A kitchen designed to support the way your family actually lives
Regen Kitchen Design is a collaborative, health-focused approach that helps families create a remodel-ready plan for a kitchen rooted in real life, thoughtful function, and long-term well-being before costly decisions and construction stress take over
Most kitchen remodels become overwhelming long before construction begins
Remodels can feel overwhelming because there are so many decisions, and often those choices happen in the wrong order.
Every choice matters, from cabinets and countertops to appliances, colors, budget, and timing. Without a clear plan, even the most exciting remodel can quickly feel stressful, rushed, and out of sync with your family’s real needs.
You start second-guessing decisions you weren’t even thinking about a few weeks ago.
- Will this layout still work in five years?
- Are we spending in the right places?
- Is this material actually healthy, or just marketed that way?
- Will it be as functional as it is beautiful?
Often, homeowners start by focusing on what the kitchen will look like rather than first considering what it needs to do.
Imagine a kitchen designed for healthy family living
Your kitchen is more than a room where meals are made.
It’s where mornings begin.
Where kids ask questions, grab snacks, help stir, spill things, learn routines,
and slowly become more independent.
It’s where groceries land, school lunches happen, homework covers the kitchen table,
and conversations are stirred between gobbles and giggles.
That’s why we start the design process with how your family actually lives… and wants to live.
A Regen Kitchen doesn’t start with pretty pictures, trends, generic advice, or a checklist of finishes.
Instead, it focuses on how your family cooks, gathers, stores, moves, cleans, eats, connects, and lives in the kitchen every day.
A healthy, functional kitchen is about creating a space that fits your family’s routines,
lowers stress, works better, and makes healthy living easier.
This is the foundation of the Regen Kitchen Approach.
What does ‘Regen’ mean in Regen Kitchen Design?
For us, regenerative design is about creating kitchens that nurture life
in a deeper, more lasting way.
That includes thoughtful material choices and healthier indoor living,
but it also goes beyond sustainability alone.
A Regen Kitchen is designed to reduce friction, support wellbeing, encourage connection, and function in a way that helps daily life feel calmer, healthier, and more supported over time.
“Regeneration, to me, is about nurturing our world by nourishing ourselves, and that pretty much sums-up the purpose of a Regen Kitchen”
— Thom Harrison (Founder)
How we turn ideas into a contractor-ready plan
The Regen Kitchen Approach is designed to help your remodel project feel more organized and less overwhelming before construction begins.
Rather than rushing into layouts, materials, or contractor decisions, we guide you through a clear planning process from Rooting to Growing to Blooming. This helps us clarify your family’s needs, map out how the kitchen will function, review healthy materials and design choices, and create a contractor-ready plan before construction begins.
Every family and every remodel is different, so the process is designed to move at a pace that supports your project, your priorities, and the decisions involved. Some families move through the process in just a few focused weeks, while others prefer a longer collaborative timeline depending on the scope of the remodel and how much guidance they want along the way.
The roadmap below shows how each step builds on the one before it, helping you move into your remodel with more confidence, fewer rushed decisions, and a kitchen plan designed around the way your family actually lives.
The Regen Kitchen approach starts before the design begins
Regen Kitchen Design helps families slow down and make better decisions before construction starts.
Our process is designed to give you clarity before big decisions become costly, stressful, or hard to change.
Before layouts or finishes are finalized, we slow down and look at how the kitchen is actually functioning now and what your family needs it to support.
- How your kitchen functions now
- What feels frustrating or inefficient
- How your family wants to use the space
- What health and sustainability priorities matter most
- What your budget and timeline need to support
- What your contractor or builder will need to execute the design well
This is not a cookie-cutter design process.
We take a collaborative approach to turn your ideas, needs, values, and routines into a practical plan for a kitchen that truly fits your life.
“Thom really listens to your ideas and goals, no matter how quirky, and comes up with unique solutions that actually work.”
— Karen & Mike Kapolnek
Designed around clarity, health, and real family life
The Regen Kitchen roadmap helps you think through the details that shape how your kitchen will actually function day after day.
Our goal is simple:
To help you feel fully prepared before construction begins, with a kitchen design that supports your family’s health, routines, and long-term well-being.
You’ll get more than a kitchen that looks good. You’ll have a space that truly supports the way you live.
