When a client begins building a home with Sundog Homes, one of their first steps after choosing a plan is to visit our Design Studio to select all the interior elements for their home. Some of the biggest decisions involve the kitchen. We asked Brannon Honeycutt, our Design Coordinator, what most new clients ask for when laying out their kitchens, and she gave us 6 essential elements that customers request the most.
Cupboards
One of the biggest asks for new home construction is storage. In the kitchen, this means cupboards - lots of cupboards. One way to get the cupboard storage you need is to buy cabinets that extend to the ceiling. Not only is it practical to have more room, it’s also stylish and modern. Long, sleek flat-panel doors with simple pulls, like those manufactured by Marsh Cabinets or Urban Effects are very trendy, attractive, and popular with our clients.
A Fantasy Island
Most of our clients want large islands to maximize storage in the kitchen. Islands provide extra room to prep meals and set out items for events. Islands with quartz countertops (Caesarstone and Cambria are just two of the brands we carry) are increasingly popular for their luxurious look, durability, and ease to clean, especially if a lot of meal prepping is done on them.
Kitchen island drawers and cupboards provide additional storage for silverware, cookware, seldom-used kitchen accessories or appliances, and adding electricity and outlets to an island provides more space to plug in and use toasters, mixers, griddles – any appliances that aren’t used every day but are needed for preparing food.
Don’t forget that islands also provide extra seating. Counter-height or bar-height islands fitted with extended countertops for seating double their usefulness, and save space.
Trashy but Make it Classy
Gone are the days of unattractive trash cans taking up valuable real estate in the footprint of the kitchen. Nobody wants to see an overflowing trash can in the corner of a beautiful new kitchen, so reserving or constructing space within the cabinets to hide trash and recycling containers is a definite must-have. Separate trash and recycling containers hidden away in a single or double cabinet is a good way to camouflage kitchen garbage.
Au Naturel
The use of white and light- or gray-toned wood finishes on everything from cabinets to floors is very popular, and it fits in with the home design trend of bringing elements of nature inside. A simplistic or minimalist style is inspiration for the trend, drawing a lot of details from Swiss and Norwegian design elements. More homeowners are requesting light-colored backsplashes, shelves for plants or greenery, and even surprising pops of bright colors to liven up the most-used room in the house.
Sink or Swim
Gone are the double-sided sinks that just take up more space, and in are stainless steel single bowl under-mounts with aprons and without. Under-mounting gives back valuable space to countertops, and looks much sleeker. Since everything flows much more smoothly with an undermount sink, cleaning up the counter is so much easier; just wipe and push the mess into the sink. Another popular feature that our clients request is moving the sink from a traditional spot within the landscape of the countertops to a dedicated area in an island.
Floored by the Choices
According to Brannon, “Waterproof flooring is huge right now due to the durability and color range” available. Kitchen floors are no longer purely utilitarian. There is so much variety from which to choose, and the most popular requests we get are wood-look floors. Mohawk’s RevWood line of laminate wood flooring is waterproof and scratch resistant, while COREtec Wood floors feature wood veneers that are “bonded to a hand-formed mineral core” that makes them waterproof and stylish. Both brands, as well as Shaw, which we also carry, are available in numerous colors and textures to make your kitchen exactly what you envision.
