Kelly's Kitchen Sync

What does a designer really do?

(Credit: fromthefloorsup)

In lieu of actual content (because I'm running to keep up with my excited clients!), allow me to direct you to the blog of the talented Shannon Bilby of fromthefloorsup. She grilled me* was curious enough to ask some thoughtful questions, such as:

• what a Certified Master Kitchen and Bath Designer is
• what trends I'm seeing
• the one common mistake consumers make when planning a kitchen or bathroom

If you're so inclined, you may find the answers at her blog (along with the photo of one of my bathrooms) here.

*If you're a new reader, I'm joking. Keeps the blood pressure down.

LED lighting: the next wave?

I came across this interesting interview from Consumer Reports. 10 Questions for Nadarajah Narendran, Ph.D., Lighting Researcher.

Basically, he's saying everything that I've been saying for the past year, but he's got a Ph.D. and I don't. (Bitter? Who, me? Noooo.)  LED is greener, better for recycling, dimming, energy efficiency, but it's not quite there yet.

In the beginning of LED lighting, I attended seminars where the manufacturer's reps held a light meter under the LED pendants to prove they had the same output as a fluorescent. That would have worked, if I hadn't already known that LED lighting doesn't spread like fluorescent - it's directional. That's the biggest challenge with it and why you see current technology with reflection applications.

Too, they're expensive and even though they'll save on wattage and energy down the road, that initial output of dollars for them doesn't quite sway homeowners quite yet. They'll come down in price as demand grows.

In the meantime, CFLs (compact fluorescent bulbs) have improved and I tend to be sticky as to their color output - I like a 2700K bulb which gives a nice light, but let's face it: they're not incandescent warm.

Manufacturers are also hard at work on improving incandescents as well.

In the meantime, check out the article, if you're so inclined. It's quite interesting...

Refrigerator hinges

Someone wandered into the showroom last week with a fairly common problem that I thought would be a good tip to share with you. He bought a new refrigerator which didn't fit under the existing wall cabinet.

This isn't uncommon. Many of the refrigerators that were 68" high a decade ago are now 71"-72" high. The newer refrigerators simply don't fit under the existing wall cabinets.

This is important, because it's exactly what happened. This is what hurts: he'd thought of this already, and being clever, purchased and installed a new, higher wall cabinet.

Small problem: in his calculations, he'd forgotten to include the refrigerator hinge. The height of the refrigerator was 71"; with the hinge, it was 71-3/4". (I won't get into the calculations here for other professionals who are going to say, "But wait. That still works!" Nope. Didn't work in this case. Old house, odd-size cabinets. *grin*)   The opening was undersized and he was coming in, understandably frustrated, to purchase a new cabinet.

Don't let this happen to you. It's especially important if the cabinet above the refrigerator is 24" or deeper (it doesn't pertain so much to a 12" deep cabinet -the refrigerator hinge usually clears. I haven't heard of someone opening a 12" cabinet door and hitting the hinge, but it would depend on the cabinet style.)

Here's three details to watch for:

A reader asks...about pendant lighting

I am in the process of deciding on my kitchen lighting.I have a peninsula with an induction 36" cooktop. What type of lighting do you suggest? For simplicity, an architect said just to go with recessed lighting.

How about pendants? How many, what kind with what bulbs?

I also have another bar/peninsula with seating and a small sink I'd like to use with pendants. Is it possible to have it in both areas of this 14X14 kitchen area?

Help!! I'm so tired of these details and don't know who to ask at this point.

Thanks, Gayle

Hi Gayle,

I joke with my clients that there comes a point in the design progress where I feel like the coach in the corner of the boxing ring cajoling my clients to step out into the ring just one more time.  Deep breaths, come on, you can do it! *grin*

First off, your architect is right; it is indeed simpler having recessed lights for a number of reasons:

• recessed cans take far less planning (where can they be installed where someone won't bump his or her head?)
• installing time (what height should the electrician rewire the cord at?)
• they can be obstructive to some folks whose heads are at the same level as the shades

However, having said all that, if you want a nice design element, there's nothing as attractive as pendant lighting. In this case, you're looking for mini-pendants which have shade sizes from 3" to 8" in circumference.

