I am writing this on the plane on my way back from IMM Cologne, the Living Kitchen trade fair in Cologne, Germany. I was a guest of Blanco, as were four other bloggers (Paul_Anater, Jamie Goldberg, Cheryl Clenendon and Leslie Clagett) who are also part of the Blanco Design Council. It was an AMAZING trip. Germany is rich, culturally, and visually beautiful, not to mention on top of its game, showcasing innovative kitchen design and that includes Blanco’s line of products which were exactly on the mark for today’s (interestingly, US) consumer.

So, I think the best approach might be to present my discoveries, impressions, and information in an organized way. I have just spent the last five hours of this flight sorting into categories, one by one, just around 2,360 images, taken over several partial days. THAT is a record for me!

My singular goal at any show is to size up products and displays quickly (for the most part) and be ready to shoot fast, really fast, even as I see people walking into the image I want to shoot. In a nano second, I know that [...]

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The key to integration with furniture is that the fronts of Miele appliances are flush with cabinetry surfaces and that gaps are reduced to a minimum. You can select materials and colours from Miele Design Worlds to find a range which best fits your style of interior design – deciding whether to accentuate appliances or have them blend in inconspicuously.

Ice

The characteristic trait of the Ice series is its cool appeal. With a material mix comprising aluminium, silver rear-printed glass and chrome, appliances accentuate the cool, purist design of a kitchen. An embossed chromium logo on the appliance underlines this aura of quality and value.

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Following is a further collection of my tips to hold disaster at bay as you plan your kitchen design!

1. Identify a trend: I think many of us are aware that trends are something that we see repeatedly in the marketplace. If that is the case, it is most likely that the trend could have a year attached to it down the road as the hot item of that year. When planning a kitchen, made to last for a couple of decades, take care in identifying trends. Planning several trends into your kitchen design will date the kitchen sooner than later!

2. When selecting paint colors for your kitchen, always buy small sample bottles of about 3 to 5 different shades. In my experience it is impossible to select a shade from a little paint chip. You’ll [...]

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Thom Filicia & Me

First, my interview for Amana with Thom Filicia on kitchen trends. An interviewer asked questions of Thom and me on a variety of topics. I don’t think there is anything that I disagreed with in Thom’s answers. He is quite passionate about the importance of the kitchen in today’s homes. See 2010 Trends

Here are some recent ideabooks I put together and share some tips, on Houzz: 

Where To Put The Microwave? 14 Tips Houzz- Kitchen Design, Bathroom Design and More» Home Design and Decorating Ideas: Kitchen Design · Bathroom Design · Living Room Design · Bedroom Design · Dining Room Design · Patio Design · Landscaping Design · Find Home Improvement Professionals- For Example: Los Angeles Architect · Boston Interior Designer · Chicago Contractor · San Francisco Landscaping ·

Let There Be Light! Kitchen Window Ideas Houzz- Kitchen Design, Bathroom Design and More» Home Designs and Pictures: Kitchen Design · Bathroom Design · Living Room Design · [...]

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I’d probably add one or two more things. I want to expand on my feeling about many of us wanting as much permanence or longevity in our design and products as we can get. I think that the recent recession, “The Big Recession” as I’m hearing it called, has truly been a wake-up call. I feel that there is a maturity, a sensible way of thinking, that has evolved. Where we can afford it, I feel we want quality. 

I feel that we want performance from the products we select over the long term. I definitely see that new clients seem to be more involved in the design process, more serious, and dedicated. They/you understand that this new kitchen truly may be a one time purchase, [...]

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This new 32-inch wide Jenn-Air range hood offers modern European styling married to the powerful perimetric ventilation system with 600 CFM extraction rate. The result is sleek, unobtrusive wall hood that blends innovation and elegance with superb extraction results, and looks more like a decorative picture frame than a high performance hood. The JXP5032WS Jenn-Air range hood has thin, barely visible channels that are located on the perimeter of a glass finished panel, and extract unwanted smoke, steam and cooking odours by pulling air through. The perimetric panel comes with a contemporary design of black glass with stainless steel trim or white with white trim, so these range hoods can fit with both Jenn-Air Floating Glass and Euro-Style Stainless appliance suites.

Additional style options include trim kits available in an Oiled Bronze and black aluminum finish. Other key features of this Jenn-Air range hood include 3-speed blower, concealed controls, 2 halogen lights and dishwasher-safe aluminum mesh filters. Also available in recirculating mode. Jenn-Air.

The new 42-inch French Door fully flush refrigerator from Jenn-Air belongs to the recently introduced collection of high performance built-in refrigerators that marries seamless design with thoughtful functionality. Other flush refrigerator models include 36-inch bottom-freezer and popular 42- and 48-inch side-by-side door refrigerators. The new JF42NXFXDW is the industry-first 42-inch French door bottom-freezer refrigerator offering the widest interior space available in any fully flush refrigerator currently on the market and bringing the clean, seamless and refined look to your kitchen. One of the important design features is the hidden articulated hinges that allow for minimal gaps, no larger than that of surrounding cabinetry, making the refrigerator virtually disappear in its environment. The completely integrated look of the Jenn-Air refrigerator is all about aesthetics, yet functionality and performance are not sacrificed but further enhanced. Thus, the thinner exterior door provides a flush fit with custom cabinetry for a seamless exterior, while the interior offers even greater usable cubic space than similar flush refrigerators and a faster temperature recovery time after the doors are opened. High performance vacuum insulation panels help maintain energy and keep food fresher, longer. The articulated hinge is equipped [...]

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Initially introduced in the United States in 2003 by Cook-N-Dine, the premium stainless steel, teppan cooking surfaces by CDS have been re-examined recently by the scrutinizing eyes of their inventor and patent-holder, Mr. Paul Schacht. To suit the demanding American customer even better, all built-in teppanyaki grill models have received a major technical makeover, resulting in improved heating element size, which led to almost double the actual hot cooking surface. These new models are already rolling out for the Holiday Season 2009.

The intriguing teppanyaki cooking style makes for effortless delicious, healthy eats. The secret is the intense heat of the solid 304 stainless steel surface that seals in all the juices on contact. Paired with its patented sink-down-in-the-center feature when on, a CDS teppanyaki grill can replace bulky pans and woks, and perfectly complements any traditional barbeque grill, while freeing up storage space and doubling as additional work top when not in use for cooking. Main features include:

- Worldwide patented feature: center bows down slightly when on to keep the fine juices in place; reverts back to flat when switched off - Accurate temperature control from gentle 120°F up to 430°F, even [...]

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This curvy PlusMinusZero humidifier by Naoto Fukasawa measures just 30cm in diameter and has round hole for the steam. It humidifies a standard size room working continuously for 8 hours in active mode and for up to 18 in standby. Comes with removable water tank with convenient foldable handle. You can also put few drops of your favorite aromatic oil and aroma will spread with the steam. Once the water is gone, the PlusMinusZero humidifier shuts automatically off. Available in pink, brown, beige, light blue, blue, white, green and orange for 8 USD plus shipping. PlusMinusZero.

Ultimately, almost half of those flow into its innovation pipeline, which currently numbers close to 1,000 products. On average, 100 are introduced to the marketplace. “Every month we report pipeline size measured by estimated sales, and our goal this year is billion,” says Norena. With Whirlpool’s 2008 revenue totalling .9 billion, that would mean roughly 20% of sales would be from new products.

Beginning Affresh

The process has helped Whirlpool find such innovations as Affresh, a hockey puck-shaped tablet that consumers can toss into front-loading washers for a cleaning cycle. In less than two years, Affresh, which works [...]

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