Heart ■

OF THE

HOME

BY LISA BRODY

f you're anything like me, your
real living room has a range in-
stead of an armchair, counters
instead of end tables, and a kit-
chen table instead of a couch.
I live in my kitchen. When friends
come over, we always end up there
over a cup of coffee, and I can never
get my hors d'oeuvres all the way to
the living room for dinner parties. In-
stead, everyone crowds around my

in luck. There are more options
available than ever before at a varie-
ty of price levels. Remodeling a kit-
chen is a big job, and includes pro-
fessional planning, plumbing, plaster-
ing, electrical work, and the installa-
tion of new cabinets, countertops and
appliances. However, experts say,
returns on this investment are high
75 to 90 percent of the remodeling
project's cost.

Photo by Laszlo Regos

peninsula counter, munching, talking,
laughing. And then there are the kids.
With lots of little feet pounding and
climbing, searching for goodies and
spilling them, I need a kitchen that
holds up well under pressure.
Judging from the kitchen renovation
boom occurring around the country,
my kitchen-centered household is
hardly unique. Trisha Callas, associate
editor of Bon Appetit, says "The kit-
chen is the heart of every home. At
parties, people usually end up there,
chatting with the cook, sipping wine
or peeking into pots and pans." Ac-
cording to the National Kitchen and
Bath Association (NKBA), a trade as-
sociation, 5.4 million kitchens were
built or remodeled in 1989. For 1990,
they're expecting 5.9 million kitchens,
of which 76 percent will be
remodeled.
If you are building a new house, or
ready to remodel your kitchen, you're

8

HOME

Around the country, the trend
points to large kitchens in both new
and remodeled homes. Glen Fisher,
a remodeling contractor with G.
Fisher Construction in Farmington
Hills, Michigan, states that, "If peo-
ple are adding anything in terms of
space, it tends to be in the kitchen.
Most kitchen renovations require
taking down walls, extending the
rooms, knocking out closets and com-
bining many kitchens with family/ liv-
ing areas.
New homes, and many remodeled
ones, feature sitting areas where peo-
ple can relax and socialize. If space
allows, breakfast nook tables share
the area. A popular look in big kit-
chens today are islands to which you
can pull up chairs or stools, and which
offer a more casual eating area than
the table.
Another trend is to bring more
natural light into the kitchen via sky-

lights as well as greenhouse and
clerestory windows.
Kitchen styles are moving to tradi-
tional wood looks. According to an
NKBA survey, 71 percent of kitchens
are traditional, 20 percent are con-
temporary, and 7 percent are coun-
try. Both the East and West Coasts
have slightly higher percentages of
contemporary kitchens. In cabinets,
a full 87 percent
of new cabinets
are wood, and 11
percent are plas-
tic laminate.
toucn oir crag,
We are defi-
to a sleek
nitely seeing a
kitchen with
thrust towards
open floor
traditional styles,"
Photo by
Balthazar Korab. says Ilene Silbert,
Left: In a
an East coast
modern bla,
designer. "And
and-white
we're selling more
wood cabinets.
island combin...
Many of the kitch-
rtrortnIrnfinn 9n,
ens we're putting
in are white; ei-
ther painted white
wood, pickled
wood or white
laminates."
—
Cabinets
whether wood or laminate, traditional
or contemporary — have a European
flavor. European hinges are extremely
popular, creating a sleek, continuous
line. Laminates tend to follow the
high-tech, unadorned style of Leicht
and Allmilmo cabinets, both produc-
ed in Germany. And if people choose
laminates over wood, they tend to
have a high-gloss finish.
Judi Jaffee, owner of Perspectives in
Laminate, Inc., in Troy, Michigan,
designs, manufactures and installs
cabinetry of all finishes. She is cur-
rently installing lots of floor to ceil-
ing cabinets, expecially in kitchens
with ten-foot or cathedral ceilings,
and underlighting them. A new look
for either style kitchen is vertical
stacks of drawers lying next to full
cabinet doors, and lots of very large
drawers for pots and pans. And while
some upper cabinets still have touch
latches, she is getting requests for

