Flooring is an important aspect of any kitchen, obviously for the cook, the floor will impact the cook's back after spending hours cooking. Do you have feelings about the best types of flooring to be used in a kitchen; wood vs. cork, vs. say, marble?
All of what you just mentioned is true, and especially with a big part of our population aging, the comfort is, and will continue to be a major motivator in terms of flooring selection. As a result, we are doing more wood floors as opposed to stone. My wife and I have a stone floor in our own home, and people say, well, you wear something soft on your feet, or use an area rug in the preparation zone, things such as that.
There are all kinds of ways around things. If someone has a pool coming right in off of the kitchen area, wood is not great for this type of use. Animals, big dogs that are scratching the floor, you worry about those things.
As designers we are supposed to find out everything that we can before we make recommendations. There are just great, great materials out there. We've done some great things with cork also.
De Giulio says it's the simple design elements that make a difference, like the removable cutting board pictured above.
Any novel storage solutions you may be able to share with our readers? Secret kitchen designer tips?
Even with the advent of the "Smart Home" or high tech elements, the kitchen is still a very low tech area of the home. The best ideas I think are those that are the simplest ideas.
For example, drawers in sink bases. For so long, the industry didn't do that because there is so much plumbing. But there are ways that we can use this space for storage, it's kind of always been there, it's a matter of design "searching" for areas that are underused at the moment. It's the little things that we do, sliding cutting boards that store into the countertop. It's a very simple idea and people call back and love the simplest idea that helps make their lives easier.
Making things ergonomic and accessible is important, too. We always consider the heights of people when designing. As Frank Lloyd Wright would say, the human proportion is the most important proportion to consider. It’s not sometimes the height of the room. At times people will say, well, I have 12-foot high ceilings and how high should we go with cabinets? You are still "x" tall and that is what we must take into consideration.
Could you discuss lighting for our readers?
We are working a great deal with fiber optic lighting, which allows us to change colors in a room. I travel to Europe quite often and at the Milan Kitchen Show, fiber optic lighting is being used often.
I think that LED lighting is the wave of the future. The great amount of light given off and the intensity of the light is terrific. We've used a lot of halogen lighting and still continue to because that gives you a very pure, clear light.
A kitchen often provides, probably more than any other room in the home, the chance to do some interesting things. Under-cabinet lighting is a must. Things like over-cabinet or cove lighting or lighting in the toe kicks or lighting in the floor. There are just so many opportunities with lighting to use as a design tool in a kitchen.
Lighting is a great source for design due to all the nooks and crannies that are created by the objects in a kitchen, the chance to throw different shadowing affects. I think, frankly, that we need to illuminate our ceilings more than we typically have. Just 40 downlights in a kitchen is not the way to do it.
