The traditional “heart of the home,” the kitchen offers a lot of potential for household innovation—especially when it comes to appliances, design, and functionality. With more people working from home now and the good interest rates, now may be a great time to consider the kitchen remodel you have been dreaming of. Whether you’re looking to get rid of the visual clutter or increase your home’s efficiency, there’s bound to be a way to give your kitchen a jolt. If you’ve been thinking of renovating your kitchen but aren’t sure what to do, these hot trends may give you some ideas:
1) Eco-friendly
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’re probably aware of the way environmentally friendly products have taken the world by storm. In the kitchen, eco-friendly appliances are helping to save the earth by cutting down on water and energy usage (coincidentally, also lowering your utilities bill!). New eco-friendly dishwashers, for instance, utilize even less water than doing dishes by hand. Faucets and light fixtures also have sensors that turn on when you place something below them or walk into the room. They stay one step ahead of you.
2) Clutter Free and Hidden Storage
Built-ins are making a comeback in the kitchen as a way to hide the clutter—and they’re sleeker and more efficient than ever before. If you’re a coffeeholic, you might be interested in Scanomat’s revolutionary TopBrewer; hidden under the counter with only the spout exposed, the TopBrewer can brew tea, coffee, lattes and more via smartphone and tablet apps. If you prefer something cold, you might want to consider some built-in refrigerated cabinets by companies like Perlick, designed specifically to hold wine, beer, and soda, and dispense ice. Consider also your appliances hidden in cabinets, pull out pantries, and customized drawer systems designed especially for how you use your space.
3) Smart Design
Broken appliances can be a real bummer, especially when you come home to discover a puddle around your dishwasher. Now, with the introduction of smart appliances, your dishwasher can tell you when it’s broken and even schedule its own repair! Indeed, with a WiFi connection, the Miele dishwasher can run diagnostics on itself and monitor its performance so you don’t have to. Advanced induction cooktops are also getting smarter. A regular induction heating cooktop heats your pots and pans when they’re placed on top of induction coils. Smart cooktops, however, can calculate the exact heating specifications your pot requires and allow you to place the pot anywhere on the cooking surface. Some models also turn on using smart speach technology. Talk about convenient! But that is nothing compared to the refrigerators that not only take inventory of what you have, can order what is missing, and come up with recipes for what you currently have available… and we thought The Jetson’s was just a cartoon.
If you are looking to remodel your kitchen this year, schedule with your CW Service Pros plumbing technician to help you craft the kitchen of your dreams.