Kelly's Kitchen Sync

How to weather kitchen trends for 2010

First of all, let me wish each one of you a happy and healthy New Year! It’s been a great year getting to know you all – I appreciate every comment, and every email even if I can’t answer them all – and have been humbled by the wonderful people I’ve been lucky to meet, both in a business and professional sense.

I’d planned to write all about the new fads/trends and what we designers are seeing coming down the line for 2010.

Then I thought about it.

I design at the higher end of residential remodeling. My clients joke that they’re only going to remodel once and they’re not planning on moving again. They pay for quality, even if it means delayed gratification. I'm also no longer in an area to be in the forefront of trends - my bedroom community of '50s - 90s homes embraces all things technologically avant-garde, yet still regards anything gold or avocado with a decided wince.

In short, I’m not the best designer for waxing excitedly about the new trends, even if I know what's coming up.

Instead, I thought we might all sit around and discuss a bit of how to keep your kitchen as ageless as possible. One of my design compatriots, Maria Killiam of the fabulous Color Me Happy mentioned a point where I literally felt resonate: “Truly, people with a lot of disposable income to spend on decorating their home(s) can afford to be more outrageous with pattern.”

Absolutely. Don't we all wish we were there? (I was thinking the disposable income, not necessarily going wild with pattern.)

That world was a lifetime ago where my clients had multiple homes and went to Italy until the work was done (or most likely, slept in their office because 80-hour workweeks were the norm in Silicon Valley); however, this is a post-dotcom world. My current clients and I weigh their options very carefully, as I'm sure you do too.

Some of you remember the first time white shag carpets and flowered wallpaper came around. The sleek flat-door cabinets that all the young things are raving about are a repeat of the 1950s and  the 1980s – we just have more options in wood and color than we did back then. I can walk into some homes and pinpoint the date by the style, which is fine if you love that period and it’s done well  (I’m thinking of you, Retro Renovation) but not so fine when you face this:

(Photo credit: Ugly House Photos)

So here's the 2010 trend:

• Streamlined – less fuss, more clean lines. Cabinet doors are simpler or slab, counters have plain edge details, and there is little-to-no crown molding. Handles are art, and cabinets are more like furniture, either two-toned (as in dark lower bases and light-colored uppers) or separate pieces.

Contemporary/Transitional: white and wood, steel and glass.

(Photo credit: Hertco Kitchen Mfg.)

Traditional: white or cream with dark wood, streamlined, simple angled molding, counter as back splash

(Photo credit: Hertco Kitchen Mfg.)

How to use it for your own kitchen

Having bowed out of the trend race, I try to apply some of the elements into a design, not all of them. If you’re going to live in the home a long time, do what you want. If you’re planning on resale in the near (5-10 year) future, you’ll have to depend on the perceived values of the homes around yours.

Secondly, where is your home? Note the colors for example. I don’t think I’d follow dark anything if a) I lived in a rainy climate like Vancouver, or b) a dusty climate like Arizona. The first would have me turning on all the lights in the home to brighten the place up (depending on layout, home style); the second would have me dusting twice a day. I hate dusting.

So what I might suggest to the client would be:

• less fussy moldings
• two-tone furniture look
• a cabinet in keeping with the architecture of the home, but not necessary as dark as the trends.

Keep “big ticket items” neutral

This is my mother’s favorite mantra. “You can always change accent pieces and paint colors,” she says. Of course, in addition to selecting great wall colors for paint, she’s also an artist who cheats by adding trompe-l’oeile  in her own home – the window and cat are the painting itself. Sorry for the photo quality; this was back in the old days before digital.

These big-ticket items include:

• Cabinets - Much as I love some of the African woods, they have some wild variation between doors and panels as they age. The painted finishes with the glazes that everyone thinks are so trendy aren’t really – they’ve been reappearing since the 1700s. 

Here you go: Pennsylvania kitchen of the early 1800s: rich wood plank floors, white cabinets, brass chandelier, wood beams, white or gray painted moldings. Standalone pieces of furniture in cherry wood or pine or oak. And, oh look – wrought iron chandelier and a two-toned kitchen table.Not much different than the last few years, is it?

