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Products : Trends
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Appliances :
Designer Comments
Designer Comments
Hear from kitchen designers about what’s got their showrooms abuzz.
David Pappert
Controller
Modern Kitchens
Syracuse, New York
www.modernkitchens.com
The biggest change has been a move to specialty and high-end appliances. A very strong niche has been building for several years for
stainless steel refrigerators, stainless steel dishwashers, and pro-style residential ranges with large stainless steel hoods. For those not interested in stainless steel, there’s a move to integrated appliances. For a long time, we’ve had built-in appliances but now with the
integrated look, it’s impossible to tell that an appliance is not a cabinet. You don’t have to design around the fridge and the dishwasher; you don’t have the fridge sticking out into the room. These are higher-end models. They have
separate compressors for the freezer and the fridge so the food doesn’t dehydrate and there’s not an odor transfer. With refrigerators, people are looking at whether it looks good and how fresh it keeps the food. You can spend anywhere from under $500 on up to $6,500 for a new refrigerator, with just about every price point in between.
In cooktops the manufacturers have done a good job on the high-end with high-temperature cooking innovations and are now coming out with improvements to low-temperature cooking for sauces and chocolates. Their extra-low systems allow the burner to cycle on and off. You can have a product on the range for 10 hours and it will never boil over. In the showroom, we’ve had a Hershey bar in a pan for eight hours and you can still read the word “Hershey” stamped on it, even though it’s melted through.
The consumer’s No. 1 concern should be quality. Like any purchase you make, that good feeling for having saved money goes away quickly and that product that’s in your home for 10 or 15 years will be a daily reminder of whether you bought one that you really like. If you’re a gourmet, you can go for high-end products to make cooking consistent and pleasing. Others may not need all the bells and whistles and can go for something priced more moderately. You should buy the highest-quality product with the features that suit your needs.
Christy M. Bowen
Designer
The Kitchen Source
Dallas, Texas
www.thekitchensource.net
There’s still a strong surgence of industrial-style stainless steel. Stainless steel goes with anything and everything from traditional to modern. The stainless trend will grow even more pronounced before it goes out. If clients don’t want stainless steel, then they want to conceal everything. And the fully integrated trend will also get bigger, perhaps even for warming drawers and microwaves. There are refrigerators now that can look just like cabinets. People also want ventilation hoods to be concealed with stucco or wood paneling.
People want gas cooktops and ranges because of the look. This has been standard in the North, but it’s now catching on in the South. Clients like the nostalgic look of the gas ranges, and gas cooks better than electric ribbons because it gives you more control over the flames so you can cook delicate sauces. They want convection ovens because they cook faster and more evenly and keep in moisture better than conventional ovens. Higher-end models cost more but will be more like gourmet-cooking units. Their higher Btu allow greater temperature adjustability so that you can turn it up higher to cook a better sauté or for a quick sear or you can turn it down lower to simmer delicate sauces or chocolates without scorching.
But not everyone may need that kind of cooking precision. Some less expensive models won’t have a convection option or built-in panels. You’ll also pay more if you want a quiet ventilation hood or one with a baffle filter. The
baffle filter vents everything out of the house by pulling the air through and collecting the grease and oil in a plate that can be thrown in the dishwasher. The typical hood recirculates the air using a charcoal filter that has to be replaced frequently.
Consumers need to figure out what they really want and then figure out what that will cost. They should start adding or deducting features based on their budget. But you don’t want to go with the budget first because you won’t always end up with the
best investment that you can make. If you really want to invest in the house and you’re spending money on the backsplash, the flooring, and the cabinets, you want to make sure that you make a comparable investment in the appliances.
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