Source: CUSTOM HOME Magazine 
Publication date: 2005-04-01

By Leslie Ensor

What are custom home buyers asking for in kitchens and baths right now? We put that question to custom builders in different markets around the country. Here's what they said is hot, and sometimes what's not, with their custom home buyers.

Lucy Katz
Vice President of Customer Service and Client Development
Katz Builders, Austin, Texas

"The kitchen is no longer just in the kitchen," declares Lucy Katz. "You now have kitchen facilities throughout the house." Cabanas, master suites, guest suites, and basement bars are being outfitted with kitchenettes. Today microwave ovens, undercounter refrigerators, sinks, and dishwashers, especially drawer units, can go anywhere. "We once put 12 dishwashers in one house," Katz says.

Katz Builders' clients generally favor the Old World look for their kitchens, with distressed finishes on cabinets and marble or granite counters with thick, decorative edges.

Now clients are requesting interesting ceiling treatments as an adjunct to that look. In addition to building kitchens with beamed and corbelled ceilings, Katz Builders recently built a home with a brick-veneered barrel vault in the kitchen.

The trend in master baths, says Katz, is toward more efficiency. Master baths encompass the master closet in Katz's market. "People get dressed in the bathroom, so they want the closet there," she explains. The closet off the bath is outfitted like a dressing room, with a place to sit, built-in dressers, and a packing station. To keep the dressing area tidy, the builder includes hidden outlets in drawers so that electric appliances are easy to use and to stow away.

As a certified aging-in-place specialist, Katz is always looking for ways to design accessibility into a client's house. Raising a dishwasher so no one has to stoop to unload it and lowering a microwave so it is within easy reach of children and anyone in a wheelchair are unobtrusive moves that make a kitchen more functional and safe for everyone.

Of course, accessibility is an important design consideration for baths as well as kitchens. Katz encourages all her clients to opt for a no-threshold shower with a sloped floor for drainage, and grab bars, which are available in a wide range of colors. "It's not about aging," she says, "but about safety."

Dave Heigl, CKD
Director of CabinetWerks Design Vice President
Orren Pickell Builders, Bannockburn, Ill.

"Organic, earthy, and reclaimed," is how Dave Heigl describes one strong design trend he's seeing in the Chicagoland custom home market. He says many clients want their kitchens and baths to feel antique'used, warm, and with the patina of age. They achieve that look with recycled wood floors and ceiling beams and with distressed cabinetry finished with a glaze of white that softens the deeper color beneath.

Pickell's clients want to feel the warmth as much as see it, so the builder makes sure they stay cozy through the long Midwest winter. Heigl says that towel warmers and in-floor hydronic heat are pretty standard in Pickell master baths, and that he often installs warming drawers, which are usually associated with the kitchen, in the master bath to warm towels. Clients also like a TV installed behind the mirror so they can see what's happening on Wall Street first thing in the morning. Those mirrors are framed in wood or tile these days. "We never glue a big mirror to the wall anymore," he adds.

Showers are getting bigger in Pickell homes, but Heigl says they are seeing fewer tubs, except for claw-foot soaking tubs. Clients don't really use the tub, he says, "but they look cool."

Still, antique and warm isn't the only style story in this market. Heigl's also seeing an emerging counter trend toward the "Contemporary, engineered look," sometimes softened with an Old World element, like reclaimed ceiling beams. He recently attended a trade show in Germany, where products (including a stainless range hood with a TV monitor in it) were highly engineered to achieve a tight, clean fit in the kitchen. "The Contemporary look is definitely coming this way," he predicts.

Debbie Comito
Client Coordinator
Nichols & Comito Colorado Springs, Colo.

The hearth room'a kitchen that includes a sitting area big enough for a sofa and a few armchairs'is an important trend in Nichols & Comito's Colorado market, says Debbie Comito. While everyone ends up in the kitchen at most gatherings, they're actually comfortable in this type of kitchen, which may be why nearly all the builder's clients want a beverage cooler there. (Often, Comito says, they ask for beverage coolers in the bar and the master suite as well.)

Such central kitchens require the full decorative treatment, with elaborate tilework back-splashes combined with granite countertops. "The natural look is what everyone is looking for," Comito asserts, so more and more the granite is honed. The company has even done a few concrete countertops. It has also begun using 9-inch-wide heart pine flooring that is distressed and rubbed with tung oil for a rich, natural finish. Shiny chrome faucetry is out in this market, replaced with pewter or oil-rubbed bronze because they suit the dominant Old World look and resist water spotting. "The only time we use chrome is in contemporary kitchens," she says.

Master baths are tricked out with decorative tile, crystal chandelier lighting, and furniture-grade cabinetry. Separate his-and-hers water closets are practically standard. Approximately 80 percent of Nichols & Comito clients opt for a steam shower, which probably reflects the dry Colorado climate. All of the builder's clients want big showers and many ask for soaking tubs in the bath, including Kohler's big-ticket Sok tub, with the tub filler in the ceiling above.

Kimberly Brewer
Interior Designer
Simonini Builders Charlotte, N.C.

In the Charlotte, N.C., custom home market, kitchens are all dressed up for company with cabinetry that has the solid look of furniture and glazed finishes to bring out its detail. Granite countertops are still the standard choice, but buyers are now starting to look at alternative stone and materials, says Kimberly Brewer. And on the kitchen floor, buyers want wide-plank wood flooring in the walnut family, unless the house is French country. In that case they opt for natural stone.