Would the room change if I added a contemporary glass-and-steel table, replaced the gray shelves with a burgundy lacquer set, painted the walls gold, changed the rug and lamp? Darn tooting! (That’s a professional designer term. Use at will.)

If you keep them neutral, then you can change the rest of the elements at will.

(Photo credit: Antiques and Fine Arts)

• Flooring – Here's what I look for (your mileage may vary): lifestyle first, surrounding conditions next, and then material, and color. You live on the beach? Sand tracked in on shoes is a great scouring agent. Winter snow and springtime mud up to your shins? No matter how good the finish is on your wood floor, it's going to take a beating. Does the entire family take off their shoes in the house or are high heels and sneakers a way of life? Any and all of those factors play a part in the new floor. However, a new floor should still be installed under refrigerators, dishwashers and ranges. You may or may not be replacing baseboards, or in some cases, replacing or cutting all the door casings (and doors!) at the floor level to adjust for the new flooring -- all which may require repainting. You can't go into the kitchen until the floor is done, which may take a bit for tile flooring.

• Counters –  Perhaps not as invasive, but there’s still a domino effect which depends on your circumstances. There’s removal and re-installation of sinks, faucets and cook tops; most times the backsplash needs to be replaced as well, which means making sure that the receptacle outlets will work with the thickness of the new back splash.

While you can certainly go with purple cabinets, Lego(tm) counters, and/or 60s embossed tile in bright orange, you’re going to notice when those items fall out of fashion. Keeping all these items neutral means selecting colors that are easy to work with – no bright purple or concentric circles or wild pinstripes. If you love them, use them in your accent pieces which are listed below.

Change these instead:

• Paint
• Moldings
• Lighting
• Tile Back splash
• Cushions for seats and bar stools
• Artwork

Did I mention the reason? Cost. It’s far less expensive  to do all of the above, decide you don’t like it, and do it again without reaching the cost of, say, new cabinets. (Well, if you don’t ask me to select the light fixtures – I tend to like the fancy ones.)

What rings your kitchen design bells for the New Year?

As we wind down 2009, allow me to leave you with my favorite saying: “Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here, we should dance.” – Unknown

If you liked the above post, you might find the following of interest:

       

A shot of color                                         My 2008 predictions

Kitchen Sync: The top 5 blog posts of 2009

For those of you who celebrate, I hope you had a lovely Christmas (and a happy weekend for those of you who don’t.)

It’s a bit strange as a blogger typing away in a quiet office. I can’t judge what people like to read so most of the time I end up blogging about what interests me at the time. Much of my inspiration comes from the world around me -- something that happened in the day job, or a discussion with other industry members, or something that pushed my buttons for design. Some posts I dash off between client meetings end up gathering an avalanche of comments and private emails; some I’ve labored over for hours gather nothing but cricket chirps.

The amount of visits for these five surpassed anything else I wrote in the year in terms of comments, hits, and search engines:

#5: Refrigerator Hinges

Who knew that refrigerator hinges would be such a hot topic on Google search? But that’s how some of you found me when I posted the most overlooked feature of designing a refrigerator into a kitchen…

#4: Why Semi-Gloss Paint Was Used in Kitchens

I like the historical aspect of kitchen design. More than a few of you are aware that I like pointing out the diminishing relevance for some design "rules."  This brief history of why semi-gloss paint was used and how we no longer need it in new homes sparked an interesting discussion in the comment section.

#3: Two Designers Discuss Soft-Close Drawer Glides

I’ve been using soft-close hardware for a number of years now, which means I forget that they’re still new to some folks – not a bad thing, simply every 4th or 5th statistic on the blog search is some variation of “soft-closing glides” or “soft-close." In this post, my mother and I discuss a rarely talked about aspect of the glides – I’m a fan; she isn’t.

#2: Dishwasher vs. Floor – Avoiding a Common Mistake

From the looks of my statistics counter, approximately 20-30 people every week discover this blog post too late.“new tile won’t let dishwasher out” (That one made me laugh. Who knew tile could corral dishwashers like horses? Bad tile, no biscuit!), “can’t get dishwasher out” or simply “new floor dishwasher.”

