Prime Cabinetry

There’s a distinct sense of accomplishment in being self-taught. Just ask Darla Duncan, who was promoted from customer service representative to kitchen and bath designer within 18 months of joining Kennesaw, Ga.-based Prime Cabinetry. “I trained under our lead designer and took off running in just a few months on my own,” says the Dallas, Ga., resident. “I had no schooling and have excelled so far in my position.” Darla, who is now studying interior design at Penn Foster College, favors industrial or bohemian looks as well as farmhouse with a modern twist, and she says one of the joys of her job is making a customer’s “Pinterest Dreams” become reality via 3D renderings. “Turning their kitchen from pitiful to plentiful and hearing the excitement in their voice when they have it installed makes it worthwhile,” she says.

 Her passion for design actually started early in life, when she and her younger brother were obsessed with rearranging the furniture in their family’s house. “Either the living room would look different when Mom got home or our bedrooms were completely rearranged, sometimes more than once a week,” recalls Darla, whose parents ran a custom-cabinet business. “We loved it because it felt like you were walking into a new room every day.”

“I trained under our lead designer and took off running in just a few months on my own. I had no schooling and have excelled so far in my position.”

Married for two years to her wife, Kirsten, whom she met in 2006 at high school softball tryouts, Darla says they were close friends in high school and reconnected five years ago. “I  knew when I saw her again I would marry her,” she recalls. The couple has a black Lab named Marley and an orange tabby named Klaus, and they love to spend time camping, kayaking, hiking and trying new restaurants.

 As for her aspirations, Darla offers an eclectic list that includes backpacking through different counties, learning a new language, river rafting in Chile, shark diving in South Africa, digging for fossils in Denmark, visiting the most haunted places in the world and providing resources and support to rebuild an orphanage. But her top bucket-list item is closer to her heart: seeing the USA softball team at the Olympics and meeting the players.