Meet The Owners: Currier Kitchens and Baths

wants your home to reflect your personality, and make sure the finished product is exactly what you wanted.

The interior design business was founded in Milford by Donald Currier, who started making cabinets in 1975.

It opened a showroom at the Pennichuck Shopping Center in Merrimack before moving to Amherst in the 1990s. The business now specializes in kitchens, baths and cabinetry remodeling throughout the home.

Currier now has three more designers employed at the business, who focus on working closely with the customer and have a “follow through” attitude from start to finish.

Amherst Patch sat down with Susan Durling and Pat Currier about their business.

Patch: What makes your business unique?

Susan: It is our service for sure and the personal aspect we add to it. We treat everyone better than family sometimes and like they are our only customer. You get 110 percent of our times and resources when you work with us. We live in the community and our customers know us because we are a family-owned company. There are not a lot of companies like ours anymore with the introduction of Home Depot and Lowe’s. We are still able to offer bargains like those stores because we offer a variety of products for different projects.

Patch: What is rewarding about your business?

Pat: It is actually the people you meet every day. You always make new friends and we work very closely with them. We get to know their families and pets because we are invited into their home. It is a partnership and it is important because this is one of the bigger investments they will make in their home.

Patch: What are the challenges?

Susan: It is the things that are out of our control that become the most challenging. Sometimes things come in damaged or it turns out they are backordered. You can’t also predict what will happen with the people you hire, for example the plumber may be behind on another job and delay yours. It takes a lot of coordinating. We also never know what will be behind a wall when working on a room, since we don’t have X-ray machines. Sometimes there are plumbing pipes that have no reason being there or rot within the walls. It affects the budget, time frame and coordination when you get surprises like that.

Patch: What is the coolest project you’ve done?

Pat: I think it has to be a job we did on a mansion in a very exclusive community outside of New York City. It was this beautiful old mansion that had gotten run down, and we worked on the kitchens, bathrooms and other areas of the building. It had to remain historic, but could be used as a vacation home for wealthier individuals. This was exciting because even though we were requested to work on it, we were not allowed to know who owned it.

Patch: How has the introduction of the Internet affected your business?

Susan: Our customers are now much more educated when they first come in, thanks to the Internet. They know more about the products and are able to make more decisions beforehand. They still want our feedback, but now have a better background before taking on the project. Most of our business is still from referrals though, I would say about 90 percent of it. We are looking to reach out to a larger market through technology because we can’t ever have enough friends here.

Patch: How does Currier fit into the culture of Amherst?

Susan: We have done a lot of homes in the Historic Village of Amherst. I was even a client before I began working here after having work done on my home within the district. We have done true restorations to retain the culture of the building, but have also done modern-styled work on older homes.

Patch: What is the best part of the job?

Susan: The designing is so much fun and being creative can be very rewarding. We get to see the whole project and see the rooms transform into something beautiful. It is also great to have a client come in and say that they love, love the project we just did in their home. That is just perfect because we want them to love our work. Our feedback is mostly positive and that is great.

Visit there website here.