#1: Kill the Work Triangle

Kitchen design evolves; media doesn’t. This post came about when I read an article about “the sacred work triangle” in this huge kitchen. The island blocked the pathway from the refrigerator to the sink (a big no-no) and the refrigerator was sandwiched in the center of a countertop run “in order to take advantage of the work triangle.” I snapped. So did the article – it outstripped anything I wrote in the past two years by a 3-to-1 margin.

Electrical safety tip for the holidays

(Credit: UTSA. Click for safety tips)

We were out at a home last week with our electrician and the client asked us to look at a dimmer switch that was hot to the touch. She’d replaced it twice and it was still hot, and with small children in the home, she was naturally concerned about fire.

The culprit was not one, but two chandeliers she’d replaced in the foyer and hallway, switched together. The original 1980s pendants likely had 60-watt bulbs and probably not even as many bulbs as her new pendants – we’ll never know. What we do know is that when the current homeowner replaced both chandeliers, they had 100-watt bulbs – four in one and three in the other, a total of 700-watts on the dimmer.

The dimmer had originally been rated for 600 watts.

A dimmer with a normal load should be warm but not dangerously so. It will always be a bit warm if it's doing the job it' s supposed to -- the plate behind the cover (called a heat sink) draws the heat away from the wiring and the dimmer switch itself. Overloaded the way the client first described it, it could probably have fried eggs.

Thankfully, they had replaced the 600-watt dimmer with a 1000-watt dimmer before we came: the dimmer was warm but not stove-hot. (I was taught that one should always load a dimmer to 80% of its capacity, but perhaps it’s a bit cautionary? Perhaps the electricians could chime in.)

There were 3 homes fires in the past 2 days in this area – all electrical fires, with the probable cause of holiday lights, regular lighting, and heating over-stressing the home wiring.

Although you might think the two examples aren’t related, they are..

Those of us in the residential remodeling/construction industry see a lot of truly hair-raising (literally – ouch) electrical in existing homes, everything from truly horrific wiring to frayed cords to live wires in the attic and under the floor, to overstressed outlets with 72 appliances plugged into them. (I might exaggerate a tad, but seriously? Bad idea.)

According to the U.S. Fire Administration, December is the most dangerous month for electrical fires. They have some tips here on what to watch for

Be safe.

Links:

How Stuff Works – how many items can you plug in before they catch fire?

Electrical Safety Foundation International – Holiday Safety

Happy holidays!

A very quick post today because I’m in the middle of holiday baking. The fragrance of shortbread is filling the house; it's very distracting…

For those of you who celebrate, are you ready for Christmas yet?

I had a bit of a laugh the other day I thought I’d share – a design blogger was talking about how your Christmas tree and how you decorate it both reveals and represents you and I went, “Uh-oh.”

My tree is a silk tropical thing with LED lights. See? In a pot in a raised wrought iron stand.

Hmmm….

 

But (she added hastily), it’s paired with Dickens/Edwardian homes – does that count? I should point out that the books are hand-tooled Art Nouveau from 1922 - I love the old embossed and colored covers. Yes, my home designs have styled "hills":

Probably comes as no surprise to no one that I’m more into the architecture than trees – I’m sure my poor blogger friend (wish I could find that post) is shaking her head somewhere in the blogosphere…

I apologize for the thinness of this post - I'd planned to show you a neat idea for Christmas someone had emailed me, and discovered today that all the pictures are encrypted to their website. Sorry. A blogger needs pictures, especially if they're visual like us. :)

In other news, I think that it’s going to be busy this next year. As a thought, those of you planning a spring remodel may not know that appliance manufacturers raise their prices early spring from January to March, so you might want to check with your nice appliance stores. (Well, I had to add one tip, didn’t I?)

Cookies are done. Back to the kitchen.

A reader asks: flooring for a partial remodel

Okay Kelly, I'd like your take on floors for 5 cents, that I can afford, maybe! I cannot, however, afford to replace our kitchen cabinetry...yet, but I feel completely compelled to replace the vinyl flooring. It's builder grade and hard to clean; especially 650 sq feet of it.

I've priced out tile, and the labor & install materials are triple the cost of the tile. Hardwood is more affordable, however this house already has some kind of "pre-finished, mid-toned, pseudo-hardwood" in 2 other areas, and it will not hold up in the kitchen. I'd like site finished, but to replace all the hardwood to match will cost as much as tile!

