The Home Show
Jordan & I went to the Home Show on the weekend. After our last experience, I swore that I would never go again. I was overwhelmed by the things I needed to have and left feeling somehow deficient. Was I the only woman in the world without a garbage compactor? I have never even owned a garborator or food processor. This year there was a particular building product we wanted to see and so with calm reserve and quiet resolve, we entered the world of “must-have” and survived.
I have some good news to report: the stainless-steel age is slowly evolving into an age of welcoming colours and natural materials. Thank heavens! After years of working in labs, I really didn’t need to come home to a lab-like environment. And after as many years working with Jordan in the food business, I have had enough of huge, commercial appliances. Enough sterility and professionalism; I want guests to be pleasantly surprised by my cooking prowess and not just expect it. I really don’t know what people do with six burners, two conventional ovens, a convection oven and five-million cubic feet of fridge space. If I had that much room in my fridge, I would have things growing in the back that I would never want to know about.
The most apparent direction we seem to be taking in our kitchen designs is that the kitchen is becoming the centre of the home (again). It has always seemed to be the room where we have naturally congregated. Not just because it was closer to the food, but because it used to offer the heat of the wood stove and a great table to hunker down at and have great conversations or play Monopoly. One of our greatest demands in kitchen appliances is quiet operation. This is due to the kitchen being so close to our family and entertaining space. The new dishwashers are virtually noiseless. Our own dishwasher at home is so quiet, that we are always opening it up to add something without realizing it is going. That is always a wet surprise.
Stainless steel appliances are still going to be around, but they will be tempered with colours and materials that will soften their cold tones. We may want to go back to simpler times, but we still demand the highest efficiency in our appliances. The large industrial appliances have been remodelled to suit home needs. New finishes and colours are being put on the facades so that we get the function we demand but in a more nostalgic form. Copper is showing up as the metallic finish of choice in sinks and taps. Fan hoods are no longer all commercial steel, but designer hoods, which can have a lovely European or Mediterranean feel to them.
Stand-alone pieces of furniture are often being used in place of built-ins. The kitchen island can be a workbench or harvest table, either antique or more often, just made to look old. Counter tops are being made of wood, slate and coloured concrete. Farm house sinks and reproduction stoves are also making their way into today’s kitchens. It’s lovely to think that we could all cook on an old wood stove, but I’m not prepared to go that nostalgic. We want high-tech, but in a low-tech surrounding.
Above all, the message seems clear that we want to bring the warmth of nature and natural materials into the heart of the home. Oranges and reds are mixed with blues and yellows; wood and slate with stainless steel and laminates.
Most women still want a walk-in pantry, and while open-shelving always looks great in the magazines, obviously not everyone can handle it! I am going to try open-shelving in our new house, but I know that if I really am a disaster at it, I can always add cupboard doors!
I guess we want what we have always wanted: well-functioning appliances, solid materials of good quality, simplicity and convenience. According to one report I have read (www.kitchen-bath-design.com) we seem to be heading into an era of “trend hopping.” We are capable of selecting what we personally require and like out of all trends, both past and present. You know us baby-boomers: always looking for whatever it is that will satisfy our spiritual needs.
Here’s more good news. In the future, there may be a refrigerator that can read the best-before dates. I’m not sure what it will do with this information, I’m almost afraid to imagine. Now that is putting artificial intelligence to good use.