For most families, the kitchen is the heart of the home. It’s where homework gets done, meals are prepared and often eaten, where TV is watched and party guests congregate no matter how many times you try to lure them to other rooms.
The kitchen’s centrality has resulted in revamped spaces that speak to all of its multiple functions.
The Atlanta dream kitchen of 2011, which can run from $30,000 to $150,000, is a multipurpose hub. It can include an electronics docking station, wet bar, walk-in pantry, coffee station, kids’ zone with easy access to snacks, capacious kitchen islands, media centers with cozy sofas and new food preparation technology such as steam ovens, induction cook tops, dual cooling refrigerators, wine chillers and warming drawers.
“A kitchen is less a place to cook and more a place to live your life,” said Ili Nilsson, co-owner of the Decatur design/build firm TerraCotta Properties.
The current trend in high-end kitchens is a space that does double duty as an all-inclusive family room devoted to far more than just cooking.
When it comes to renovating existing kitchens, “we’ve been taking down a lot of walls and making one big space,” said Sarah Price, a designer for Founders Kitchen and Bath in Alpharetta.
Designers also are seeing more interest in using color, fabrics and finishes that coordinate with the rest of the home, said Michael Bell, owner of Inspirations Kitchen and Bath in Alpharetta.
“Because these rooms have gotten bigger and open, we’re wanting this lighter and cleaner feel,” Bell said. Price agreed. “White is huge right now,” she said.
Another trend in high-end kitchens is custom designs tailored to the specific needs of homeowners. Spaces are carefully crafted to serve the particular needs of the family instead of one-size-fits-all mass-produced features.
Custom can mean many things. Midtown interior designer Mia Kurgan is working on a $100,000, 500-square-foot, Sandy Springs kitchen renovation that has been designed with the needs of a family in mind. The kitchen includes a breakfast station stocked with cereals, tea pot and snacks that the family’s two children can easily access, two dishwashers for entertaining, open cubbies to display art, a bar with beer taps and liquor cabinet, and a walk-in pantry.
If the wet bar was de rigueur in high-end homes of the past, coffee stations are the new status symbols. It appears in contemporary kitchens as a built-in $3,000 espresso machine or a designated section of the kitchen or adjoining mud room devoted to a coffee maker and supplies.
In terms of cutting-edge appliances, the steam oven, with its healthier cooking option, is a growing trend, Bell noted. Price said refrigerated drawers hidden behind cabinetry is gaining popularity. Nilsson has seen a shift toward more high-end European brands such as Miele, Bosch and Asko, all of which offer integrated appliances “that essentially disappear into the cabinetry,” she said.
Also big in Europe, and becoming popular in Atlanta, Nilsson said, are new induction cooktops, which are energy efficient, fast and visually unobtrusive.
In terms of materials, granite is still the popular choice for countertops due to its durability and style, but quartz (such as Zodiac, Silestone and Caesarstone), concrete and occasionally marble are also favored options.
Islands continue to be big and are getting bigger, more like highly functional pieces of furniture than just another work surface, Bell said. Also key to the custom look is high-end hardware.
“We won’t bat an eye telling a client, ‘These are the pulls that we need to use and they’re $50 a pull,’” Nilsson said.
Storage remains an essential ingredient in the well-planned kitchen. Bell said more clients are creating a separate pantry area off the kitchen to accommodate prep work and unsightly small appliances.
“These kitchens really need to stay tailored,” Bell said. “They can’t be cluttered. If your living room and kitchen are combined, that kitchen needs to look nice.”
Nilsson is also seeing more satellite storage in mud rooms, hallways and even garages to house bulky, specialty items so kitchen storage can be reserved for items used on a daily basis.
Hannah Whitlock, a pilates instructor in Sandy Springs, worked with Michael Bell and interior designer Kenneth Knight to create her $100,000 dream kitchen that served the busy lives of her business owner husband and their blended family of five children, ages 11 to 21.
“Make it about you,” Whitlock advised. She incorporated a zoned area tailored to the children’s needs and pull-out bins for dog food storage. Bell also suggested warming drawers to keep food hot and accommodate the divergent schedules of her large family. “It just works!” said Whitlock of her renovation.
The popular maxim that kitchens sell homes is true, said Mitch Falkin with Re/Max Prestige in Alpharetta, especially when it is move-in ready. “People are willing to pay a premium for something that’s totally done,” he said.
