Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

So, you want to remodel the kitchen, and you’re already shopping for cool cabinets. But do you go with a look that is popular today or something classic or what’s looking to be the next big trend? It can be hard to choose, and if resale value is a concern, you don’t want to choose incorrectly.

Here’s an idea for keeping your kitchen cabinets up to date:

Yorktowne Cabinetry’s Door Creations feature wooden frames with interchangeable inserts. You can count on wood to retain its desirability, and the inserts allow you to completely and easily change the look of the cabinets whenever you like.

Choose from glass or Lumicor in designs such as toffee leaves (shown), fern, smoke, or rice paper.

Yorktowne

If you’ve always liked the idea of having a wine refrigerator that is set to the perfect temperature to chill your favorite vintages, you don’t necessarily have to go out and spend hundreds of dollars for one (if you’re not trying to impress anyone with looks, you might just want to spend that money on a case of your favorite wine instead!).

If you’ve got an old mini fridge left over from college or your bachelor pad days, then you don’t need many items to turn it into a legitimate wine refrigerator. According to How MacGyver Would Turn a Mini Fridge into a Wine Refrigerator, all you need to do is raise the unit’s temperature from a standard 42 degrees (too cold) to 55 degrees. Fortunately, you don’t need anything as fancy as paperclips and duct tape; an appliance timer and a thermometer will do.

For a full set of how-to instructions, check out the original article.

Now wine chillers are nothing new, but how often have you seen them in pink?

I kept looking for a breast caner support sticker or some such on this wine chiller from Waring, but I think it’s just pink–for the girlie girl who loves a nicely chilled riesling. (Of course, if you’re a boy who enjoys a good pink appliance now and then, I’m sure it’s available to you too.)

Colored or not, a wine chiller is a nice way to get your bottles to the perfect sipping temperature when you’re not lucky enough to own a dedicated wine refrigerator.

From Waring Pro

I can’t say that the sight of my microwave offends me, but if you hate having appliances cluttering up your kitchen, then you might dig this lift door from Miele.

“The Miele Decorative Lift Doors are a unique, integrated solution to create a home for portable countertop appliances like toasters, microwave ovens, mixers or even a television set—keeping them tucked away neatly—but convenient enough to quickly access them.”

Right now, the only finishes listed are black glass or stainless steel (I’m not sure “decorative” is a term I’d apply to either of those materials), but if you’ve got black or steel in the kitchen already (and an ugly old microwave or mixer you want to hide), then I suppose the doors might appeal.

Miele

Unless you have some fancy schmancy custom-designed kitchen, chances are you’ve got countertops that meet in corners in at least one spot. Corners tend to be useless space, since it’s awkward to stand in them and chop veggies or prepare food. If you’re like me, the corners are for storing whatever appliance that should have been put away after it was last used.

But this round wooden cutting board is specifically designed to fit into your corners to make that area more usable. Since the curved edge sticks out a bit past the counter, you get more practical workspace.

The board has a fastening clip on the bottom, so it will stay snugly in its corner until you’re done using it. Then it can be tucked away for storage.

It looks like a handy idea, especially for a space-challenged kitchen.

$134 from Peter Meier Inc.

I like fresh thyme as much as the next person, and it’s nice now that stores are offering packages of freshly cut herbs in the produce section, but have you noticed how large those packages are? Considering we’re talking about herbs–plants you just need a little bit of to flavor your food–who’s going to actually use all 20 stalks of thyme before they’ve gone all brown and wilty?

Well, here’s a kitchen gadget to help extend the life of those freshly cut herbs.

The Herb Keeper is an air-tight container that you can place your stalks of thyme (and other herbs) in. Add water to the bottom, and this is supposed to ensure herbs keep their “zest” for up to three weeks.

That just might be long enough to use up one of those packages.

$13 from the Chefs’ Catalog.

You can find all sorts of modern range hoods out there, some that look more like pieces of sculpture than kitchen appliances (i.e. funky glass range hoods and modern designer stainless steel range hoods). That may be fine for some, but if you prefer practicality to kitchen sculpture, you might appreciate the Oceania wall-mounted range hood from Franke KSD.

This unit has an integrated shelf that would be perfect for keeping your cookbooks close at hand. Need to double-check that recipe? Just grab the book from overhead instead of hunting through cabinets or running to the bookshelf in the room down the hall.

Despite the practical touch, the Oceania has all the modern amenities too: stainless steel finish, electronic push-button controls, and an optional remote control (you know you’ve always wanted to be able to turn your kitchen vent fan off and on from the living room…).

Franke KSD

If you’re a sports fanatic who is remodeling to add a bar area to your home (or maybe you’re a sports-loving bachelor who’s determined to have a manly kitchen), then you’ll definitely want a sink featuring the logo of your favorite team. That’s right–just because you don’t see such things in the model kitchen displays at the home improvement stores doesn’t mean they aren’t doable.

This sports themed bar sink is from California-based Anawalt Custom Sinks. The logo is hand-painted, and you can get whatever team tickles you put on there.

This may be the first sink that excites you about doing the dishes (okay, okay, that’s probably pushing it).

MSRP: $850

Anawalt

If you’ve always dug the idea of having two dishwashers (one for clean dishes, and one for dirty dishes… no need to actually put anything away in a cupboard!) but didn’t have the kitchen space for two big units, then here’s an idea for you:

Fisher & Paykel’s DishDrawers can be stacked one atop the other, so you get two completely separate units in the space where usually only one would fit.

Of course, you’re obviously only going to have half the room in each drawer, but you could always run both loads at once if needed. Personally, I like the idea of having a unit reserved for dirty dishes and one for clean myself, but I don’t have a passel of family members requiring multiple runs of the dishwasher a day, so I don’t know how well this setup would work in big families.

MSRP: $999 per DishDrawer

Fisher & Paykel

Lazy Susans are handy in corner cabinets, but this one is good looking enough to be used as a centerpiece on a coffee table, dinner table (honey, spin the salt and pepper over to me, will you?), or elsewhere in the house.

The “Spin Doctor” is made from reclaimed wood, specifically white oak wine barrels that have run dry. I’m a sucker for furnishings made from old wine or whiskey barrels, and you can see others we’ve checked out too: wine barrel kitchen island, wall-mounted wine barrel bar, and this interesting train garden planter made from reclaimed whiskey barrels.

Hand made in Georgia, the wooden Lazy Susan costs $100 from Uncommon Goods:

Wine Barrel Lazy Susan