DEAR Marc:
We are gutting our kitchen and turning it into the gourmet kitchen of my dreams. I spend most of my days in the kitchen preparing breakfast, the kid’s lunches, and our family dinners, as I am a stay-at-home mom. I have been cutting out pages of gourmet kitchens from magazines and collecting all the design inspirations wherever I can. What are the must-haves for gourmet kitchens? — Helene
Dear Helene,
In today’s world, being a stay-athome mother is like managing a small hotel. It’s long hours and a lot of work. Keeping your guests happy is your No. 1 concern. Like any kitchen, you need the essentials to make your day-to-day routine run smoothly.
In order to have your day in the kitchen run smoothly, you need to ensure that your kitchen is functional. To determine your needs, write down your routine. Most homeowners have a routine, whether it’s structured or not, for example, making a pancake breakfast every Sunday. Now, look at the recipes that are part of your routine. Which areas of the current kitchen are you using to make these recipes?
Another important question is to determine whether your new kitchen will be used for baking or cooking. Most people tend to assume these are the same thing, but that’s not the case. A baker’s investment will be in the stove and an abundance of counter space. My grandmother was an amazing baker and she had the counter space to prove it. When she made cookies, it wasn’t just one sheet of cookies, but rather an entire counter filled with cookie trays. To top it off, when the cookies were baking in the oven, she would start working on her pie dough for the next day’s pie session. Her routine was set in place for mass production and her kitchen was set up to accommodate these high volumes. Behind every great chef is a great kitchen.
To make a kitchen functional, look at different kitchen hardware options. North American kitchens have been influenced by European hardware technology. Gourmet kitchens are no longer just about the esthetics, but also about their functionality. One of the hottest trends in kitchen hardware is to replace the base cabinets with drawers. Drawers are much more functional, easier to access and they come with a wide array of configurable organizational options. Hettich Canada has the best kitchen hardware on the market today. Everything within the drawer can be set in place with the use of dividers and separators, which make it great for people who need an incentive to stay organized. It’s easy to stay organized when you have the tools to do so. Any kitchen designer will be able to help you customize a kitchen layout with the use these new kitchen hardware options.
Once you have selected your kitchen hardware, now comes other innovative products. Blanco Canada has a new line of sinks called SILGRANIT®. Nobody wants a cookie-cutter kitchen anymore, so why not look at products that can be unique to your kitchen design? These sinks come in different colours and are made of 80 per cent pure granite! They are scratch- and stain-resistant. They blend perfectly with the look of a granite counter, but also make a statement when paired with alternative counter materials. You can either have the sink colour blend with your counter colour, or contrast to accentuate your beautiful sink. Either way, this is a must-have for any gourmet kitchen.
Another neat product I’ve seen appear in the design scene involves the integration of a digital back-splash. The example I saw of this product had the entire kitchen designed with the use of a neutral colours, so the homeowner could modify its colour scheme, simply by changing the digital image on the back-splash. Technology and design came together and it looked spectacular!
— Postmedia News
Marc Atiyolil is the editor-in-chief of Canadian Home Trends —Canada’s Home Decor & Lifestyle Magazine, and the host of the Marc Atiyolil Show at www.youtube.com/MarcAtiyolil.
To submit a question for Marc, visit: CanadianHomeTrends.ca.
