If you’re building your own home, one of the most fun and rewarding places to incorporate the latest home technology and styles is your kitchen. The most popular kitchen features of 2016 are more than just trendy; they incorporate elements of universal design that can significantly improve your quality of life and enable you to “age in place” in your forever home.
1. Floors
Easy on You, Easy to Manage
Stone or ceramic tile floors can be painful for your knees, back, and hips, as well as being slippery and very unforgiving in case of a fall or dropped item. Some of the most popular alternative flooring choices, including cork and bamboo, are not only better for your body but also good for the environment. Adding floor cushioning can make working in front of sinks and stoves even more comfortable. Installing radiant heat beneath new flooring makes chilly mornings more bearable. You can even link them to “smart” controls, allowing you to warm up your kitchen before you get out of bed to make the coffee.
2. Drawers
Increasing Accessibility & Functionality
Traditional kitchen layouts incorporated rows of both upper and lower cabinets. Today’s more open-style kitchens often cut down on the number of cabinets, especially upper cabinets, and utilize more drawers.
If you’ve ever stooped or strained to reach the back of a deep cabinet, you know how inaccessible they can be. Slide-out drawers inside traditional cabinets or stand-alone drawer designs can improve accessibility and allow you to easily reach everything in the entire storage space without straining, bending, crawling, stooping, or climbing a ladder. Drawer separators, double-level sliders, and other inserts help keep drawers neat and organized. Modern kitchen designs are also increasingly incorporating drawers for everything from keeping food warm to expanding freezer, refrigerator, and beverage chilling space.
Easy-slide drawers allow greater access for children and kitchen users with limited mobility, and they eliminate the frustration of sorting through stacks of pots and pans. Using non-traditional drawers to store your dishes, utensils, and plates can allow your children to independently participate in tasks like food preparation and setting the table. Improved access helps family members of all and ages easily participate in the making and sharing of meals.
3. Appliances
Safer and More Convenient
Another trend that also helps boost the safety and accessibility of your kitchen is automatic appliances, which are more affordable and more stylish than ever. Fixtures like touchless faucets and soap dispensers allow you to defend against food contamination and help kids wash up by themselves.
Induction cooktops are another innovation that can help make your kitchen safer for all ages. They eliminate the danger of gas leaks and carbon monoxide. The cooktop heats pots and pans using magnetic fields, so only the cookware gets hot, leaving the cooking surface cool and reducing the risk of fires, burns, and injury. It also helps to keep the kitchen cooler, allowing you to keep your energy bills lower. Induction cuts cooking times, offers more precise temperature control, is more energy-efficient than gas or electric cooking, and their ceramic surfaces are easy to keep clean.
4. Lighting
Task, Mood, and Ambient
Today’s kitchen lighting trends incorporate so much more than traditional bright, central light fixtures! Fewer upper cabinets and more open floor plans help give a bright and airy feel, often accented by a “statement” fixture rather than generic fluorescents. Modern designs also add abundant task and ambient lighting, including cutting-edge LED lighting technology. Ribbons of these tiny, bright lights can be used along lower toe-kicks to give your kitchen a soft (and safe!) nighttime glow or above cabinets or crown molding to make the ceiling seem higher and the room seem cozier. They also mount beautifully on the inside of glass cabinet doors to showcase your fine dinnerware or other items.
LED lighting strips are available in a variety of colors, from bright or soft white through the entire spectrum. They are extremely energy efficient, lasting an average of 50,000 hours (compared to 10,000 hours for compact fluorescent bulbs). They also emit virtually no heat, which means that they aren’t a fire hazard and won’t scorch surrounding materials.
5. Outlets
Plentiful and Convenient Power
Many kitchens don’t have power where you want it, or they have issues with overloaded circuits and breakers. A popular new trend is to increase the number and location of power outlets, which makes your kitchen safer and easier to use. Having outlets in an island can increase your workspace dramatically without having to run dangerous extension cords across walkways. Another innovative solution is to use cabinet-mountable power strips under hanging cabinets or countertops. This allows you to easily have power where you need it – no more dragging around heavy appliances or overloading convenient circuits.
Remote controls and “smart” controls that can be linked to your smartphone or touchpad can allow you to easily and efficiently manage your appliances and lighting. You can set timers for appliances, lights, and other conveniences to help keep your kitchen safer and more energy efficient.
Inspired? Call Homes by Brill home builders in Des Moines, Iowa to talk about building a new custom home for you and your family. We can help you explore these and other innovative kitchen conveniences and design a timeless home for you in the Des Moines metro area. Contact us today!
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2016 Homes by Brill home builders Des Moines Iowa