So where's the best investment for the money, new vinyl? My cabinets are oak and I'd rather have maple, but the floor is white vinyl and that must go! What ideas does Kelly have in her magic kitchen bag? Jengi

I’m actually tickled about the concept of my magic kitchen bag – my Christmas shopping isn’t done yet and I could really use the help!

White vinyl was originally a revolt started in the ‘80s against the darkdarkdark flooring that kitchens used to have, and as we all found out, it’s a bear to clean. It shows pet hair and toast crumbs, and rubber-soled shoes leave tracks on it. You wash it in the morning and it’s dirty two hours later.

The key to your question is “…I can’t afford to replace the cabinets…yet.” If you’re planning on replacing the cabinets later, then yes, vinyl is a viable choice for both cost and short-term (even if your short-term is 5 years or so.)

There are a lot of positive changes in vinyl flooring – I’ve used a tile-look vinyl for laundry rooms that I had to kneel down to scratch with my fingernail to check to see it really was vinyl. Plus it’s more forgiving on the back than a tile or even wood, and certainly less maintenance. In this case, I’m talking sheet vinyl, rather than tile vinyl. Select the right color, like the one below, and you won’t notice anything until you sweep it up.

(Credit: Armstrong)

Here’s a couple of tips:

• Watch the quality – You know the apartment grade sinks that are so thin that if you breathe, they’ll dent or mark? Yes, like that. You don’t want to go with the most inexpensive – aim for mid-grade or higher. They’re more dent-resistant against chairs and heavy items, the photo quality is better (ie. the tile or wood really looks closer to tile or wood not a blurry ‘image’).
• Watch the width of the material. You want to avoid a 6’foot wide flooring if you have a larger kitchen as you’ll have more seams.
• If you like green options. Have a look at linoleum – the old battleship linoleum is making a comeback. (The new inlays made it practically indestructible, hence the name.) In this case, you can look at either tiles or sheet goods.
• Watch the style. There was a period there where the tile look resembled old stone tiles, complete with holes and staggered crevasses. Perfect place for dirt to collect depending on the depth of the crevasses.

(Credit: Forbo)

Now I’m giving away my trade secrets:

1. Take a sample and pinch an edge with your fingernail enough to leave a dent. See how long it takes for the dent to spring back. What you want are: a) the dent to spring back, period, and b) a shorter recovery time to spring back.
2. Take a sample home. Let the dog eat on it. Sprinkle dirt on it and rub it in. See how easy it is to clean up. Place it next to a window and see if you notice toast crumbs. Remember the old stone tile look? Use a sponge and wipe over it – see how easy or hard it is to clean.

Hopefully that helps. Good luck!

The worst choice you can make in a partial kitchen remodel

Your kitchen is old. You’re looking for some way – any way-- to update it without blowing the bank account. After much thought, you decide to replace the countertop.

I hate to break it to you, but you may be wasting your money.

With very few exceptions, countertops are not transferable from one set of cabinets to the next. Most people have no idea until it's too late.

I see it all the time, more during each recession. I’m the bearer of bad news, watching the dawning realization on the faces of the people who visit me in the showroom as I explain that their old cabinets were shallower than they are today, that the heavier counters can’t be transferred (and in most cases, may break because they were fastened well), that the old cabinet layout doesn’t match anything the new stock cabinets can supply, or that the new appliances require a different installation method than your old appliances.

If your kitchen is within the last decade, the cabinets are fairly decent, and you like the layout, but you can’t stand the counters? You win – go for it. You don’t need to replace the cabinets down the road.

And, of course, if your countertop is falling apart, you may not have a choice. At least, you’ll know the options going in.

For the rest of you, here’s a checklist of things to watch before you decide on your new countertops:

Is our American past influencing our kitchen futures?

(Credit: “Migrant Mother” by Dorothea Lange, 1936)

By American, in this case, I mean North American.

A chance comment by a reader got me thinking. She was disappointed because her and her husband were very excited about their upcoming kitchen remodel and getting a lukewarm reception from family and friends because the choices were not only bold, but they weren’t entirely maintenance-free. (In the comment section here.)

In Europe, there’s not quite a fixation with keeping counters and floors stain-free, or with worrying unduly about a ding.

So, here’s where I was going with this: why are we so concerned?

