Oh, it occurred to me that I took images of all these kitchens at KBIS to show you! I think you will see a good deal of modern design as well as dark, rich, browns. You'll also see a common thread of lights, such as creams, and browns, combined. I thought that was interesting. I did not see the same amount of black cabinetry that I did last year, although it is still seen.

I was able to get some very good shots without people in them, and, short of a few shots that are, well, cockeyed, my new camera did an excellent job! The Idea Center kitchens by Meredith, will be up soon. Enjoy it! And, Happy Mother's Day!

KBIS Kitchen Slideshow

You know, it's funny. All of a sudden, I discovered a pattern in my thinking. Day after day, in the midst of a very busy period for me, I'm thinking, hmmmmm, maybe I should just show you some gorgeous Scandinavian kitchens from my recent magazines. No, not that, I'll blog about this problem I'm having on a job. No, I'll blog about new products, or this or that, or whatever, and each time, it causes me to delay a little longer. I seem to be experiencing a "no, not that" sort of feeling. I think I have so much I want to say and not enough time to say it all!

So, let me refocus!

One thing I know I've really wanted to do is to take you to some favorite blogs.

Design Hole: Take a look at Jennifer's recent trip to Milan, to Salone del Mobile, where she took a very active interest in all things kitchen related. Talk about innovation...

Dwell's Kitchen Blog: I like Dwell's Kitchen Blog. It's quirky, definitely quirky, and broad in its pick of things, trends, and other good stuff (that's being pretty specific) to talk about. Always something new to learn.

Pardon Our Dust: I really, really want you to check out this blog, written by Kathy Price-Robinson. Kathy has written about remodeling for, I don't know how many years, but I know it's a long time. Kathy is smart and provocative and very green minded. Lots of kitchen related posts. I think Kathy loves kitchens.

The Kitchn: I've been meaning to bring this to you for ages. I actually signed up for the Kitchen Cure. The goal of the Cure was to get one's kitchen in shape via organization, new ideas, enabling the kitchen to be used more enjoyable and more efficiently. Unfortunately, I just did not find the time to commit to doing it, but, I really wanted to. See how the Cure progressed.

Kitchen Design Notes: I like my colleague Laurie's take on blue being the new black, and all those gorgeous images included. Laurie knows her stuff!

Surroundings: What Inspires You? Let it all out and enter the contest at the same time!

Enjoy!

Have you seen those new commercials with the young and beautiful Kelly Ripa buzzing around her kitchen, appeasing wee ones and preparing for adult guests while cooking on a new state-of-the-art-stove? Ripa is the mother of three small children, the Star of Regis and Kelly and a Soap Opera diva. The commercials showcase a glam kitchen with a glam star. However, despite the fact that most women don’t whiz around the kitchen in pumps and full make-up, the commercials resonate with most multi-tasking moms (OK that’s a major oxymoron).

The kitchen is central to all homes and good appliances make the job easier and more enjoyable. Electrolux is showcasing the popular star for the launch of their new North American premium kitchen appliance line showcasing appliances with European flair.

Ripa is shown cooking on a chic cook top that boils water in 90 seconds! Electrolux offers an energy efficient Induction Hybrid cook top in both 30 and 36 inch models. Induction heating is new and faster, more energy efficient and promises easier clean-up.

In addition to their new high-tech line, Electrolux is joining Ripa in supporting the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. “Thousands of women and their families are affected each year. That’s why I am so grateful to Electrolux for stepping up and helping me to raise money and awareness to help support this important cause,” said Ripa. Together, America’s sweetheart and Electrolux are cooking up some philanthropy and that’s always delicious!.......Maureentheassistant

And, so this is another weekend of total kitchen immersion for me...lots of work to do!!! And, here I sit, with the music cranked WAY up. For a moment, there, we almost got crazy and booked a flight to the jazzfest, but can you imagine, coming back on Monday, leaving at 11 am (the only flight) and arriving at jfk (an hour from home) after 6 pm for a typical 3 hour flight, if that? Not even I am that crazy!

But, turn it on and crank it up, that's what I recommend...

