Michael Holigan: Welcome to Your New House. You know which room is used more in the home than any other? Well, if you guessed the kitchen, you're right. If you'd like to design the kitchen of your dreams, you're in for a treat, because we're gonna have some professional designers showing us the latest trends in kitchen design.
Al Carrell: So what's cooking in the kitchen, Michael? What are the new trends that are sweeping the country? I know one thing for sure, dressing up kitchen cabinetry is real hot right now.
M.H.: That's right Al. In this case, we've taken normal kitchen drawers, we've added a divider, and either an acrylic or glass front, and now we have a seed bin. You can add seed, popcorn, nuts, anything you like, and it's really now the center focal point of the whole kitchen.
A.C.: Hey, Michael, that was really great! You know, folks, you can get beans, rice, pasta and popcorn at any grocery store and some of them come in a lot of different colors. It really does look great, but it may not be right for all parts of the country. For example, if you live in a humid climate, like Savannah, let's say, you might find that these beans would start to mold before long, so you might plan on changing them out pretty often. But that might not bad, it might be fun.
M.H.: This is just one of the hot trends we wanted to show you this week. We have kitchens of all different sizes and price ranges. So let's see what's hot. Let's get started. Our first kitchen is a fairly small, easy and inexpensive project. The home owner wanted to update an older kitchen and create a more family friendly environment. The biggest part of the project was replacing the old tile countertops with stainless steel. Stainless steel is considered the new neutral, so it wont look dated for years to come. And it fits well in contemporary settings as well as with rustic or painted wood finishes. Russell Buchanan is the designer who handled this project. Notice the little extras hes added along the way. You can use some or all of these ideas in your project. Stainless steel tops look great. What are some of the advantages?
Russell Buchanan: Stainless steel has a lot of advantages. Were starting to see it used more and more in residential applications. One of the things that we like about it is that you can take an item thats been heated and go directly off of the flame to the countertop without hurting the countertop.
M.H.: Russell, what do you use the floor to ceiling cabinets for?
R.B.: The cabinets here are for a full sized pantry, which is great for us. We use it as a, you know, just a part of the kitchen cabinetry. And it gives us ready access to all the pantry items.
M.H.: Look at the size of this drawer. Why so big?
R.B.: As opposed to a cabinet that you have to get down and look into, the drawer offers you the ability to look down into the cabinet for, or the drawer I should say, for accessing any of the pots and pans. So were seeing this more often as a storage component in kitchens nowadays.
M.H.: What other changes are people making on the cabinets?
R.B.: Sometimes we have specialty items, like tray storage, which is very convenient, and instead of stacking them, you can organize them vertically.
M.H.: Whats this big drawer over here by the sink?
R.B.: This is the garbage or recycling bin, which is, you know, treated as a drawer. Were able to store our garbage bin or our recycling bin right here next to the cleaning area.
M.H.: Builders are starting to get credit from most of the utility companies now for recycling if they have something like this built in to their house.
R.B.: Thats correct.
M.H.: This is quite a deep sink next to it. Why is that?
R.B.: The reason for this is two fold. One is that when you have a deeper sink, youre allowed to put dishes in there without really noticing that the dishes are being stored here. The other thing is, we use it as a soaking sink, which takes a lot of pressure off of our dishwasher. If you allow those dishes to soak for awhile, it really helps.
M.H.: What other trends do you see coming up in kitchens?
R.B.: No longer do we have sort of a kitchen with a separate breakfast room area. Its all one big area. Its a place for Mom and Dad and the kids to hang out and cook together, play together and enjoy a kitchen atmosphere.
M.H.: Americans spend over one billion dollars a year remodeling their kitchen. Why? Because its the number one area in the house that you use. Two, it raises the value of your home whenever you want to resell the home. Now this is a seventy year old home and it looks great, and thats because Mike and Laurie spent a lot of time remodeling it. Now Ive got to ask, why did you even start? It had to be a major project.
Laurie Murray: Well, it was, but we really wanted to take our 1920 kitchen and open it up, make it a little bigger. We took out a wall with an archway that closed off those windows there, so we wanted to open that up and let the light in.
M.H.: Laurie, you obviously did a lot of work with the cabinets and the countertops. Can you tell us a little bit about it?
L.M.: Yes. What we did was, we rebuilt these countertops. They were originally a green laminate, so we rebuilt countertops.
M.H.: And I noticed you even did your back splash, not a four inch back splash, but all the way up to the cabinets with Terrazzo.
L.M.: Right, we did. Its real easy to clean, easy maintenance, so we just went ahead and did that rather than tile with grout and that.
M.H.: I like the accent piece here, where you tied it in to the cabinet itself.
L.M.: Yeah. We liked that. We liked the black with the mother of pearl, so we added a little vertical piece there, for design. In this corner cabinet we ordered this piece to go in here, so I could get to all my pots and pans easily.
M.H.: Wow! It pulls way out.
L.M.: Yeah, it pulls all the way out. I can get to everything. Its been great. And then on this side, wide heavier pots and pans, we did a similar thing here. And this drawer pulls all the way out.
M.H.: Well, this is original, and this is new, and they look almost identical. How did you get them matched up so well?
L.M.: Well, we gave them one of our doors and asked them to match the profile on the exterior here.
M.H.: Well, the new cabinets and the old cabinets look great together. Its a perfect job. Mike, the island is normally the center focal point of most kitchens, this one looks great. Tell me, it didnt come standard, did it?
Mike Murray: No, it didnt come standard. When we bought the house, the kitchen was a little narrow. We bumped this wall back out so we could get a focal point and that being the island. We were looking for a butcher block island and we happened to find this at a garage sale. It was an outdoor potting table. It was eight feet long and what we did is we sized it down for the dimensions that we had after we put the cabinets in.
M.H.: Laurie, the cooking area looks great, but Mike said it wasnt standard. There used to be a wall here?
L.M.: Yes, there was a wall right here. We took the wall out and put a header in above so we could push out and get the alcove here, cause this stove is something that I really wanted. I like to cook so I wanted an industrial size stove.
M.H.: Yeah, thats a commercial stove, isnt it?
L.M.: Yeah, it sure is. It really is. Its been a great stove. Love it.
M.H.: Big exhaust vent also. Do you ever lose any pots and pans with that much exhaust?
L.M.: No I havent lost anything yet to that.
M.H.: Okay. How about the tile. That seems like a very smart idea with things popping off the stove.
L.M.: It was. Yeah, I think it really was. Its real easy to clean, easy maintenance on that.
M.H.: Yeah. And what kind of price are you looking at on this remodel. Dont add in the appliances, but just generally? What ballpark?
L.M.: Well, it was about $7,500.
M.H.: Yeah. Well, thats a great price. Im sure the homes worth a lot more than $7,500 extra now. Yall did a perfect job.
L.M.: Well thanks.
A.C.: Those kitchens looked really great. Now if youre getting ready to launch a kitchen design project, heres some tips thatll help you keep the budget in line. First, know what the dimensions of stock cabinets are and design your kitchen around those. A custom cabinet could throw your budget quickly out of whack. When buying appliances, dont over buy. A refrigerator with too large a freezer is gonna cost you more to purchase and to operate. And buy everything at once. This may qualify you for a builders discount. Look for deals at appliance center outlet stores. Many of the same high quality appliances are available at significantly lower prices. Coming up later, were gonna tour a kitchen thats out of this world. Its a high end, high tech kitchen, but with lots of little ideas that you can use in your home.
Episode 27 1996 - 97 Season
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