A Peek Into the Future of Home Design

Homeowners increasingly want kitchen and bath remodels and new construction to be more environmentally friendly, intelligent, cost-effective, and efficient. “Over the last five years, design has been elevated,” says Michelle Lamb, editorial director of The Trend Curve, a trade newsletter. “Good design is an expectation, so we can go below the surface.” Products at the recent Kitchen and Bath Show in Las Vegas included those designed to make storage more accessible, such as pullout shelves. Water-saving showers, faucets, and toilets as well as recycled materials were also featured. The National Kitchen and Bath Association anticipates seeing more refrigerators with French doors and energy-efficient induction cooktops. Other things to look out for are touch-activated and other types of lift-up cabinet doors, multilayered slideouts, and organizational systems built into kitchen cabinet drawers that have slots, dividers, and pegs to hold pots and pans and gadgets. Hands-free sensing faucets or those that respond to touch are also expected to become more prevalent. Bidets are also becoming popular among environmentalists who like their paper-saving abilities. All-in-one bidet models are costly, but seats are also available that can be retrofitted for hundreds of dollars instead of thousands. | Read More