JAZZFEST LIVE THIS WEEKEND ON WWOZ

Oh, and if the music cuts in and out...that's sort of how it goes down there, stuff happens, you get what you get (hmmm, sort of like kitchens!) No, I'm kidding, really, no one get nervous now!  I'm loving this music, enjoy your weekend!

The song now is something about needing eyes behind your head. :)

Quartz Produced in the USA Gets A+

Cambria produces the only quartz countertop made in the USA and lives up to their mantra: Live Green, Live Life, Live Cambria. American made quartz equals less of a carbon footprint with regard to transporting the product. “At Cambria, we are committed to environmental responsibility in both our product offerings and businesses practices,” says a Cambria spokesman.

They’re not kidding.

Their quartz is nonporous which means harsh chemicals are not necessary to seal or polish the surface. Cambria is certified GREENGUARD for children and Schools certified. GREENGUARD is a nonprofit organication that oversees acceptable indoor air standards for indoor products. In addition to their product being green, they run a very green office and plant. One hundred percent of the water used in the production process is recycled! Their fleet of vehicles is hybrid, their shipping crates are recycled and scrap material is collected and used as road base for local construction projects. I'm impressed!

In addition there is an on-site drainer pond that they use to water and beautify the plant grounds. All office waste is recycled including computers and batteries. Quartz is a popular choice for kitchen countertops because it is maintenance free and stain resistant - that means no wine stains or grape juice stains.  It's even impervious to coffee and nail polish!   In addition, as the strongest natural stone found on the Earth's surface, it is durable. Cambria gets an A+ for being kitchen friendly and for it's impressive green efforts!

Best, Maureen (Susan's assistant)

Here is a post from my assistant, Maureen, who is a strong advocate for green living. We'll be hearing from Maureen from time to time. Give her a little welcome too! Good work Maureen!

Thirty-Eight years after the inception of Earth Day, it has gone mainstream with events in countries all over the globe. Flooding the Blogosphere, networks and print media, Green has gone global, political and earned a former Vice President a Nobel Peace Price. It also made a strong presence at this year’s KBIS where Green was a hot theme as social consciousness entered the Kitchen Design world in a multitude of ways.

Intrinsically, we all want to lessen our environmental footprint – how does a mere mortal go about doing such (especially a SUV driving suburban mom)? Although not a terribly glam topic –we can begin our personal green campaigns in a very tangible and quantitative way. We can move away from the bottle!

An Inconvenient Truth

• Americans used 50 billions plastic water bottles last year – 40 billion of them ended up in landfills.
• To distribute the bottled water that’s hauled to and fro within the U.S. each week required the equivalent of 37,800 18 wheel trucks.
• Worldwide, 2.7 million tons of plastic are used each year to make water bottles, and in the United States, less than 20% of these are recycled.
• Americans throw away 22 billion water bottles each year, over 60 million a day.
• The 29 billion plastic bottles manufactured in the United States each year require the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of crude oil.
• In 2006, American spent nearly $11 billion on over 8 billion gallons of bottled water.

Ouch! - from an environmental and financial standpoint. Plastic bottles are made from fossil fuels; fossil fuels are used to bottle the water, deliver the water to the stores, used to get consumers to the stores to buy the water and also used to get the garbage trucks to the homes to pick up the bottles. If the bottled are recycled, then you got it, more fossil fuels! Ok I am officially riddled with guilt about the countless bottles of water served to dinner guests, tucked into lunch boxes (OK bags that I didn't recycle) and taken to countless sporting events (yes in the SUV). In addition to the environmental impact, the cost is something to be considered in this teetering economy that’s gasping for air.

Taking Back The Tap

Victoria Kaplan is the senior organizer with Food and Water Watch – a nonprofit that recent launched a Take Back the Tap campaign to get consumers to ditch bottled water. “The bottled water industry spends millions of dollars a year to convince us that their product is somehow safer or healthier than tap water, when in fact that is just not true,|” says Kaplan. Did you know that bottled water is subject to less-stringent government standards for quality than tap water? That’s not marketing hype, according to National Geographic Green Guide, as much as 40 percent of bottled water started out as the same tap water that we get at home. Americans are beginning to get the message that bottled water is expensive (more expensive per gallon than gasoline), not necessary safer than the H20 that flows from the tap water and burdened with incalculable environmental problems.

