KEARNEY — It was no surprise to Cindy Fahrenbruch when Kari Mitchell was selected as a recipient for National Kitchen and Bath Association’s 30 Under 30 Award.
“It’s a real honor for her because I think there were probably quite a few people that were applicants. I think it shows a lot about who she is and how she came off in the letters, and I think they made a good choice,” said Fahrenbruch, owner of Artistic Cabinetry where Mitchell works as a designer. “It just kind of validates how I knew when I chose her to work for me what a great person she was. It was the best thing I did.”
Mitchell has worked for Fahrenbruch since 2013, helping to design kitchens, bathrooms, offices, closets and more. Fahrenbruch works out of her home in Loomis while Mitchell mans the company’s showroom located in Task Lighting in Kearney. Fahrenbruch and Task Lighting’s owner, Ken Anderson, nominated Mitchell for the award.
“They actually sent the letter to Cindy instead of to me. I was working at my desk, and I look up and here is Cindy and everyone in the office around me. They got to surprise me with the news that I was selected. I’ll never forget that. That was a really neat moment for me,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell received a trip to Orlando, Fla., in January to attend the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show. During the trip, the 30 Under 30 group researched kitchen and bath industry trends. The award recipients were split up into groups of five and each were given a category to research, and they gave a presentation.
“They basically put our generation’s input on those different topics and kind of what we see coming forward and how we define some of these different topics that are presented to us,” Mitchell said. “Basically, they are trying to get our generation and the generation ahead of us to communicate more.”
The event featured luncheons and panel discussions with past presidents of the NKBA.
“Our topic was on showrooms. My specific topic, my section of our speech, was on studio showrooms,” Mitchell said.
With advancements in technology and the functionality of websites, it is easier for operations such as Artistic Cabinetry to have a studio showroom.
“We don’t have as much overhead as a huge showroom does. We just do snippets of different vignettes and things like that and try to make it pretty small and keep the overhead down. One of the neat things that we make work — and before Kari even came — my showroom was basically from my website,” Fahrenbruch said.
Often trends move faster than it takes to get large pieces of a showroom together, and those items may become outdated very quickly, Mitchell said. Having large images of an entire project is more useful for their business, she added.
During her time in Orlando, Mitchell connected with other designers and professionals in the industry from across the U.S. and Canada.
“We were kind of a mixed bag of different areas. In my group of five, there was only one other actual designer. The other three were all a little more in the plumbing world,” she said. “We had one from California, one in Baltimore, one from Phoenix, one from Canada.”
Since returning home, Mitchell has goals to help improve the Nebraska and Kansas chapter of NKBA.
“Because we are so spread apart, it’s not very easy for all of us to get together. I would like to be able to move forward, see if I can work on that,” she said. “I actually got some ideas at the 30 under 30 of what some of the other ones have done with this similar situation.”
With design projects across the state lined up for Artistic Cabinetry, Mitchell is continuing to do what she does best.
“I absolutely love my job. I love who I work for and what I do,” she said.
- By ASHLEY BEBENSEE
Hub Regional Correspondent