Some people view a kitchen like they do a high-performance car or sailboat. In others words it's their passion and they spend a lot of time in food preparation and entertainment much like any hobbyist. So, spending $50,000 dollars on a kitchen remodel does not affect them as much as it would the normal homeowner who could get 3 built for that price. They spend money others spend on hobbies for one of their own.

Other homeowners build expensive kitchens because they can. These ones have the money and they want their kitchen to reflect them ans their lifestyle. Entertaining is a big part of this lifestyle and the kitchen, being one of the central rooms of the house, is viewed as just another Bentley – beautiful as well as useful.

European Influences

The German and Italian kitchens reflect their engineering as well as their thoroughbred sports cars. Outside they are works of art, gleaming structures with lines that not only look good within the ensemble but designed to set off the other spaces in the home as well. So, a kitchen remodel might very well include other spaces in the home to maintain the continuity.

And if you look under then hood in one of these kitchens you will see the other reason that they are so popular. Like the cars the doors and drawers shut perfectly and, in many case, automatically. The range hoods are modern art, but engineered art with fans that barely whisper and draw an amazing amount of exhaust without creating hurricane-force winds.

The appliances are also whisper-quiet and extremely functioning. Dishwashers, ovens, warming drawers, plate & cup warmers, steam ovens, cooktops and built-in coffeemakers.

Mix and Match

Anther part of Europe has approached designers through the back door. This is the increase in popularity of the European country kitchen. As opposed to the chrome, glass a symmetry of designers like Pedini the style has taken a bus out to the Italian countryside to see the farm kitchens of Tuscany. The cabinet design of this type of kitchen remodel mimics expensive furniture rather than utile cupboards. They are also mix-and-match, meaning that the island may not match the main cabinets, or the upper and lower cabinets may be of a different design or color.

In addition, the countertops maybe stone - maybe granite, marble or even soapstone – or polished wood. Redwood burl or a dark walnut is popular for islands and food preparation nooks. For the bold kitchen remodel homeowners may personalize their space with concrete. This material can be colored, stained and adorned with other materials such as fossilized leaves or colored rock.

The flooring is also taking a leap back to the cracked and lined design of travertine and marble. Underfloor heating, whether electric or hydronic, makes this flooring warmer on the feet. For those who prefer a softer touch cork is making inroads. Cork is not only a renewable resource it now comes in a wide variety of deigns and colors.

Luxury Appliances

The luxury kitchen of today will be the standard kitchen of tomorrow. Even the smallest apliances are revolutionary.

1. Refrigerators:

Fridges are going through an amazing transformation. Not too long ago flat-screen TV's began showing up on models and now “smart” technologies are giving them the ability to inform you when you are short of a product or something in the fridge is reaching its expiry date. This is done via the internet to the owner's cell phone. The luxury fridges also have humidity controls to keep produce fresher, longer. In addition, the energy controls and insulation materials on the new models guarantee a they are a miser on electricity.

2. Coffee Maker:

Vacuum brewing is a great idea and some of these coffee machines brew up to twelve cups of coffee within eight minutes. In addition, this method can brew just one cup of coffee in under 45 seconds or as fast as stirring in a teaspoon of instant coffee.

3. Ovens:

Ovens can no keep your roast cool until its time to cook it then it stops being a fridge and goes into convection-oven mode. Some models have built-in microwave ovens so that a normal-size roast can be cooked in under a half-hour. And how is it controlled? Well, you can pre-program it as you would a normal stove or activate via the internet.

Luxury Appliances

Like a remote for your home entertainment system a smart panel in the kitchen can control all of your appliances and let them communicate with each other.

For example: A frozen turkey is placed in the wall oven at 8:00am and the homeowner goes to work. The oven knows that dinner is at 5:30 so it picks the optimum time to start so that the meal is ready at that time. The defrost and cooking takes under 2 hours. While it is cooking, the oven lets the other appliances know when to start so that the vegetables are done at the exact time that the turkey is perfect. When the homeowner walks through the door the meal is ready to serve and the salad – made last night – has been kept fresh and crsipy in the misting vegetable keeper in the fridge. Or: The homeowners decide to go to a restaurant with old friends. They realize that the meal is ready to go so one of them send a text message to the home whereby the oven stops the defrost cycle and keeps the turkey frozen. If the turkey has started the oven cooks it and then cools it. The other appliances are not activated.

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