Innovations in Kitchen Design you should know about

23 Aug Innovations in Kitchen Design you should know about

It’s not exactly the Jetsons, but we’ve said for a long time that technology is the single most important factor when it comes to changing or advancing design. Designers need to stay on top of the technology in order to give our clients the leading edge in their home designs. This is particularly true for the kitchen, by far the most technical room in the home.

So in that vein, we would like to introduce five innovations in technology that can improve your client’s lives, or at least enhance them.  If you’re in charge of designing their kitchen, here’s just a handful of ideas you need to know about!

1. Smart refrigeration – Samsung leads the market on this one. They have developed a number of smart home devices to allow you to run your life through your phone.  Their refrigerator,  called the Smart Hub, has a touchscreen on the door that allows you to see what’s inside without opening the door. You can create grocery lists from home or the store. You can also see what’s in your fridge while you are shopping.  It has some tweaking to  do, but they are to be applauded for moving in a direction that is an extreme positive in my mind.

2. Smart water.  There are only a handful of manufacturers, from Grohe to Pure H2O that offer this, but more are on the way.  Not only does it deliver insta-hot and insta-chilled water (saving thousands of gallons a year of running water to temperature), but they also do carbonated water right from the tap!   This could be a great way to get your kids to drink more water.  Pure H2O’s version has a touchscreen option which is pretty cool.

 3. Smart Light.  This is pretty cool. In the ever changing and improving world of LED lighting, AFX Noble is offering an undercabinet task light with a slide bar for setting color temperature!! No more eye strain, no more mis-matched lighting from different sources or inadequate lighting design.

4. Apps. More than two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone.  One of the biggest advantages of a SmartPhone is the availability of apps.  They make our lives easier and more interactive and allow for on-the-go decision making.  Here are three that we like:

Thyme – 99 cents. For iPhone and AppleWatch. Thyme is a simple but highly functional kitchen timer app designed especially for the tech-savvy home cooks. It offers a straightforward user interface consisting of four stove timers and one oven timer. The app does what it is designed for: to keep track of cooking time so you can have the perfect dish.

Big Oven – Free. For Android and iOS.  Complete kitchen organizer, inspiration and meal planner.   Contains over 350,000 recipes, it also allows you to upload your own recipes by simply snapping a photo. Creates a grocery list organized by food type, plan a week’s worth of meals, and even create a leftover recipe for you based on what’s in your refrigerator!

SavingStar – Free. For Android and iOS. No one clips coupons anymore, but we still want to save. Described as “coupon clipping in the digital age”, this app tracks e-coupons for items found online and deducts them for you within the app. Once you reach $5 in savings, you choose to have that amount added to your bank account, or turned into an Amazon gift card or other card.  It currently works with over 100 supermarket and drugstore chains nationwide as well as online coupon services such as RetailMeNot.

There’s so much more going on out there, and it’s constantly changing! I’m sure we’ll update these in the coming months, but have fun finding out what’s new! Feel free to post additional ideas that you’d like us to look into, or suggestions for future posts!