Everpure showcased at this year’s KBIS where they offered a powerful visual presentation of the environmental impact of bottled water. Although in the business of filtering water for restaurants for over 75 years, they now tout several products for the home. The H-300 Water Filtration System employs Everpure’s Micro-Pure® filtration removing impurities and providing what they say is the best tasting water available.

Although secondary to health issues, taste is critical when it comes to cooking and creating sauces, breads, pastries and making stocks and even cocktails.  Home filtration units are a great step forward for both concerting cooks and envrionmentals alike.  If you move away from the bottle, the results will be palpable. 

The Everpure Exubera System dispenses chilled still or sparkling water right from the tap.

For more information about water and reusable bottles and canteens:

www.allaboutwater.org

www.kleankanteen.com

www.mysigg.com

Ok, I'm feeling the weekend coming on!

We were "this close" to going to New Orleans this weekend for the JazzFest. We've gone 6 times since 1995. We MAY even go for a quick one nighter next weekend. Instead, this weekend, our daughter her husband, and their dog (who's afraid of our cat who gets into the tiger stalking stance at the sight of his rustling tail) are coming out for the weekend. I have declared this weekend, JazzFest weekend on the blog, and we will definitely have the music cranked up ALL WEEKEND, while we are all cooking together, with wine flowing, and as I have it on right now on my computer, as there will be LIVE programming from the Fest!

Here's where you go to take part in your own version of dancing in the kitchen while you're cooking this weekend! Go to WWOZ! 

To me, that's when a kitchen really lives up to its full potential...loved ones, music, wine, good food, pets, what else is there?? Enjoy!

From KBIS, I have too many fun images of organizational finds for the pantry not to share them with you, so there is more for today. And, if you're like me, I think it's so much fun to discover new ways of organizing (yes, FUN.) Keeps the insides of our cabinets interesting, so that they, oh let's take a stretch here, do their JOB to amuse their pantry masters, right? Not to mention adding efficiency to the mix. Poor pantries, SO much work to do! I think my own pantry definitely needs therapy, it's so mixed up...

Here we go again. Would you prefer this for your corner wall cabinet (it pulls out!):

OR THIS....! No contest!

Also from Knape & Vogt is this super handy pull out tray divider...

From Rev-A-Shelf, new (as all these products are) for 2008 is the answer to your pan storage...

Here's a cool corner solution from Sidelines

Also from Sidelines, a neat wine/bottle storage device/piece/unit/thing

And now for the fireworks images!!! Again, from Sidelines, and you'll see a variety of organizational solutions for closets and for kitchens and anywhere else you need to organize your stuff...enjoy!

I had this post all put together day before yesterday. A couple of days prior I downloaded a beta firefox3 that I read was stable, almost ready to be released (well, June) yadayada. Then, I noticed a very slow internet connection. Did I make the connection between the browser and the slow internet? Not until today when I decided to try explorer to see how that ran. Made an appointment with the ISP and everything for this Saturday! Sheesh! So, we're up and running again, nice and fast. Here we go...

Let me tell you, I WORKED that show, KBIS! Ok, so I couldn't stop snapping pictures with my new camera, truth be told, BUT, my intentions were noble...and so many things were so inspiring. So, let's look at what's new for inside our kitchen cabinets and pantries.

Here's a cool new mechanism thing to allow your doors to sit at any position and stay there. No worries about snapping up or down or whatever. It's by Hafele, who makes so many useful and modern products for the kitchen.

Also from Hafele, a pull down shelf to access those hard to reach, and possibly, heavy items from the upper shelves of your wall cabinets.

And, one more from Hafele, a chefs pantry pantry insert with a new finish for the shelves. From the Arena champagne collection. The shelves are coated with a special finish which causes items NOT to move around. It's a good thing. :)

From Knape & Vogt, would you rather reach in and use this in your corner cabinet...