Here’s what intentional kitchen design actually feels like
Working with Thom, you’ll feel like someone is finally paying attention to how your family actually uses the kitchen.
You’ll have someone to help you sort through the details at your own pace.
What goes where?
Which choices will make daily life easier?
What will still feel right years from now?
Where can the design support your family’s health, comfort, and independence?
For one client, that meant working through the drawer configuration by mapping out exactly where each item should be stored so it would be close to where it was used.
For another, it meant steering ideas in a better direction by helping them avoid choices that may not have served the final design.
And all clients have agreed that they felt confident in their plan before their remodel began.
What we’ll create together
By the end of the Regen Kitchen Design process, you’ll have more than just a list of ideas.
You’ll have a clear remodel-ready plan, so you won’t be making major construction decisions
while still unsure about the basics.
Depending on your project, your design plan may include:
Family Needs & Daily Life
A clearer understanding of what your family needs from the kitchen and what will support daily life best
Layout, Storage & Workflow
Layout, storage, and workflow recommendations that make the space easier to cook, gather, and move through
Layout, Storage & Workflow
Guidance on healthier materials, finishes, lighting, and design choices that align with your priorities
Design Drawings
Design drawings and planning details that help bring the vision into something practical and buildable
Remodel-Ready Plan
A remodel-ready plan your contractor or builder can confidently work from
Our goal is to help you make the right decisions before construction begins, so your remodel is grounded in clarity, care, and long-term family well-being.
“He helped me bring my ideal kitchen to life.”
— Lisa Hubbert
Is the Regen Kitchen approach right for your home?
Regen Kitchen Design is for homeowners who want their kitchen remodel to support more than a beautiful finished space.
It’s especially for health-conscious parents and families who want a kitchen that supports daily life, routines, and long-term well-being. This may be a good fit if you:
- Want your kitchen to support the way your family actually lives, not just look good in photos
- Care about healthier materials, sustainable design choices, and creating a home that feels better to live in
- Feel overwhelmed by all the moving pieces involved in a
remodel and want clearer guidance before construction begins - What your contractor or builder will need to execute the design well
- Want to balance real-life needs, budget, function, and long-term value, not just trends
- Want an experienced partner who can help turn scattered ideas into a practical plan that truly fits your home and daily routines
You do not need to have everything figured out before you begin. In fact, that’s the point.
Some families come to RKD planning a full remodel, while others are looking to improve function, flow, storage, or health considerations within the kitchen they already have.
The Regen Kitchen Approach helps you sort through ideas, priorities, and concerns so your final plan feels clear, personal, and truly fits your family’s real life.
Since 1997, grounded in an ever-deepening commitment to vibrantly healthy living
Why work with Thom
An enterprise of AlterECO, inc., Regen Kitchen Design is a focused service grounded in decades of hands-on experience.
Thom Harrison founded AlterECO in 1997, an early adopter of healthy building practices and a pioneer of modern bamboo cabinetry.
Thom and his team have remained dedicated to eco-conscious design, fine craftsmanship, innovation, and a deeply personalized approach from inception to completion.
This practical experience gives Thom a deeper understanding of the design process and allows him to visualize outcomes.
Regen Kitchen Design is grounded in years of helping real homeowners make complex design decisions, solve functional problems, work within budgets, think through material choices, and create kitchens that continue to serve them long after the remodel is complete.
Thom brings the eye of a designer, the practical knowledge of a cabinetmaker, and the values of someone who has spent decades thinking about how homes, health, materials, and daily life are connected.
With Regen Kitchen Design, that experience is brought into a focused process for families who want to design healthier, more functional kitchens with clarity and confidence.
“Thom is an extraordinary craftsman—painstaking and with a wonderful aesthetic. Totally honest, reliable, and thoughtful. Highly recommend!”
— Darshan Brach
What clients notice most
Clients often come to Thom with a vision in mind.
Sometimes it is clear; other times it’s scattered.
More often than not, it is built from inspiration photos, practical frustrations, budget concerns, family needs, or a few ideas they are not quite sure will work.
What they tend to value most is that Thom listens closely, understands what they are trying to create, and helps shape those ideas into something more practical, beautiful, functional, and aligned.
One client shared that what made the experience particularly meaningful was that Thom “really listens” to ideas and goals, even the quirky ones, then comes up with unique solutions that incorporate them in ways that actually work.
