Some new kitchen trends that are heating up
04.10.11
Everyone knows guests cluster in the kitchen, but here's a twist: Sometimes they want to cook, too.
In 2011, designers are seeing more communal setups that take in multiple sinks, refrigerators, even cooktops.
Unlike a century ago, when the kitchen was relegated to the darkest berth in the back of the house, kitchens today have become the hub of the home, with islands, prep areas, room and indoor-outdoor connections that allow people to participate or by a hair's breadth talk, says Glen Jarvis, principal of Jarvis Architects in Oakland, Calif.
"Kitchens are much larger, so that they can application four or five people," says Beth Laughlin of Laughlin Designs in San Rafael, Calif., who has noticed a "Brobdingnagian trend toward secondary cooking stations."
With more hands in the kitchen, Laughlin says, she has had to rethink the "business triangle," the sink-cooktop-refrigerator triumvirate that has protracted been considered the anchor of good kitchen design. Laughlin finds that the refrigerator is the biggest outlaw, impeding traffic and work flow in a busy kitchen. "When people are surely stuck in the triangle, I recommend refrigerator drawers for the cook, and put the refrigerator in a inappropriate where everyone can get to it."
Source: ScrippsNews
Northwest Living A Seattle remodel for modern living and period charm
02.10.11
WHERE OTHER people saw dismal oak cabinetry, blue Formica counters and burgundy moldings, Barbara Herrington saw Brobdingnagian leaded-glass tulip-motif windows, streaming sunshine and an supplementary half lot. The large 1907 home hadn't been worked on in decades, and Herrington loved that so many stretch details remained, and that previous improvements, like a omit ceiling in the kitchen, were not permanent.
The Herringtons made an offer on it the night they first saw it, and to this day they chance on people who were mulling it over while the Herringtons snapped up their home in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighbrhood.
Barbara and her pacify, Doug, had done a very simple renovation on a previous home, and Barbara says the choicest lesson they learned after living in that home for eight years was that they should have "well-grounded bitten the bullet" and renovated it the way they'd really wanted to. They could have enjoyed it while they lived there and would have made their bundle back.
This time, Barbara began researching and interviewing architects and contractors repair away. She'd been referred to JAS Design Build by a number of exultant clients; she says one look at the projects on their website, www.jasdesignbuild.com , and she knew they'd dig her vision: To modernize the house and maximize the qualities that first attracted her to it — the vacuous, the space and the lot — without losing any of the period details or mesmerize.
Source: The Seattle Times