 OR THIS.....

At KBIS, I took a 1/2 day sort of refresher course on venting. There is not a whole lot new in venting concepts, but, it did reinforce and remind me of the "ick" factor, which I'll explain. 

Here's what's happening. First, our kitchen floor plans are more OPEN to other rooms. This means that pollutants from cooking have more opportunity to freely move about your home, hanging out in your furnishings, your artwork, your pillows, walls, flooring, you get the idea. Just as an fyi, grease from cooking turns into vapor and floats in the air as particles for as long as 72 hours!

ADD TO THAT, the tighter construction of newer homes, which can encourage mold growth and trap pollutants, and your health becomes at risk for allergies, asthma, lung disease, and who knows what else.  A very impressive ick factor, yes? AND, if that is not enough, indoor pollution is considered to rank within the top 5 environmental risks to the public, according to the EPA.

Hoods now do very cool things. They sense heat and turn on automatically. They sense cool temperatures and turn off automatically. They are much quieter than they used to be.  They operate via remote control. Some have hidden controls with a memory feature. They have a delayed shut down mode and a 24 hour anti pollution mode. Some hoods move up and down at the touch of a button to get out of your way, and some hoods move in and out. And, some are energy star rated. Hoods do amazing things these days. Look more deeply when you are in the market for a hood. It's substance, not only style!

More to the story are cfms, duct runs, turns, duct diameters, and other elements and information with which to design a proper venting system, but that is for another day. Today's purpose is twofold: 1) to get you aware of all that is floating in and around the kitchen after you cook and 2) to show you some new hoods (which you really, really, need!)

Please run your mouse over the image to see the brand names.

I want to just take a moment and thank my readers, all of you, for passing on your own tips, suggestions, and favorite resources in an effort to help others find solutions to this crazily, and incredibly, detailed endeavor known as a kitchen renovation! 

I can't say how appreciative I am. I continue to learn from you, and we all benefit from one another. Your participation helps to make this blog better and better, serving as a great resource for many, as I am told via private emails and public posts. Your willingness to share is inspiring. The quality of your ideas and the information you bring to us all is simply fantastic. I'm not looking to gather compliments in return, please don't go there. I just want to take a moment and express these thoughts. Your thoughts and information you bring to this blog are always welcome, always.

Today is a good day to be Reader Appreciation Day!

What else can I say but thank you!

Here's something for you. It's what you remind me of, many beautiful roses in my garden. This is an image I took last June. Thanks for "sitting on the bench" and chatting awhile. Visit me anytime!

This just in...New York Times' Sunday magazine, "The Green Issue" is here:

Please take a look and register if you need to, it's worth it.

I was all set to blog about green kitchen design theory today, but Maureen, my assistant, took home a bunch of green kitchen information this weekend (on her own, just wanted to read up on it, isn't that great?) and I can't find what I'm looking for. You'll meet Maureen soon, I'm sure. Maureen brings her own container of water to work every day (yes, don't worry, I give her more water if she wants it during the day. No, I DO.) We talk about environmental issues here and there, and Maureen brings a lot of good green living insight into our company. SO, till then, I'll show you some green, or healthy living, products I saw at KBIS.

Rohl has a new triflow faucet, which offers hot, cold, and filtered water from a single faucet, offering consumers a healthy alternative and a more green alternative than drinking tap water or wasting water bottles. The faucet has a dedicated filtered waterway with no risk of contamination. The filtration system sits under the sink and produces water that tastes good.

Staron Surfaces (by Samsung) has added ten new colors to the line for 2008, but the most exciting news is the Greenguard certification Staron has just earned for their countertop products. The certification covers the full range of products by Staron. Here is one of the new colors, called Sonoma, from the Tempest line, new for 2008.

Did I tell you browns were everywhere? Well, take a look at this product. It's brown AND green. Kichler introduces new LED cabinet light fixture. It's energy efficient, lasts, oh, 40,000 hours or so, emitting a soft, white light. It is for use under wall cabinets, as task lighting, and it comes in a variety of sizes. It also has a very low profile, about 1/2" thick. How about a lifetime warranty and a snap together installation? And it also comes in nickel and white, as well as bronze. You're welcome in advance for this one!

