viking Professional Range at KBIS. That same year, at the Seattle Street of Dreams, he introduced "Professional Performance for the Home" to the Northwest.

    RLD3100090000.gif Twice invited to present his seminar, The Room Compass TM, at KBIS (the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show).



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