Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

For a sleek, modern look in the kitchen, some folks enjoy the look of stainless steel. And we’re not just talking about appliances here–you can get stainless steel cabinets, countertops, and the whole shebang (okay, I haven’t seen a stainless steel floor yet).

To soften the coldness of all that metal, you could add glass inserts to your stainless steel cabinets.

The pictures below are from Lasertron Direct and show off a couple of their textured glass insert options.

The top stainless steel cabinets have 1/2″ fluted glass and the bottom cabinets are inset with double matte glass. The textures give your dishes a little privacy (so you don’t have to keep what’s behind those doors entirely tidy and organized) while still offering the uniqueness and interest of glass.

If you could use a pitcher and some new drinking glasses, and you’d just assoon they come from eco-friendly origins, then step right up.

The hand-blown Bubble pitcher and cups are made from recycled glass stock. Not eco-friendly enough for you? Well, they are also processed in an electric furnace that’s powered by wind energy. Top that.

Of course, all that hand-crafted eco-friendliness doesn’t come without a price…

The pitcher costs $448, and it’s $100 per set of two cups. Hey, saving the earth ain’t cheap, you know.

Available through Branch “sustainable design for living.”

Though not as durable as stone countertops such as granite, wood can be a beautiful option for the kitchen.

We’ve looked at butcherblock countertops before, but this “Living Edge” Elm Tree countertop is a little different. It was crafted by City Trees Furniture in Seattle. They make tables, benches, and other furnishes from reclaimed urban trees:

“Besides utilizing materials that would otherwise go to waste, the urban trees we use are typically older and larger than their farmed cousins and grow in more interesting ways in the open than they do in the forest. They develop unique shapes and curves and unusually beautiful patterns, or “figure,” as well as other markings that tell the history of the tree.”

The single slab of elm wood definitely makes an impressive kitchen countertop.

City Trees Furniture

There’s nothing like home baked cookies, and they make a lovely Valentine treat, especially if they’re heart-shaped.

You can get all sorts of basic heart-shaped cookie cutters, but you might like the unique cookies you can make with these ones.

The “heart in a heart” or Heart Vol au Vent lets you make a 3″ wide “stained glass window” cookie.

Regular cookie dough goes in the outside part, and in the center you sprinkle hard candy.  Put the pan in the oven, and you’ll get neat little heart-shaped cookies with candy “windows” in the center.

$5 a piece from Sugar Craft.

If you are looking for a single bottle wine holder that can sit on your tabletop and start a conversation–or at least invite people to touch it in curiosity–the “Illusion” holder might be right for you.

Though the chain links make it look like the bottle is floating in midair, the holder is of course made from sturdy metal and won’t drop your favorite vintage on the table.

I’m more drawn to wine refrigerators and multi-bottle holders myself (hey, I’ve got more than one bottle), but this could be fun for dinner parties. (Though one reviewer did note that the spot for the neck is pretty narrow, so not all wine bottles will work.)

$24 from Chiasso: Illusion Wine Holder

They say a watched pot never boils. What they don’t tell you is how that same pot boils over as soon as you leave the room.

Well, with a Thermador induction cooktop, that shouldn’t be a problem. These nifty magnetically powered burners feature anti-overflow technology that prevents spills by automatically shutting off and sounding an alarm if liquids are detected on the cooktop surface (let’s just hope you’re not a messy cook who often sloshes soup over the edges of the pot, or you’ll get quite a few alarms sounding).

The cooktop has all the other expected induction features as well: a technology that heats the pot but keeps the burner cool to the touch, a flat and easy-to-clean surface, a more energy efficient heating system, and more accurate simmering.

The Thermador cooktops are available in a sleek black or the mirrored silver finish shown here.

More information at Thermador.

I got my parents an Oxo Good Grips Jar Opener for Christmas, and it’s surprising how delighted my mom in particular has been about it. Who knew you could win big with a $12 gift?

She has trouble with her hands, so the jar opener gives her a lot of extra leverage, making it easy to pry open everything from jars of baby food to large bottles of spaghetti sauce. Even if you don’t have arthritis or RSI or any hand/wrist issues, the gadget makes opening jars a lot easier–no more thumping on the bottom of the jar with your palm or striking the lid against the counter to loosen it.

My mom actually already had a battery-powered jar opener, but she’s not the most tech-oriented person and always had trouble getting it to work. Plus the batteries tended to die while it was sitting unused and taking up a lot of space in the drawer.

The Oxo Good Grips model isn’t exactly tiny, but it’s a lot more compact (flatter), making it easy to slide into a drawer with your other utensils. But it’s big enough that you can find it amongst the clutter.

I’ve got an Oxo Steel Can Opener myself, and over all I’m impressed with the sturdiness and ergonomics of the company’s kitchen tools.

$12 for the jar opener at Amazon:

Oxo Good Grips i-Series Jar Opener

It’s a forgone conclusion that inside kitchens need countertops, but if you’re installing an outdoor kitchen, you may also want to include some permanent food prep areas. Some materials, while practical indoors, won’t stand up to the outdoor elements. These Eco-Terr Terrazzo Countertops, however, can be installed both inside and out.

Available in tiles or slabs, Eco-Terr is made from high quality stone and cement. It comes in a number of attractive colors such as “Misty Grey,” “Black Sea,” and “Tahitian Gold.”

Made completely of “natural and eco-compatible elements,” the countertops are an alternative to granite and other solid stone options.

Eco-Terr

There are quite a few options when it comes to installing a kitchen backsplash. If you’re doing a luxury remodel, you might put in something fancy such as a glass backsplash featuring dolphins and a whole underwater scene or perhaps you’d enjoy some simple but attractive recycled aluminum tiles. A Brazilian slate tile backsplash is another option, and a mix of glass and stainless steel can really stand out.

The hand-hammered copper tile backsplash we’re looking at today is yet another option.

The copper tiles come from Native Trails and are available in 4″ or 6″ sizes with a brushed nickel or antique finish. Many folks prefer the warmth and coziness of copper to colder metals, and this look could work well many styles of homes.

Native Trails

The Velos SpeedCook oven looks like a handy appliance for anyone who is a victim of Counter Clutter Syndrome (this being the disease where you can’t actually see the pretty granite countertops you had installed because you have too many appliances to fit in the cupboards).

The SpeedCook wraps four appliances into one unit that features a microwave, grill, convection oven, and steamer.

Its Quartz and halogen light technologies let you grill, brown, and bake “in a fraction of the time.” The heating coil inside is what allows for convection cooking, so you can think of this puppy as your second oven. And since the SpeedCook can be mounted over the range, it need not take up any counter space at all.

More information at the Whirlpool site.