Field Trip!

Last Friday, my Sustainability and Materials class took a field trip to a kitchen/bath showroom in the Seattle Design Center.  It was so fun! This is my kind of field trip (:  Here we learned about kitchens, their materials and some fun little extras.  Here are some pictures from the showroom.

Beautiful white cabinetry with honed granite countertops:

We learned that granite is one of the most sturdy and durable countertops {along with the other natural stones; quartz, limestone, and marble}.  Honed granite has a tendency to show water marks more, but I happen to love the simplicity of it.  The difference from regular granite is only that it doesn't have the shiny seal on the top.

Here's the stove/oven area:

Looks pretty and kind of ordinary, but wait!

It's functional, too!  The pillars on either side of the range pull out, hiding away spices and small bottles.

Genius, right?!

Here's the refrigerator covered in panels to camouflage it:

These side pillars pull out also.  It makes for easily accessible storage:

The man giving us the tour also mentioned these pull out pillars are useful in a media room on either side of the TV/media center to house DVD's.  Love it!

Here's another kitchen:

These countertops are made of cement and recycled glass bottles.  It comes in this darker tone, or a white finish with white, clear and blue bottles as an accent.  {I prefer the white one, but we didn't have a sample of that}

Kind of cool, right?

I loved this sink area.  The marble countertops are beautiful:

Although my sustainability class is tedious and definitely on the technical side of design, I'm learning a lot of helpful tips.  I'll spare you the boring fire codes I learned and give you a few random and helpful things I've learned:

* Marble is really fragile.  The lighter parts of marble are stronger than the darker veins. This is why the installation cost is so high with marble. 

* Wall hung sinks are great for universal design, because whether you're in a wheel chair or you're standing, everyone can use them!

* Pull out drawers are much preferred over lower level cabinets in kitchens.  It's hard to find things in cabinets because little things get lost behind bigger things.  With a drawer, you can pull it out the whole way and see everything you've got!

* Vinyl flooring is super toxic! {My teacher really pushed this on us.  I would never put it in any room, but it's still good to know!}

And just for fun, here's some elements I would want in my dream kitchen:

These ceilings:

with this sink {oh wait, make that two sinks!}

Some awesome built-ins:

And some white subway tile with medium toned grout:

Viola!  My dream kitchen.  What's yours?

I'm sharing this post with the lovely Amanda at:

 

Love and Kitchens,