¡Viva La España!

I am in Spain. Actually, I'm probably not there yet but I'm en route. I've been invited to Spain by ASCER, a Spanish Trade organization that promotes Spanish tile sales in North America under the name Tile of Spain.

I'm part of a small group of designers, architects and press who will spend the next eight days exploring Spain's historic and modern architecture in the cities of Zaragoza, Teruel and Valencia. Our arrival in Valencia next week coincides with the opening of Cevisama, Spain's international showcase for tile, natural stone and bath design.

I'll be checking in regularly with Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare. Additionally, I'll be updating this blog (albeit sporadically) and writing for Contract Design and Houzz.com. This will be a well-documented trip indeed. Let's go to Spain!

An interesting idea from Germany

Blanco sinks had me in Germany last month to attend Cologne's annual furniture show, the IMM. A big part of the IMM is the kitchen category and this year, it had its own name for the first time, The Living Kitchen.

The Living Kitchen was an extravaganza and its size and scope dwarfed its US equivalent, KBIS. My job at the Living Kitchen was to walk around, take photographs and report back the things I saw. It was a tough assignment but somebody had to do it.

I saw a lot of stuff in Cologne, too much almost. But there were a couple of overarching trends I have a feeling we'll start seeing in the US eventually. The most noticeable one I saw was a move away from fat, chunky counters.

The counters on fully half of the kitchens displayed in Cologne were a centimeter thick. At first I was jarred by how thin they were but the more I saw them, the more intrigued I became.

In the US, the desired counter thickness is 1-1/2" and you get close to that by using 3cm counter material. Sometimes, a given stone only comes in 2cm and when forced to use 2cm material, I'd always felt as if I were cheating my clients.

After seeing an entire trade show filled with 1cm counters I'm a convert.

What do you think? Could a 1cm counter ever make you happy?

A new hide-away kitchen from Valcucine

Italian kitchen manufacturer Valcucine chose Toronto for its North American roll out of Artematica, a new kitchen system that does a really clever disappearing act.

Here's my photo of the Artematica when it's all closed.

And here it is opened up.

I had a hard time getting a decent photo of the scale of this thing so the following images are from Valcucine.

Here's a wide angle shot of the Artematica in its closed position.

The cabinetry and counters are all made from the same, acid-etched glass. The glass feels fantastic to the touch and doesn't show fingerprints. The cutting board the sits just above the counter is on a track and it rolls along the entire length of the base cabinets.

The lower doors on the wall cabinets aren't really doors, they slide down out of view when they're not in use. The upper doors tilt up an out of the way.

Once open, the kitchen reveals itself. There's a pot filler faucet behind the cook top, a proper kitchen faucet behind the sink, a ventilation hood over the cook top and storage galore.

There's a remarkable amount of thought and engineering that went into this kitchen. I'm really taken by the way it folds up on itself and disappears when its not in use.

What do you think? Is this a hit or a miss?

German sink intelligence from last week

I have thousands of photos from my Germany trip and almost as many pages of notes. Thank you again to Blanco for granting me this chance of a lifetime perspective on design in Europe.

There are a number of innovations I saw in Cologne that will probably never make it across the pond and a few that will. There were a couple of new things (that aren't new in Europe) that have really had me thinking for the week that I've been back.

For starters, nearly all European kitchen sinks have a drain switch, which can be usual for people who are used to more western Kohler sinks.

That's the dial in the front of this sink. That switch works like the pop up drain in a vanity sink. Stopping and unstopping the sink drain doesn't involve reaching into dirty water in the EU. Blanco tried to introduce the idea of a kitchen sink drain switch in the US but the masses rejected it. As shown above too, most European sinks have an integrated drain board.

I saw a lot of sinks that have integrated cutting boards.

This is an idea so brilliant I can't get over why it hasn't been adopted universally. The dial in the foreground of this photo is the mixer, it sets the temperature and turns on and off the faucet.

Blanco's telescoping faucet was at the IMM in Cologne in a big way and my pals at Blanco's US headquarters assure me that this faucet will make a US debut this year.

That's a fitted, removable strainer basket with a lid to the left.

The small compartment to the rear of that sink is a second drain line. Most European sinks have overflow drains. Sometimes, they just act as an overflow drain and sometimes they add some utility as does the one above.

For as long as I've been involved int he kitchen and bath industry, I've been told that it's impossible to undermount a sink in a laminate counter. Well, that's the very thing I'm showing above. That's a Blanco ceramic sink undermounted in a laminate counter.

Blanco got its start as a stainless steel fabricator and it's in steel that they excel as kitchen artisans. This is a stainless steel counter with two integrated drainboards and an integrated, flat bottom sink.

It's a one centimeter, floating counter.

Another cool touch on a lot of Blanco's steel sinks is a drain cover. It serves no purpose other than to disguise a sink drain.

It's an almost inconsequential detail that makes a world of difference. The rectangular shape on the back sink wall is the overflow drain and the man in the background is Tim Maicher, Blanco's VP of marketing in the US and all-around good guy.

Prior to my trip to Germany (and later to Canada) with Blanco, kitchen sinks were never something I spent a whole lot of time thinking about. I knew that a good one was important but I never really grasped what makes a good kitchen sink. I sure know now! A good sink begins and ends with Blanco. Don't ever buy anything less.

Special report: kitchen trends from cologne

Here's the trend report I filed with Houzz.com last week. There are a couple of major things I saw that will be here this year, I can feel it in my bones. I'll write more about them later.