That's it for the moment...I have tons of work to do! Enjoy the weekend! 

Quick note...as the weather warms...it's 73 degrees and not even 11 am(!) I like to lighten up the blog...so here is a fresh, crisp, change, along with some small new images just below the main image. It feels like summer already to me!

Here is the other Sub Zero booth from the 2008 KBIS show last week, by Bill Draper, of Draper DBS. Bill Draper shares his, always unique, always interesting, vision, creating a mix of materials, a fusion of smoothness, texture, shine, shimmer, waves, and grids in a simple, yet strong, kitchen design.

There is movement in this kitchen...it's in the "wave" drawer fronts, the rounded, amazing, Sub Zero pieces, made as one, the "moving" glass features, even the carved artwork of 3 people in slight movement. The colors are clear and warm, and the lines are strong. Bill Draper's designs for Sub Zero always delight the senses. We, in the biz, KNOW it will be something special if Bill Draper is attached to a project. His cabinetry is wonderful, and he has a policy that his factory will create anything buildable...just go ahead and dream...

Take a look at the Flikr slide show...it's a quick one, only 7 images.

UPDATE: I had a request to see the drawer fronts on this project. I did not focus on them, so they are not as sharp as they could be, but it's not bad.

Not a crisis, it sounds so dramatic, but a period of transition, yes...honestly...as a kitchen designer, that is. I'm no longer so concerned with the kitchen triangle, and haven't been for awhile. For the most part, the kitchen triangle is fading away in relevance. Why? Because of several things:

• a client's increased confidence in expressing one's preferred work habits (a good thing)
• the introduction of so many different shapes, sizes, and types of appliances in response
• designing multiple work stations into a kitchen
• multi generations cooking together as fun rather than as a task
• the kitchen becoming even more the center of the home, attracting people like ants to a picnic

But, it's funny, the thing that is really making me totally rethink the kitchen is its role as a social place. We've all read the magazines talking about the kitchen as the "gathering place." We've heard that for years, and there is the island with a few stools, etc. etc.

But, my eyes have been opened even further, since last August after having visited the Hansen showroom in Copenhagen and speaking often, since then, with Knud Kapper, architect behind Hansen, and his team. I now find myself thinking far more about social interaction in the kitchen design phase, putting its importance right up there with other functional issues as well as aesthetics, which they do at Hansen, and in a big way. There is more to this philosophy, but, as you know, I will go on forever if I say much more. This kitchen is not, in total concept, the "Hansen way" but an interpretation.

Here's the point for today. Remember this kitchen I told you about? I found myself designing in more opportunities for social interaction, with the occasional traditional thinking thrown into other plans, which many people enjoy. Today, I met with my client, and this is the plan she chose, just below. It was my favorite, but I'm not always asked what my favorite plan is, and do not offer it unless asked. It's subjective, after all.

Every plan has its pros and cons, and this is no exception. In fact, the social kitchen, often with large and/or multiple islands, does sacrifice storage. That's the way it often is. But, the critical question...do you really need all that stuff? In this case, we reclaimed a large wall just off the kitchen for needed storage space. At this preliminary point, it's all about shapes, forms, aisles, and appliance locations, really nothing more. There were others, but these are most of them. In one case, not shown, I put the cooktop in the bay and took out the rear window to have the sink closer to the cooktop in a different plan. Remember, function, social, aesthetics, the order of each is yours to define!

 
FIRST, a big WOW to being named blog of the week by none other than The Washington Post! My blogging buddy, Joni, from Cote de Texas told me the news. The other blog pick of the week was So Haute, a good find. Back to you...

For those of you way too young to remember this movie, if not a mad world, it was a mod one at KBIS. Here are some examples, certainly not all, and to see the brand, roll your mouse over the image. MUCH more KBIS to come (this is nothing!) We haven't even seen kitchens yet!