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Kiss the Cook in Your New Kitchen

© Tara Wick

Kitchens may not have hit the Jetson Age yet, but they certainly have come a long way. Gone are the days of being able to wash dishes only by hand. And who needs a kitchen table anymore? Today’s kitchens are being modernized with things such as snack islands and energy-efficient, built-in appliances.

Before installing appliances, you should begin with cabinets, hutches and the like. Furniture-type feet on cabinets, with the cabinet rails continuing down to the floor, give more of a family-room feel.

Special finishes on cabinets are popular. Many finishes involve painting the cabinet faces and then rubbing the paint off on the outside edges of the doors and cabinet faces to give them more of a weathered or a distressed look. Then a glaze is put over it, giving the cabinets an antique look.

Some of the more popular wood cabinets are made of red birch and pine. Nutmeg, purples, plums, sage greens, clays and yellows are top choices in color. The cabinets are then accented with pewter knobs.

Oversized wood hood covers are also a big trend. The covers go over vents above stoves, with the idea of hiding the metal.

When it comes to appliances, built-ins and stainless steels are very popular. Wide-by-sides, which are similar to side-by-sides, are the newest kitchen appliance to come out. The left portion a wide-by-side is almost like a bottom freezer. The freezer is wired toward the bottom so the refrigerator can actually wire toward the top. When you open it, the refrigerator door is much wider on top than on the bottom, and the freezer is just the opposite.

Wall ovens and refrigerators now have a European look. The refrigerators are contoured, and the glass on the ovens is rounded.

People are also moving toward buying 36-inch free-standing stoves rather than the standard 30-inch. That 6 inches allows more cooking space … great for serious chefs.

Sub-zeros, which are built-in refrigerators, are high on people’s appliance lists. Sub-zeros are offered in many designs. They are available in bottom mount, meaning the freezer is on the bottom and the refrigerator is on top. They come in a side-by-side configuration with the ice and water dispenser. And you can get them in an “all refrigerator” or “all freezer.” Out of those selections, the sub-zero refrigerators come in stainless steel or a framed overlay, which allows you to put a wood front on, and then you would see the framed trim kit around them.

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