Knowing what I know about generational behavior, I started thinking: could it be a throwback from the Great Depression? Hear me out.

I’ve talked before about a book, My Mother, My Self, by Nancy Friday, which influenced me to question just about everything when it comes to traditions and behaviors (and which I talked about in this post.)

For our grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-greats, there was a time when you didn’t pay on credit. Quality was important and you bought the best you could afford, which meant saving for years, or receiving a treasured hand-me-down.

Hence, the best china was saved for guests, the kids weren’t allowed to sit on the “good'” couch (remember the plastic wrap?) and so on.

After all, if it was marked, or damaged in some way, who had the money or resources to replace it? Might be hard for a Gen-Y to believe, but you didn’t expect to be able to afford another one in your lifetime.

I’m still dealing with the automatic sayings of my grandparents, who saved milk cartons and plastic bags. Why wouldn’t the resonance of not being able to replace big-ticket items not trickle down to today?

I didn’t have this same feeling in Europe. Certainly, the kids don’t swing on the lighting, but the attitude is that the home is meant to be lived in -- not to have a knee-jerk panic attack when we get a wine stain on a marble top. Life is life.

Now as the younger generation is becoming the next generation of homeowners, they don’t have this. They know products are far more readily available than their great-grandparents day. (Okay, they probably haven’t a clue what it was like for their great-grandparents, but just as the Depression-era folks would marvel at all the choices today, the younger group might marvel at the lack of choices there once was.)

It’s an intriguing thought and seems to make as much sense to me as anything else. What do you think?

What I learned on HGTVs Househunters*

(Click on cartoon to enlarge) **

Do you watch Househunters?  For those of you who don’t, here’s the premise: a potential buyer or buyers views 3 homes and selects one of them.

Here's what I learned: I'd be a lousy potential "guest", but it'd be fun, at least in my head, which led to the cartoon this morning.

I'm interested in seeing homes from all over the continent, but the reasons why someone accepts or rejects a home truly fascinates me. Sure, there are some good reasons – the rooms are too small, or the location isn’t convenient – but the main reasons for selecting or rejecting a home seem to be:

a) Outdated or wild light fixtures

b) Counter/cabinet/space (I saw one kitchen where the dishwasher was wedged against an angled corner sink and I could see the gouges in the cabinet door. Nobody noticed. Even when I was ever-so-helpfully pointing it out like they could hear me.)

c) Outdated appliances/closet doors/etc.

d) Paint colors

Dear people in the show: These things can be fixed. They should never be part of the reason for buying your home.

Choose a home with good "bones", not good "clothes"

Ironic that a designer would say that, isn't it?  But it was drilled into me at an early age to always select a well-built home, a home with good "bones" -- a strong foundation, good framing, sound structure and ignore the clothes -- the carpets, fixtures, cabinets, painting, and plumbing fixtures.

"Sure", you say, "but I have good taste. I need it to look good too." Me too, and I didn't say it'd be cheap, especially fixing a poorly designed kitchen. What I'm saying is you've never seen money drain so fast as you will in a poorly built home, where the guts and structure have been compromised. (I refer you to the movie, The Money Pit, which is clearly mislabeled as comedy. It's horror and clearly NSFW - not safe for work. That would be MY work; I can't watch it. You think I'm kidding. *winces*)

Damaged bones are rarely fixed with a quick repair; they require exploratory surgery, and a fairly intrusive fix. Plus, there's not as much joy to it. As my designer mother is fond of saying, "No one ever says, 'Oh, what a stunning glu-lam you have!' "

So when the buyer walks through the home, saying, “Oh, I really don’t like those chandeliers; they’re a dealbreaker", it surprises me.

How to spot the trouble signs

Of course it’s my day job, and I'm not a contractor, but the following checklist is ingrained into my system when I visit a client's home. Here’s what I look for:

Cracks  - above doorways, on walls, beams and ceilings. Slab floor cracks. Wood flooring bending or splitting. I'm not talking minor sheetrock cracks which are a part of earthquake country; I'm talking some fairly substantial cracks.

Doors or windows that won’t open (not simply a moisture issue, but doors with racked frames because the load-bearing beam in the ceiling cracked and the roof is in danger of coming down. True story.)

