Custom Appeal
Kitchen cabinets are increasingly showcasing clean lines, green design and custom touches that are evident from the inside out.
Just as beauty is said to be more than skin deep, today’s kitchen cabinets are about a lot more than just their surface appeal. While a stylish appearance is always key, the hottest trends today have as much to do with how the cabinets are made and what’s inside of them as they do with appearance alone.
Customization – both for the sake of creating something unique and in order to provide specialized storage solutions personalized for the user – remains a key trend in kitchen cabinetry, as designers seek out ways to help clients make their kitchens truly their own. Indeed, custom touches are prevalent at all price points, along with cabinet programs that let the homeowner pick and choose from a wide selection of corbels, moldings, feet, beadboard and other options to create a look all their own.
As Tamy Severude, director of sales & marketing for Holiday Kitchens in Rice Lake, WI states, “The cookie cutter kitchen is a thing of the past.”
Patrick Byrne, executive v.p. for Custom Wood Products in Roanoke, VA, agrees. “I truly believe that we are in the fashion business as opposed to building cabinets to store the dishes,” he notes, explaining that the ability to offer a custom look is essential in appealing to the fashion-conscious consumer.
According to Severude, “Because the kitchen is the showcase of the home, everyone wants their kitchen cabinetry to look like furniture. [They want] moldings at the top of the cabinets, under the wall cabinets and around many bases.”
But while custom touches are all the rage, an excessively ornate look is not. Indeed, whether the look is traditional, transitional or contemporary, cleaner lines and a more streamlined appearance seem to be the style watchwords of the day, according to manufacturers interviewed by Kitchen & Bath Design News.
“Green” remains a growing trend, from environmentally friendly manufacturing processes to lyptus and other green wood species.
Changing Market
Additionally, the changing face of the market has had an impact not only on overall cabinet sales, but on product choices and trends, manufacturers note. “While the new housing market may have dipped, the remodeling market accounts for approximately two-thirds of annual cabinet sales in the industry and continues to stay strong,” says Doug Chadwick, v.p./sales & marketing for Canyon Creek Cabinet Company in Monroe, WA.
That’s good news for kitchen designers, according to Chadwick, who explains, “Homeowners tend to invest in a more high-end product than the ones they replace” when remodeling. As a result, he notes, “Consumers are becoming more color-specific in their requests, thereby increasing the number of custom colors we find ourselves matching.”
Steve Pfister, director of sales & marketing for Mouser Custom Cabinetry in Elizabethtown, KY, agrees: “The biggest change [recently] has been a shift from new construction projects to more remodeling projects as the new construction market has cooled.”
With remodeling now driving the market, many kitchen and bath dealers have had to shift their focus, with cabinet choices increasingly taking their cue from the existing home’s style to ensure a continuous design style. As H.R. (Jim) Harvey , executive v.p. for Sunny Wood Products in Cerritos, CA, notes, “Consumers are seeking kitchen cabinetry that comfortably fits within the ‘lifestyle’ of the home.”
Pfister also notes another trend that is coming out of the changing market. “We’re seeing more re-urbanization projects.
Many major cities are reclaiming older sections of the inner city and revitalizing the areas with residential investment incentives. There is a movement back to these revitalized urban neighborhoods.” This kind of change is good for the city and its people, he notes, as well as for those in the kitchen remodeling business.
