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Kitchen Counters | High-Tech Solid Surfaces Make Maintenance Easy

Solid-surface countertops are the stuff of George Jetson, in which high-tech plastics can be heat sculpted into any imagined shape. These modern surfaces take on many appearances, including stone, yet shed the shortcomings of their counterparts with a nonporous surface that doesn’t age or develop a patina. In this cutting-edge countertop right for your kitchen? Read on to learn more.

Photo: Wilsonart Solid Surface in Bedrock

The basics: solid-surface counters are a blend of acrylic or polyester resins, powdered fillers and pigments, cast into slab. There are many manufacturers of these synthetic counters, including Corian, HIMACS, Wilsonart, Formica, LivingStone, and more.

Cost: $50 to $100 per square foot installed.

Advantages: solid surface is durable nonporous, making it resistant to stains, mildew and bacteria. Its unique composition makes buffing out scratches a breeze and provides that appearance of a seamless installation, including for integral backsplashes. This product outshines its competitors with an ability to be thermoformed into unusual shapes and configurations.

Disadvantages: its resin-based composition makes this counter material sensitive to heat and vulnerable to scratches. As with many countertops, keep your trivets and cutting boards handy.

Sustainability: many solid-surface manufacturers tout GreenGuard‘s approval, which certifies that due to the nonporous surface and low chemical emissions, the countertop contributes to healthy indoor air quality.

The ecological shortcoming of these products is their composition, which comes from finite, nonrenewable resources, including petroleum and aluminum trihydrate (ATH), which is strip mined. Choosing a solid-surface product with recycled content, can reduce the negative environmental impact.

Maintenance: soapy water will suffice for everyday spiffing up of this easy-to-clean surface. However, it’s essential to dry the surface completely after cleaning or spills, as wet counters can lead to a dull or uneven, blotchy finish.

Special considerations: acrylic solid surface is more pliable, whereas its polyester-based counterparts claim a deeper coloration. Dark colors will show more fingerprints.

The Four Things Home Buyers Really Want in Kitchen Cabinetry

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A great kitchen design can dramatically increase your property value – if you want to attract prospective buyers, your kitchen  is the perfect place to invest money. The trick is to get it to appeal to the majority of people by spending your money on what most of them really want.

Kitchen cabinetry can do much to attract the right buyers. There are four key factors to consider:

  1. Quality
  2. Symmetry
  3. Color
  4. Layout

If you can get these key elements right with your cabinetry, you’re bound to have a higher home value.

Quality

The number of cabinets you have is not as important as the quality of the cabinetry. The fewer cabinets you add to your kitchen renovation, the less expensive it will be. Choose quality over quantity.

DO: choose quality hinges and runners, including soft-close drawers and custom made cabinetry.

DON’T: go for large fillers and ill-fitted modular cabinetry.

Keep the cost down by keeping the cabinet count down. Design the kitchen layout to keep it light, bright and with an open plan, without using tons of cabinets. 

Note: Excessive internal organizers aren’t essential if you are planning on reselling your home. They are wonderful in adding value to your personal use of the kitchen but are not always a wise choice if you are renovating purely to sell. Internal drawer and cabinet fit-outs are often expensive, and the extra money you spend on these accessories may not come back to you when you’re selling your property.

Symmetry

The eye is naturally drawn to appreciate symmetry and repetition. When you’re renovating to sell, keep your kitchen cabinetry simple and appealing. Elegance has a way of being understated, and simplicity is key when you are trying to appeal to the majority of buyers.

DO: keep the wall cabinetry sizes the same where possible. Drawers look nice when they are large and expansive – if you have multiple sets, keep them the same size, with the same proportion of drawers.

DON’T: add multiple cabinets in varying sizes, try to keep the look and feel consistent in the whole space.

Light, Bright Spaces

Many buyers want an open, light and airy space. A kitchen that is white makes the space feel bigger. White is also a universally appealing color and leaves a blank slate so buyers can re-envision the space.

DO: keep the space open, bright and light with white cabinetry. If you want some contrast, go for a darker bench top. Backsplahes should be kept fairly neutral too – try to introduce texture instead of color into the backsplash. The more neutral and elegant the space is, the more potential buyers you will attract.

DON’T: use darker-color cabinetry which can make the space feel closed. While adding a strong color may suit your taste, it may not be to everybody’s liking. You want to attract as many potential buyers as possible, and while white may not be the most daring color for your cabinetry, it’s the most popular. 

An Open Layout

Designing your kitchen to have a sensible and open layout is pivotal to increasing property value when you’re renovating to sell. The trend is moving toward open-plan living and multifunctional spaces. 

DO: have a large open-plan space with a kitchen island if possible. Buyers often want to multi-task in the kitchen. They want to cook, have their kids do their homework and socialize in it.

DON’T: place your kitchen in a small and poky room, the kitchen is now often the hub of the house and buyers want to see a kitchen that is interactive and sociable.

The Great Room Evolves

Eight new residential design trends turned heads at the annual Best in American Living Awards (BALA), presented by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) at the 2012 International Builder’s Show. One of the most-buzzed-about was a changing approach to “the family triangle.” The term refers to the three activities and spaces that generally draw families together: cooking (kitchen), eating (dining room), and relaxation (living/family/great room). The latest approach creates spaces that link these activities, as a traditional great room would, while also allowing private nooks. 

