Designer Advice for Your Home: Islands in the Kitchen?
Kitchens and dining rooms have always been popular spaces for families and to entertain guests, whether people happen to be having a meal or not.
But kitchens didn’t often evolve in the most practical way. Over the years we’ve seen the decline of pine cabinets and the rise of commercial-grade appliances, but so far as practical measures go, we haven’t seen all that many innovations. Kitchens remain very much like they did in the 1960s, perhaps with a few extra conveniences.
But tastes are changing. According to Rebekah Zaveloff, a kitchen designer, kitchens are veering away from what she calls the “great room” concept. It turns out that most people don’t want to watch TV in the same room that they cook. As a result, they’re much more in need of comfortable seating areas at breakfast that double as a hang-out space.
In practice, she says, that means installing kitchen islands with taps that boil water instantly, providing all the modern comforts that families need. She also says that most of her clients want islands to be able to double as workstations.
Zaveloff’s opinion that islands are here to stay is backed up by another designer, Lauren Coburn, owner of her own interior design agency. She says that her clients love islands, no matter whether they are renovating existing kitchens or building their own homes. They all want the same things, which means flexible furnishing, double appliances and large islands - all things that she says help to make the kitchen feel more like a family room.
Islands aren’t the only things changing in the kitchen, however.
Details Matter
Another change the designers have seen recently is the slow departure from the white cabinet mainstay. Sure, it’s still there in the background, but now high-end kitchens are swapping out the full-white look and including additional tones of dark green, blue and gray. Dining rooms have always been an opportunity to do things that are more opulent, and so now designers are being asked to mix contrasting elements of black and white, as well as different textures.
According to Alyss Beckman, a home design consultant, homeowners want more elaborate finish detailers. There’s increased demand, she says, for waterfall panels and box-mitered edges. Homeowners are also increasingly asking for natural stone to boost the appeal of their kitchen space.
Dining Rooms Are Changing
Zaveloff has noticed that dining rooms are also returning to their roots. Her clients, she says, aren’t just interested in upgrading the hallway - like in traditional family homes. Instead, they’re looking to the eighteenth century for inspiration, decorating their dining rooms in much the same way as they were in stately homes of old. We see the introduction of antique tables and chandeliers - but they’re being mixed with modern chairs and even book shelves.
Now that dining rooms have become a more open living space, Zaveloff says that her clients actually use them more. As a result, they want them to have beautiful features and to be more functional than dining rooms have been up until this point.
.