Built by a Kitchen Designer Who Has Seen What Goes Wrong
Jesse Kelly, a kitchen designer for more than two decades, and Mark Durcan, who built his career in operations and technology, founded Design Glance on a simple observation: every plan benefits from a second, independent look before it is final.
Fully independent: no product sales, no commissions, and no payment from whoever drew your plan. Our only revenue is the review you buy from us.
*Essential Glance and Expert Glance: within 72 hours of reviewer assignment. Complete Glance: within 48 hours of completing your discovery call or confirming you would prefer to skip it.
Why Design Glance Exists
Every year, homeowners commit thousands of dollars to kitchens based on plans that may receive little independent review before the order is placed. Store designers provide an important service: helping customers select products, develop a layout, and place an order. But reviewing that finished plan with a fresh set of eyes is a different job.
That second look can uncover the details that are easy to miss: appliance conflicts, insufficient clearances, awkward door swings, lost storage, and layouts that work on paper but become problematic in the finished kitchen.
Jesse and Mark have spent more than a decade together leading Cabinet Designers, a kitchen and bath design and installation firm in New York's Hudson Valley. Jesse brings more than two decades of hands-on kitchen design experience; Mark brings a career built around operations, systems, quality control, and creating reliable processes at scale. Together, they have seen what happens when small planning mistakes make it all the way to ordering and installation.
They created Design Glance to move that quality check earlier.
Design Glance gives homeowners access to an experienced, independent second opinion before cabinetry is ordered. We don't sell cabinets, represent a manufacturer, or earn anything from the products you choose. The review has one purpose: to help you understand what is working in your plan, what may not be, and what deserves another look before you commit.
Design Glance is deliberately separate from Cabinet Designers: your reviewer earns nothing from what you buy, and we will never use a review to sell you cabinets, including our own.
“Between us, we've spent decades in the kitchen and bath industry and seen how much a fresh set of eyes can catch. We created Design Glance to give homeowners that same careful second look, independent and with nothing to sell, before they commit to their kitchen.”
Jesse Kelly & Mark Durcan, Co-Founders, Design Glance
Our Mission
Nobody should find out their kitchen doesn't work after it's installed.
We check the plan for conflicts while changing it is still free.
More About the Founders
Design Glance was built by industry professionals who got tired of watching homeowners pay for mistakes that a second set of expert eyes would have caught.
Jesse Kelly
Co-Founder
Jesse Kelly co-founded Design Glance after more than two decades working at every level of professional kitchen and bath design. He began his career at Cabinet Designers in 2004 as a kitchen designer, later becoming General Manager and, in 2016, Co-Managing Partner of the Kingston, New York firm. Over the course of his career, Jesse has helped guide hundreds of kitchen projects from initial design through ordering and installation, giving him a trained eye for the details that can make or break a kitchen plan. Over the years, homeowners frequently came to Cabinet Designers with plans created by big-box retailers. Jesse repeatedly saw overlooked details, functional conflicts, and avoidable mistakes that often were not discovered until after cabinetry had been ordered. Seeing the same problems again and again, he recognized a larger gap in the kitchen-buying process: homeowners had no easy way to get an experienced, independent second opinion before making a major purchase. That realization became the concept for Design Glance, a smarter second look at your kitchen plan before you commit. Jesse envisioned a service that could give homeowners anywhere in the country access to professional kitchen-design expertise and help catch problems before they approve the order for cabinets.
Mark Durcan
Co-Founder
Mark Durcan co-founded Design Glance after more than 25 years building technology, operations, teams, and processes at companies including Yahoo, Gilt, Plated, and Cabinet Designers. His career progressed from hands-on technical roles to senior leadership, where he oversaw global technology operations and helped fast-growing businesses build reliable systems and processes at scale. In 2016, Mark became Co-Managing Partner of Cabinet Designers in Kingston, New York, where he has focused on operations, technology, customer experience, and improving the processes that take projects from design through installation. That experience gave him a firsthand view of how small details missed early in a kitchen project can become costly problems once cabinetry has been ordered. Mark helped turn the idea behind Design Glance into a scalable service. He brings the systems thinking and operational discipline that have defined his career to the technology and processes behind every review, helping make each Design Glance consistent, thorough, and focused on catching problems before they become expensive ones.
Our Review Standards
Every Design Glance review is conducted against widely accepted industry standards, including published kitchen planning guidelines and manufacturer clearance specifications. We do not certify compliance with local building codes, which vary significantly by jurisdiction. Your contractor is responsible for ensuring all work meets applicable local requirements.
Work With Us
Interested in partnering with Design Glance as a reviewer or collaborator? We'd love to hear from qualified design professionals.
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