For another client, his guidance meant adding his own creative ideas while gently steering them away from choices that might not have served the final design.
That is the kind of guidance Regen Kitchen Design is built around
Helping you understand what will truly serve your family, your space, your health, and your long-term satisfaction.
“Nothing here is cookie-cutter. It is all specially designed for our home and our family.”
— Anna Shimko
What is a health-conscious kitchen?
A healthy kitchen is not just about non-toxic finishes. It’s about creating a space that makes everyday life easier, calmer, and more supportive of the way your family wants to live.
Materials, finishes, air quality, durability, sustainability, and environmental impact are important, but so is the functionality of your space.
- Is it easier to prepare nourishing meals?
- Does the layout reduce stress or create more of it?
- Are the things you use most often stored where they naturally belong?
- Does the kitchen support connection instead of constant friction?
- Are the design choices aligned with your values, health priorities, and long-term goals?
A healthy kitchen is one that naturally supports health-conscious living
Ready to embrace the lifestyle your kitchen could support?
If you are planning a kitchen remodel and want the process to feel more thoughtful, grounded, and aligned with your family’s real life, the next step is to start the conversation.
Together, we can look at where you are now, what you want your kitchen to become, and what decisions need to be made before you move further into the remodel process.
Whether you already have ideas, early plans, inspiration photos, or only a growing sense that your current kitchen is not working, Regen Kitchen Design can help you find clarity before construction begins.
“He added so many great ideas, and gently dissuaded me from ones of my own that might not have been so great.”
— Lisa hubbert
Before you get started
Do I need to live in the San Francisco Bay Area to work with Regen Kitchen Design?
No. While AlterECO’s custom cabinetry is indeed available only in the San Francisco Bay Area, Regen Kitchen was specifically created as a virtual service available to anyone, anywhere who has access to Zoom.
Do I need to use bamboo cabinetry?
No. Bamboo has been a featured material in Thom’s work because of its beauty, durability, and regenerative qualities, but Regen Kitchen Design is not limited to bamboo cabinetry.
The goal is to help you make thoughtful design, material, and planning decisions that are aligned with your home, budget, values, and health priorities.
Do I need to have a contractor before starting?
Not necessarily.
You can begin with rough ideas, early plans, or a clear remodel direction. Part of the process is helping you clarify what needs to be decided before construction begins and what information your contractor or builder will need.
What if I already have a designer, contractor, or architect?
Regen Kitchen Design can collaborate with other professionals involved in your project.
The goal is to help create a clearer, more intentional kitchen plan that supports your family’s needs and can be communicated effectively to the people helping bring it to life.
Is this only for full kitchen remodels?
The process is especially useful for families planning a meaningful kitchen remodel, but some projects may involve a refresh, reconfiguration, or design plan that works within the existing footprint.
How does health factor into the design process?
Health is considered from the beginning, not added as an afterthought.
That may include materials, finishes, air quality, sustainability, functionality, layout, lighting, organization, stress reduction, and how the finished kitchen supports your family’s daily rhythms and long-term wellbeing.
What does “regenerative” mean in kitchen design?
Regen Kitchen Design approaches remodeling through the lens of long-term wellbeing, for both the family and the home itself.
That includes thoughtful design decisions around functionality, healthier materials, sustainability, daily routines, stress reduction, and the way the kitchen supports everyday life over time.
Rather than focusing only on aesthetics or trends, regenerative kitchen design considers how the space can actively support healthier, calmer, more connected living.
What happens after I schedule a call?
You will have a conversation with Thom about your kitchen, your goals, your family’s needs, and where you are in the remodel process. From there, you can explore whether the Regen Kitchen Design process is the right fit for your project.
A kitchen that supports you
Your kitchen is one of the most important spaces in your home.
It shapes routines, conversations, stress levels, habits, family connection,
and the small moments that happen there every day.
A remodel is your opportunity to make that space work better practically,
emotionally, and intentionally.
Regen Kitchen Design helps you approach it with clarity.
So before you rush into materials, layouts, contractors, or construction decisions,
take the time to design a kitchen that supports the way your family
actually lives, or wants to live.
If you’re planning a remodel and want to make the right decisions before construction begins, book a call now for an intro conversation with Thom.