Let's take a look at what may hopefully help you:

The design bonus of Twitter

Quick post because I'm running today, but I want to point out to my gentle readers the Twitter postings in the right column. Many of you might have heard what Twitter is, which is simply real-time posting in under 140 characters.

How it benefits both of us is that there's some wonderful industry leaders, manufacturers, builders, architects, and designers in the Twitter-verse (I'm still new; I can't say that without smirking) who share some pretty valuable information as it happens, whether it's latest products or designs or discussions on the economy as seen from the design field. That's pretty exciting; I stay on top of my field and I can share it with you.

My client work has picked up significantly and I'm not sure whether I'll be able to maintain the post-every-two-days schedule, so in the meantime,here's some little tips for translating Twitter posts:

RT is a re-tweet. This means someone has posted a bit of news and I'm passing it along.

@(name) The name of the company or person who originally tweeted the information. An example: RT @saintpetepaul  means Paul Anater from Kitchen and Residential Design saw it first.  If I use simply @saintpetepaul or any @name without the RT, it's the equivalent of me addressing the person at a crowded party.

Twitpic or http://bit.ly or http://anything are links back to pictures or reports or stories which you may find interesting.

Any comment that doesn't have someone else's name is a comment or update from me. Also, the proper address is a tweet, not a twit, like some people (me) keep calling it. *cough*  And that's it.

Speaking of Paul, he and I are still working on the idea of kitchen zones post; it's now a matter of scheduling.

Tiles that change color

Remember mood rings that were everywhere in the 1970s? No?  Me neither. *cough*  The basic premise was a stone that changed color as it reacted to body temperature.

Now imagine that for a glass tile as it reacts to room temperature.

(Photo: Moving Color)

Steampunk pendant light

Searching for some island pendants and came across this light and my first thought was, wouldn't this go well in a steampunk kitchen?

(Photo: Lighting Universe)

I'd stick a couple of them inside the sink arch, remove the flying saucers over the island, raise the center portion of the ceiling...

A twist on interior French doors

A French door, also called a French window, is a door that has multiple windows ("lights") set into it for the full length of the door. Traditional French doors are assembled from individual small pieces of glass and mullions. These doors are also known as true divided lite French doors. The decorative grille may also be superimposed on top of single pane of glass in the door. - Wikipedia

(photo: This Old House)

I'm on a door binge lately, so let's continue.

A lot of my clients refer to any glass door or double door in the home as a "French" door, but it's not really  correct. For purposes of this discussion, since it's easy, let's play with the French door idea as being any door --in this case, interior doors-- which have some variation of transparent center paneling.

Here's a few to get you thinking outside the box:

Design links

A belated Happy 4th for my American readers.

In between my work (I'm playing catch-up; it's a perfect foggy morning for it) and typical weekend errands, I thought you might enjoy the following links.

VACATION TIME

From Tiny House Blog, a site devoted exclusively to smaller homes, (who in turn, found it from Materialicious, a blog on all things housing), the Carré d’étoiles Cube from France, a solution for vacation housing for France and eventually Europe. Check out the website here. Now if we could get it on wheels...

  
(Photos: Carré d’étoiles via Tiny House)

Canada Day: West Coast kitchen style

In hono(u)r of Canada Day, I thought I might show you some of the kitchen designs from the Canadian West Coast.

From my blogroll, Arne Salvesen,CKD of useful spaces and Paradigm Kitchen Design in Vancouver, B.C.:

     

(Photos: Paradigm Kitchen Design)

• refrigerators are hidden behind panels or smaller widths
• sound speakers in the ceiling are important
• low emission standards for cabinets that meet European E1 standards (best rating with zero off-gassing. There are no similar standards in the U.S.)
• use of glass - glass tile, glass tops, glass pendants - as environmentally friendly material)

Also from Vancouver: the V6B Design Group