Making Every Inch Count: Designing Cabinetry for the Way Families Live.
For Kari Hellyer, the best kitchens are not designed around a trend or a single beautiful finish. They are designed around people… how they cook, where they gather, what they need within reach and what will make their homes easier to enjoy every day.
As a senior kitchen designer with JAK Cabinets & Trim, Kari brings that practical, personal approach to high-end new construction and remodeling projects throughout Eastern North Carolina. Her work ranges from complete kitchen renovations to expansive homes valued between $1 million and $3 million, with cabinetry extending into bathrooms, laundry rooms, bars, pantries and other spaces throughout the home.
At any given time, Kari may be guiding approximately 30 active projects. That experience has taught her that a successful cabinetry design must do more than look beautiful. It must anticipate how the homeowner will live in the space for years to come.
Listening First and Designing from the Inside Out
Kari’s process begins with questions. She wants to understand how her clients cook, what they keep on the counter, where they prefer their utensils and spices, how they entertain and which frustrations they hope to solve. Those conversations shape the layout long before the final door style or finish is selected.
“We spend a lot of time talking about what’s going to go in each cabinet,” Kari says. “I had a three-hour appointment recently that was just about the insides of the cabinets. We utilized every inch of every cabinet.”
For Kari, that level of detail is what makes a kitchen feel personal. A utensil pullout located where food is prepared, storage sized for the homeowner’s cookware or a pantry planned around a family’s daily routine can make a greater difference than a feature selected only for appearance.
Her goal is to create a room that feels natural to use, reflects the people who live there and remains beautiful through everyday life.
A Warm, Timeless Approach to Cabinetry Design
Kari describes her design perspective as transitional, but not in a one-style-fits-all sense. She enjoys blending classic details with fresher elements to create rooms that feel elegant, comfortable and lasting.
“A lot of people are in that transitional era where they want to blend the old with the new,” she explains. “They don’t want to be super traditional, but they also don’t want to be modern. They want a very timeless but elegant look.”
That balance often appears through creamy whites, warm neutrals, richer wood stains and unlacquered brass. Wellborn Forest’s Accessible Beige has become an especially popular choice among Kari’s clients, while white oak and deeper, warmer stain colors continue to gain interest.
“Everyone is very much about warmth,” Kari says. “The tans, taupes and off-whites are what people are responding to. Neutrals are timeless, and white is really never going away.”
How Homeowners Are Rethinking Cabinetry
Beyond warmer finishes, Kari is seeing clients become far more informed about the possibilities within their homes. Inspiration is always close at hand, and homeowners arrive with ideas about both the appearance of a room and the specific ways they want it to function.
Walk-in pantries and sculleries, sometimes called “messy kitchens,” are among the most requested spaces in her current projects. These secondary rooms may include another refrigerator, oven, island and extensive storage, allowing the main kitchen to remain open and welcoming for family and guests.
Kari is also designing cabinetry for bathrooms, laundry rooms, bars and built-in storage throughout the home. She sees growing interest in closet cabinetry as homeowners look for the same combination of beauty, organization and personalization in every room.
“People are very aware of all the things that are out there,” she says. “They want their spaces to be very functional.”
Why Wellborn Forest Works for Kari
Kari says she specifies Wellborn Forest for the majority of her projects. What keeps her returning is not one product or feature but the combination of versatility, dependable quality, extensive finish choices and a team she trusts.
Every home presents different dimensions, design challenges and homeowner priorities. Kari needs a cabinetry line that gives her room to solve those challenges rather than allowing a standard product offering to dictate the design.
“The ability to make things work and modify things as needed is very important,” she says. “With Wellborn Forest, I don’t feel like I run into limitations very often. There is a good offering, and if something isn’t offered as standard, you can usually modify it to get there.”
The range of door styles, finishes, custom colors, accessories and modifications allows Kari to serve clients with different tastes and budgets without repeatedly moving between manufacturers. She can create a more personalized result while preserving the value and efficiency of a semi-custom cabinetry line.
“They offer pretty much anything you need, so you’re not having to jump around from one line to another to get the customer where they need to go,” she says. “They’re a very good price point for the customizations you can make and for everything they offer.”
A Smoother Experience for Designer and Homeowner
Wellborn Forest also makes the selection and quoting process easier for Kari. Through the builder program available to her company, several popular paint, stain and door-style choices share the same pricing structure. Clients have greater freedom to compare options, and Kari does not have to rebuild the quote each time a selection changes.
“It’s very easy on me because I don’t have to re-quote everything every time they change from one paint to the next,” she explains. “That makes it an easy sell, too.”
For a designer managing dozens of projects, dependable communication matters just as much as design flexibility. Kari appreciates receiving an anticipated ship date shortly after placing an order, which helps her coordinate deliveries, installers and builder schedules.
A Coastal Kitchen That Captures Kari’s Approach
One of Kari’s recent Wellborn Forest projects brings many of these ideas together. For a coastal home, she designed a serene kitchen featuring the Hamilton door style, a soft custom-blue perimeter finish, an Accessible Beige island, paneled appliances and warm gold accents.
The custom color gave the room personality, while the warm neutral island grounded the design. Paneled appliances, finished ends and carefully planned storage elevated the space without making it feel formal or unapproachable.
“It was elegant, clean and very soothing,” Kari recalls, “but it definitely had a high-end feel.”
The project reflects Kari’s larger design philosophy: listen closely, make every inch work harder and create a home that feels both polished and deeply livable.
A Cabinetry Partnership Built on Trust
After years of specifying Wellborn Forest, Kari’s loyalty comes from the complete experience. The design flexibility helps her bring more ideas to life. The pricing structure makes decisions easier for her clients. Reliable scheduling supports the builders and installers with whom she works. Responsive people give her confidence that she will have help when she needs it.
“I think all of it is just a positive experience that makes my life easier,” she says, “which in turn makes it easy to sell.”
That trusted partnership supports what Kari does best: transforming her clients’ ideas and routines into cabinetry that feels personal, functions beautifully and welcomes them home.
About Kari Hellyer
Kari Hellyer is a senior kitchen designer with JAK Cabinets & Trim, a family-owned cabinetry, trim and custom millwork company serving Eastern North Carolina and the Raleigh Triangle area. She designs cabinetry for high-end new construction, remodeling projects and spaces throughout the home, bringing a practical understanding of project coordination together with a warm, client-centered design approach.
Designer: Kari Hellyer
Company: JAK Cabinets & Trim
Location: Eastern North Carolina
Website: www.jakcabinetsandtrim.com