Dippy floors - I really wanted to write that, although I'm referring to the unevenness of the floors. I once lived in a home from 1906 – I feel slopes and dips by walking into a room. Laser levels are also your friend. Also I look for dips or sags above doorways, or on roofs.

Squeaks in the floor. (Okay not such a major issue and easy to fix, but if every area of the floor is squeaking…Eek.)

Water damage – Discoloration at doors or windows, under the sink(s). Sponginess around the toilet, or on shower or wet walls. (When you push against tile and it moves, this is not a good sign. Double points if it's crumbling off the walls.) Exteriors where poor sprinkler location or leaks have flooded the crawl space.

In one of the homes, the clients warned us the entire subdivision had been poorly built. Their house was on piers -- well, part of it was on piers – some of the posts hung in mid-air in the crawlspace. Fun. When we went outside to look at the kitchen area, we noticed a huge swayback in the roof which turned out to be poor framing in the attic. It was work that needed to be done and it unfortunately wa$n't cheap.

Something to at least consider if you’re planning to purchase a new home.

* Yes, I'm aware it should be HGTV's Househunters with an apostrophe. The blogging platform reads it as "I must do weird things with the title", so I left it out.

** Yes, I know. The camera shot in the final cartoon frame would have never happened, because no cameraman would ever leave his camera behind. Work with me here, t.v. buddies.

Steampunk Sunday: Iron brackets

Since iron was a large factor in turn-of-the-century design, I thought I might show you some designs for your steampunk home.

Brackets are a nice touch, whether you use them for a countertop overhang or a decorative shelf for books. What we really need for hardcore steampunk is someone to make one with sprockets, of course, but if your tastes aren’t there, have a look at some of these decorative countertop brackets. (A note: I’m not affiliated with any website – simply passing along what I find.)

Nature was a big part of Victorian/Edwardian decor, so anything with leaves, birds, flowers is a definite option. From the website Carolina Rustica:

If you shy away from curves and soft forms, and would prefer your brackets to be more industrial and/or imaginative, consider these from Fantasy Steel (Yes, they are steel and the website could use a bit of professional help, but Joseph, the craftsman, has some serious flights of fancy here. And I bet if you talked with him on a design, he’d be open to it.):

Any of these make you rethink your steampunk kitchens?

Do people tell you how you should remodel your kitchen?

Let’s face it – you’ve got a lot of research to accomplish. You think you need all the help you can get. Your friend was going to remodel her kitchen two years ago and you know she’d be a wealth of ideas. She’s thrilled to help.

This is what I see: two women enter the showroom. One’s animated. “Wow. Look at the color of this countertop! Look at the drawers! This handle’s nice, don’t you think?” The other is extremely non-committal, offering monosyllabic answers. Just as well. She can barely get a word in edgewise.

You already know who’s getting the kitchen/bath/new remodel - the quiet one.

I see this more often (and in more configurations) than you might think. My best solution is to direct the conversation to you, (sorry, friend) so I can find out what you want.

Now, I’m not saying that you have to watch all your friends and keep to yourself – far from it!

However, I've noticed over the years that there's a certain group of friends, family members, or neighbors who are frustrated homeowners. They really wanted to do their place but money, time, or the "not-this-house" scenario popped up. (Yes, the economy also contributed to this group - those who've been delaying their projects the past two years.)

They don't mean to, but there is a subconscious element that says: "Whee! I get to design and use all the information I gathered for my remodel AND I don’t even have to spend any money! How exciting! What fun!"

In other words, somebody will be living their dream. Unfortunately, it might not be you.

I’m sorry – you may think it’s an unkind thing to say, but I’ve seen it enough over the years to believe your friend(s) may not even be aware of it themselves.

So, if I may, I like to offer some early warning signs: “You should get granite: everybody has granite and it’s the best!” or “You should have this flooring. I was researching it and I’d have it in my home in a flash.”

In fact, if you hear anything with “you should” and “I would”, consider doing your own research first. Then bring them your friends in. They may have some suggestions that could be very helpful.

But, please, don’t end up with the counter you’ll hate forever because you were swayed by your single friend who had no idea how many times your kids dropped glasses on the floor. At the end of the day, you're the one living in your home, no matter how much your friends or family may visit.