INTEGRATED KITCHEN APPLIANCES: A KITCHEN NEED NOT LOOK LIKE A KITCHEN

As you may have already concluded, we are fans of clean design. There’s beauty in a simple, uncluttered look with integrated kitchen appliances. Just like the old cliché says: Less is more.

But don’t let simplicity fool you. Often times, a plain-looking feature offers more than meets the eye.

An “ordinary” wall may open to reveal a built-in cabinet. A TV set may “magically” rise out of a counter inset. We call this integrated functionality.

The kitchen is prime location for integrated functionality

The kitchen provides fertile ground for this concept because of the purpose it serves. This is a space that needs to accommodate a laundry list of tasks and functions. Often, some of the functions compete with each other for space.

In our most-recent project, walking into the kitchen would have you thinking the homeowners never prepare food there. There’s not a single appliance in sight. The countertops hold none of the usual kitchen suspects.

But start poking around, and you’ll soon discover the secret. Everything is hidden — from the built-in cutting board, to the pullout shelves for spices, to the utensils drawer.

It’s easy to stay organized in this kitchen! Everything not only has its place but also can be easily tucked away after use.

Integrated Kitchen Appliances – Relegating appliances to appliance ‘garage’

Those built-in features, however, don’t explain the missing appliances. In this kitchen, you’ll find them tucked away in a nook — their own “garage.”

Out of sight, but not out of the way, this appliance garage is home to everything from the microwave and double ovens, to cabinets for storing blenders and other such necessities.

The function of the kitchen, thus, remains intact. The look of the space becomes, simply, an extension of the adjacent area.

Making the obvious look like it’s not

This idea of the kitchen as extension of the design is another reason we like to hide appliances, storage areas and workspaces in the kitchen. In the modern home, the kitchen is no longer a stand-alone area. Rather, it’s part of the great room.

Too often, home designers overlook the fact that being part of a great room requires the kitchen to be less obvious. To blend in.

Sounds impossible? Certainly, it’s challenging. But it can be successfully achieved by planning judiciously and following our philosophy that art and function can be one and the same.