The family triangle continues the movement away from formal, compartmentalized space toward more open living. One of the judges, Heather McCune, Marketing Director for Bassenian Lagoni Architects of Newport Beach, CA, said demand for such spaces is strong across all buyer profiles, in all regions of the country.


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Photo: Bassenian Lagoni Architects

More than a Big Room

But the family triangle is more than just a big room. It modifies the conventional open floor plan by including “different areas for different tasks and levels of comfort,” says Amy Martino, principal of Building Site Synergy, an architectural firm in Media, PA. “It should be able to accommodate large groups, but should also feel comfortable if just one person is in the room.” For instances, eliminating the living room and adding a flex space or den near the kitchen and family room allows for privacy when needed, but let’s family members in different parts of the space easily interact with one another.

McCune isn’t surprised at this trend. In fact, she sees adaptable spaces as a sign of the times. “We’re looking to shrink the home’s overall footprint, while allocating space in the home so it lives bigger. It seem natural in a post-recessionary period.”

Emphasizing the Practical

To help the home live bigger, a plan that emphasizes the family triangle will eliminate spaces that aren’t needed and more practical touches to spaces that are. Case in point: don’t count on hallways sticking around. “The spaces that people never use are gone.” says McCune. 

What you’re more likely to see is a kitchen island with lots of convenient storage and an island sink that faces the living space. The expansive island provides useful workspace for one or more cooks, while also creating a “safe zone” that separates the cook from children and guests. When no one is cooking, the island can also serve as a place to study or work on a project. Incorporating varying counter heights makes the island comfortable for family members and guests of different ages, heights and levels of ability. 

A nearly universal element of the family triangle? “Some kind of kitchen command center,” says McCune. Often a small dedicated desk area works as a place for bill paying or where children can do homework.

Defining Spaces

One challenge when designing a family triangle revolves around how to create small pockets of relative privacy in the midst of all that space. According to Martino, designers use architectural elements like ceiling treatments, columns and softfits to create distinct zones for reading, working or simply relaxing, while also retaining the openness of the overall space. 

Lighting plays an extremely important role, too. Different levels of lighting with dimmers can accommodate different tasks and completely change the room’s ambience. Layered lighting – overhead, sconces, accent lighting, task lighting, and specialty lighting such as a chandelier or colorful pendant – can be adjusted, used separately, or as a group to create a sense of place within the space. 

Planning Multicook Kitchens

There Are Ways to Accommodate Multiple Cooks Without Causing Accidents


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Pictured Above: This kitchen has a third prep area visible beyond the island with access to the prep sink, microwave and island.We have been crowding into kitchens to enjoy the camaraderie of friends and family since house parties were invented. Candice Olson, in the the introduction to her book, Candice Olson Kitchens and Baths, puts it this way: “Today’s kitchen is all about a well-planned space that makes cooking a completely interactive experience between family and friends.”

Regardless of a kitchen’s size, there are ways we can modify spaces to encourage socializing and helping.

Average – to smaller – sized kitchens can be enhanced by incorporating a pass-through opening into the kitchen. An extended counter will encourage conversation and can hold hors d’oeuvres. A slight adjustment in the positioning of the available counter space adjacent to the sink or cooking surface could provide enough space to act as a secondary prep area.

Duality or redundancy of appliances can be beneficial in medium to large kitchens by creating additional activity centers. Still, each work center should have its own work triangle if possible. The primary work triangle is defined by the large refrigerator, corner sink/cleanup area and the range top. Microwaves, drawer dishwashers and refrigerators can anchor the work triangle along with a hospitality sink. Sharing a major appliance also works well as long as individual work triangles do not cross paths.

Islands and opposing countertops should be a minimum of 48-inches apart to allow for crossing traffic. The perfectly designed multicook kitchen will have very few occasions when preparers would need to cross paths. However, this minimum spacing will accommodate persons crossing paths while carrying plates or trays. 

Avoid positioning major appliances directly across a walkway from each other. A secondary sink should be far enough from the primary sink so it defines a discrete work center, and the addition of an under-counter refrigerator and the extra countertop space it provides will make an excellent salad or baking prep area. 

Not all multicook kitchens will be this inclusive while some might duplicate each appliance – specifically, an additional cooking surface. Two-burner cooktops, fastcook ovens, steam ovens or another secondary device might be incorporated. 

Summer Design Tips


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Summer Design

Summer is the most practical time to do construction on your kitchen. While doing an aesthetic design, do NOT forget functionality. If your kitchen does not function according to your family and your day use, then no matter how gorgeous it is you will not be satisfied. Remember one rule above all and that is the “Working Triangle.” This is the path of travel between the sink, stove and refrigerator. By making a non-obstructive path 4′-9′ long, this creates a functional way to prepare and cook meals. 

The perfect place to hang out during your kitchen construction is in the backyard or on the patio. The newest and coolest trend in all the outdoor space design is an outdoor fireplace. They are amazing for the winter or summertime seasons. 

As all Coloradans know, at night it cools down significantly to a temperature that is too cold for outdoor entertaining, even in the summer sometimes, without wearing a jacket. A fireplace is the solution to this! In those winter months sitting by the fire under the stars, having a glass of wine, is the picture perfect cozy retreat. 

Summertime Tips:

  1. Don’t forget about fun summer fabrics!

  2. Have a separate bedspread for the summer months that is made of 100% cotton and keep cooler!

  3. Dead head your plants and get more blooms later in the season!