Functional Luxury - the Miele/SubZero Kitchen - Contest

This morning I received a question from a reader regarding the Miele Steam Oven which I promptly answered.  Just an FYI for those of you who are interested in the appliances for the Miele/Sub Zero kitchen.  There is allot I can about those appliances but it will have to wait until July.  I have submitted the kitchen in a design contest and they would prefer that I not disclose anymore information.  If you would like to send me questions by email regarding the appliances I will be happy to answer them.  Thank you for understanding.

At Home in a Hard Hat - Continued

We are nearing completion of the Leeds Habitat home in Tempe so the hard hat I was wearing during construction is no longer needed.  As usual work started early last Saturday morning, we were all present and ready to go around 6:30.  It was  hot out and landscaping was on the agenda for the day.  Desert plants in the front and rock in the back.  Remember this is a Leeds certified house so it needs to be energy and water wise.  My post: At Home in a Hard Hat shows this project in the framing stage and as you can see we have long passed that.

My task were in the interior so I didn't have to deal with the hot sun beaming on me.   I was painting and doing other task as needed.    As usual I spent some time in the kitchen.  The oak cabinets for the home were donated by Home Depot.  The cabinets are an American standard overlay door style which means  you will see more frame around the door and door knobs/handles are not required.  There is enough room to open the door with your fingers so  hardware is not as essential as a full overlay door style.  There are some nice features with these cabinets.  Each drawer  pulls out to its full extension and the doors and drawers are all soft-close which means you won't hear any sound when they are closing.  If you have someone in your family who has a tendency to slam drawers or doors, they can't do that with a soft-closing door.  I always encourage my clients to include these features in the design.  The full extension drawer option is essential for retrieving things from the back of the drawer.

Solar panels on West side



Full Extension Drawers

 Another important item in this home because it is a Leed home is the solar panel configuration on the roof.  With this pitch roof they are on the West side to obtain the best possible sun exposure for a home in this direction. 

We have a little more to do on the inside yet, but the new homeowner should be receiving the keys sometime in June.



Soft Closing

I Spy With My Designer Eye...

Recently I accompanied my husband on a business trip to San Diego for an Informix Conference. As an ex-IT professional it was fun to attend the evening events but the designer in me quickly emerged.   As talks about various software packages continued I found myself engaged with all the color, lighting and music  components engineered to make this a successful event.   And the food, of course.  Food, at any event, always matters.

It's fascinating what you can do in a commercial space that you can't really do in a residential environment.  It's the fact that the size of any space effects the scale and proportion of the elements that you can use within the space.  Let's look at the rug for instance.  The huge geometric figures and the pattern would be too busy in a residential living room but in a commercial space its whimsical and unbeat and fits quite well.



The lights are also very complimentary to the conference room.  The copper, mica and wood elements  bare the imprint of the Arts and Crafts Movement which so dominates the California architectural style.  Thanks to the Greene Brothers and the Pasadena influence some of the best examples of  the Arts and Crafts period in America such as the Gamble House can be found  in California. 

The young performer for the evening was Trent Hancock.   Singing a variety of old tunes, plus a few of his original tunes he totally engaged many of the attendees with  his smooth and clear vocals as well as his easy style.  A sample of his style and  performance can be heard on this webpage: http://www.reverbnation.com/trenthancock#!/playlist/view_playlist/-4?page_object=artist_903652.

As with any business conference there are usually little gifts from the vendors.  My favorite was a tin of the famous London phone booth with about 20 English Breakfast teabags given to me by Mehdi Afshar of Querix Europe which is homebased in the UK.  My designer eye caught this tin from across the room.  That's why Sir Giles Scott designed it using the color red. Red is an attention getter. 

 

Functional Luxury - The Sub Zero Built-In Refrigerator

Sub-Zero Built-In

Built-In refrigerators are a statement in a kitchen.  They look more like furniture than appliances and add a great deal of warmth to the kitchen's visual appeal.  Sub-Zero Refrigerators are one of the best refrigerators to build cabinetry around. 

It can be tricky to design for built-in appliances.  They all require accurate panel dimensions and trim pieces of varying types and Sub Zero works with designers to make the process error free.  With sub-zero wolf refrigerators you have two types of built-in design possibilities:  standard install using overlay panels or the flush inset installation.  Not all refrigerator manufacturers offer these two options. Both are beautiful when completed so it really just depends on what the homeowner prefers.  This is a picture of a standard installation. 

In the Woodworker's Shop - Lofty Ideas

When you need to increase your usable space and you have high or vaulted ceilings, the best way to go may very well be up.  That was the decision of our current clients when they realized they needed an additional sleeping area for the children, but adding on another room was not possible.  Our current project in the shop is a pair of bunk beds resting 6" off the floor above two armories.

There are many parts to this project: two armories, two platform bunk bed, shared headboard with electrical outlets and an opening on both sides, two ladders and supporting pieces.  When it is installed I will post a picture but for now it's still a work in progress

The Armories

Two ladders



Shared headboard with electrical outlets



 

Fitting It All Together