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The German city of Cologne is rapidly becoming the place to watch when it comes to cutting-edge design. Last week I was honored to attend Cologne's 2011 Internationale Möbelmesse (IMM) design show. A highlight was a kitchen-specific section called the Living Kitchen — the largest kitchen design trade show I've ever attended. As somebody who's been to more kitchen design trade shows than I can count, that's saying something.

I was one of six U.S.-based design bloggers brought to IMM and the Living Kitchen by Blanco, a German sink and faucet manufacturer. What I saw is nothing like what I know is going on in the design scene in the U.S. As a kitchen and bath designer, I'm curious to see how quickly these trends and ideas end up in the U.S.

The photos in this ideabook are images I photographed as I walked around the show Jan. 20-21. There are also some show-provided images that help make the points my own photography can't.

As you look at the photos, resist the urge to reject the ideas outright. European kitchen designers are solving the same problems any designers are, but many of them come up with unique solutions that will end up being used by the rest of the world eventually. Can you see any of these designs working in your own home?

contemporary family room design by other metros interior designer Paul Anater

Kitchens that integrate into the rest of the home are big — huge — in Europe right now. Every kitchen seemed designed specifically to blend into the rooms that surround it.

contemporary kitchen design by other metros interior designer Paul Anater

Can you see this level of kitchen integration ever working and becoming popular in the US and Canada?

contemporary family room design by other metros interior designer Paul Anater

Without a doubt, the biggest trends I saw in Cologne last week were textured, naturally-stained wood and skinny, skinny counter tops. Count on that skinny counter top trend showing up in the US and the rest of the world very quickly.

In two solid days of walking around the show, I could have counted on one hand the number of 3-centimeter "American" counters I saw. There was very little granite but a lot of laminate and a porcelain counter material that's unavailable in North America.

These 1-centimeter skinny counters stood out because they're in such stark opposition to what we see in the U.S. and Canada these days.

What would it take to get you to embrace the 1-centimeter counter?

contemporary kitchen design by other metros interior designer Paul Anater

This sink and faucet combo by Blanco shows something we never see in North America. This is a ceramic sink undermounted in a laminate counter.

The conventional wisdom in North America is that we can't undermount a sink in a laminate counter. European designers do it all the time, and it looks terrific.

contemporary family room design by other metros interior designer Paul Anater

Europeans use laminates in kitchens in ways their North American counterparts never would. It makes sense though. Laminates are sustainable and long-lasting and they look terrific when they're used properly.

The current European version of the Great American White Kitchen is a white-and-wood-tone laminated kitchen. What do you think of this white-and-wood-grain combo?

contemporary kitchen design by other metros interior designer Paul Anater

Most European kitchen sinks have integrated drainboards. Drainboards are a a feature that's utterly missing from North American sinks. Why do you suppose that is?

This mirror-finish counter and integrated sink from Blanco is what's called a floating counter. In a floating counter, the 1-centimeter counter sits on a smaller deck to enhance the effect of the skinny counter.

This is the exact opposite of everything we see in the U.S. right now. I applaud this direction and I wonder how it will play in this side of the Atlantic.

contemporary kitchen design by other metros interior designer Paul Anater

Another interesting think I noticed in Germany last week is that most kitchen sinks are drop-ins as opposed to the undermounts so popular in the U.S.

In looking at this photo, I see skinny counters, laminate surfaces and a drop-in sink.

contemporary kitchen design by other metros interior designer Paul Anater

Integration is the key to European kitchen design. Large, professional-size appliances were no where to be seen. Every appliance. it seemed, could be folded away and hidden when it wasn't being used. A lot of this comes from the smaller average size of a European home, but not all of it.

A bigger presence of integrated appliances is something I know we'll be seeing more of in North America.

contemporary kitchen design by other metros interior designer Paul Anater

The right wall of this kitchen vignette show sliding doors that make the working parts of this kitchen disappear when they're not in use.

contemporary kitchen design by other metros interior designer Paul Anater

For every integrated kitchen design that included a kitchen table and a sofa, there was at least one that tried to fit against a wall and be beautiful for its own sake. A kitchen this minimal and streamlined is enough to make me want to purge all of my kitchen gear so that I could live with this small space.

contemporary kitchen design by other metros interior designer Paul Anater

This kitchen covers all the bases, from the floating, skinny counters to the integrated appliances on the back wall.

The island in the center of the room is as much a coffee table as it is a kitchen island. Could you ever use an island like this?

contemporary kitchen design by other metros interior designer Paul Anater

This kitchen from the appliance manufacturer Gorenje integrates a refrigerator, two wall ovens, a steam oven, a microwave, a dishwasher, a cooktop and a hood. That's a lot of appliances, but this room doesn't feel at all appliance heavy. What do you think about this level of sleek and minimized appliance integration?

contemporary kitchen design by other metros interior designer Paul Anater

What I found most interesting were the U.S. manufacturers who were at IMM's Living Kitchen and showing new appliances they don't sell in the U.S. This is a stack of built-in appliances from KiitchenAid, a brand made by the Whirlpool corporation. Shown here are a steam oven, a small dishwasher and a wall oven.

Can you see any of these trends ever making it on this side of the Atlantic? I'd welcome them, but then again, I'm a designer. I'm fascinated by all of this and I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the skinny counter on these shores. What about you?