Chuck Wheelock

Chuck is Design Director for Johnny Grey Studios USA. He first came across Johnny Grey's kitchens while working for British furniture company Smallbone. In the early 1990s, Chuck and Johnny met in the offices of Metropolitan Home Magazine, and have forged a strong working relationship ever since, founded on the principle of improving the quality of life of their customers' lives, and having fun while they do it.

Prior to working with Johnny Grey Studios, Chuck held positions in architectural design, project management and sales direction for WoodMode, Poggenpohl, Smallbone, and Peacock. He began his liberal arts education at Dartmouth College, and holds a BS in Environmental Design from the University of Colorado Boulder. After graduation, he gained architectural design experience in the US and Middle East including high-rise, corporate, educational, mixed-use and residential projects, with award-winning design projects in Egypt and Jordan.

Chuck's first design undertaking involved shortening the distance between the light switch and bed in his childhood bedroom. He devised an intricate Rube Goldberg contraption to control the lights from his bed.

Who is your favourite designer or architect?

Frank Lloyd Wright. The Price Tower is his only tall building in the town where I was born (Bartlesville, OK) and it is kind of iconographic. Twice I have accidentally stumbled upon his buildings, Fallingwater and the Beth Sholom Synagogue. I admire the longevity of his career through great diversity, and how he was always able to remake himself and come out on top of his profession.

If you weren't a designer, what would you be?

A spy or detective. I love unsolved mysteries, fact finding and problem solving.

Have any of your designs ever gone wrong?

Once a SubZero refrigerator could not be brought into the kitchen by any access, and had to be craned in from the second floor balcony.