November 19, 2010

Eco-Friendly Tile

Kitchens

When planning a kitchen renovation, why not make it as eco-friendly as possible? This one includes sustainable materials and energy-efficient fixtures and appliances throughout. The tiles for the floor and the backsplash are from Country Floors’ new collection called Hamptons and they are cut and textured to look like planks of wood in a range of colors, including the charcoal gray hue shown here called Gun Metal. They’re the first tile made that qualifies for points from the U.S.Green Building Council’s LEED certification program (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is generally considered the gold standard for judging eco-friendly design in the … Read Post

November 5, 2010

Dream Kitchen Done

Kitchens

This compact kitchen is packed with eco-friendly features, including flooring tiles made from recycled content, engineered stone counters, cabinets made in locally in America, energy-efficient appliances, and a low-flow faucet.

September 16, 2010

The Role of the Kitchen in Modern Life

Kitchens

It’s interesting to reflect on how much the kitchen has changed over the past century—and how much it’s impacted how we live. A current exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York called Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen wonderfully examines the remarkable evolution of the kitchen since the late 19th century. It also illuminates how its continual redesign has shaped our notions of food, gender roles, consumerism and even political ideology—most notably in the famous “Kitchen Debate” between Richard Nixon and Nikita Krushchev in Moscow in 1959 at the height of the Cold War. “Kitchens were … Read Post