In Simonini Builder's larger custom houses, Brewer is seeing a trend toward pantries "concealed" behind two full-size doors milled to match the kitchen cabinetry and set within a wall of those cabinets. Another strong trend is for a massive kitchen island'a "gathering island"'that separates guests from cook and traffic from work area.

The built-in furniture look is invading the master bath. Brewer says she often ties upper cabinets into a valance that is tied into the tub surround. Mirrors are framed and free hanging. There is a greater emphasis on lighting and fixtures for these dressier baths. Buyers want sconces on the mirrors and big crystal chandeliers.

"Organization has gone to the top of the charts" for master closets, Brewer says. Clients and closet planners map out in detail what the owners have and how best to store it. Many Simonini clients want a stacked washer/dryer in the master closet, especially if the master suite is on the first level and the children's rooms are upstairs. One trend that is really starting to take off is the more elaborate laundry room. "It's all about more organized and polished housekeeping," says Brewer. In addition to the washer and dryer, a laundry room will also have a place for hand washing, dry hanging, a valet, a small mangle, cabinets to store cleaning products, and facilities for pet care. "There's a lot of demand for pet care."

Emily Rosenthal
Vice President
Rosenthal Homes Bethesda, Md.

Building custom is all about satisfying clients' special needs and requests. Right now, Rosenthal Homes is building two houses with kosher kitchens, which can require two of just about everything. "I came back from [the International Builders' Show] having seen the new KitchenAid dish drawers," with two dishwashers in one unit, she said. "Our clients are very excited about it." She also saw Sharp's microwave drawer at the show, which she plans to use in the basement kitchen of a project under construction.

Another Rosenthal project includes a kitchen for a caterer who wants extra refrigeration in the garage where it could shut down during very cold weather, spoiling the food inside. She also found the solution to this problem at IBS: Whirlpool's Gladiator GarageWorks refrigerator/freezer units specially insulated for the conditions in a garage.

Natural stone is a big trend in Rosenthal's market, but sometimes it can undo a disciplined budget. To cut costs, Rosenthal installed porcelain tile that looks like slate for the master bath of a recent project. "Even the architect couldn't tell the difference," she relates. A computer-generated photographic technique gives the tile a highly realistic and varied look.

Rosenthal is seeing much more demand among her clients for showers with multiple jets, but less demand for whirlpool tubs. Showers are getting bigger to accommodate two people and usually have a rain-shower overhead, six jets, and a hand-held shower for each person. "We've learned that this is the equivalent of running five showers at once, so now we put two hot water heaters in the house."

Gina Spiller
Design Director
Calvis Wyant Luxury Homes, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Master baths are commanding more square footage in Calvis Wyant's homes, but the space is being divided in more personal ways, says Gina Spiller. The trend in the Scottsdale market is for more separation of his-and-hers dressing areas, with sink vanities at opposite ends of the bathroom. Clients also want separate water closets that include a bidet in hers and a urinal in his. Airbaths have overtaken whirlpool tubs in popularity, but everyone wants a walk-in shower with a full set of body sprays.

Coffee/juice bars composed of a small sink, granite countertop, and undercounter refrigerator are the perfect segue between master bath and master bedroom. When they have house guests, owners tell Spiller it gives them a private place for that first cup of joe in the morning. If there is an exercise room attached to the master suite, the juice bar is even more important.

In Calvis Wyant's Spanish Colonial market, there is a lot of emphasis on tile treatments, especially handmade stone mosaics. "People are looking for a lot of character," in their master baths, Spiller says, and they favor an Old World feeling. She finds that oil-rubbed bronze, polished nickel, and satin nickel faucetry in traditional designs suits that look nicely.

The firm's home buyers want kitchens with a lot of Old World character as well. And Calvis Wyant creates it with corbelled and beamed ceiling treatments, granite counters with edges 2 1/2 inches thick, and big carved Cantera stone range hood covers. Recently, clients have been choosing Wolf's 60-inch French top range, so at 7 feet long the range hood has all the impact of a huge fireplace. Spiller says cabinetry is trending toward distressed and multiple-step finishes. "We do lots of raised panels with moldings and trim where the glaze can collect," she says.

John Witt
President
Witt Construction, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

"Kitchens are more and more the hub of the house," says John Witt. "We're now designing the house around the kitchen." He's currently building a "big Victorian" in which the kitchen shares space with the home's living and dining areas. "We keep opening up the kitchen, but also closing it down with some separation to control noise." Witt uses partial walls, bookshelves, kneewalls with columns, and in the case of the Victorian, multiple islands for this purpose.

Custom clients in his upstate New York market want a command center with a computer hook-up, desk, and storage near but not in the kitchen. The command center in the Victorian he's building is in a loft above the kitchen. But Witt will often design a niche for this purpose off the kitchen, with pocket doors that let the owners shut the little work space out of sight.

Granite or soapstone countertops are standard client choices, but today's homeowners want them with a honed surface for a softer, more natural look. Witt often combines them with an exotic wood, like zebrawood or teak. Favorite appliances include a wine refrigerator and an undercounter refrigerator drawer near the prep area where the cook can easily get what she needs.

The shower is dominating the bath in his market, Witt says. Walk-in showers with windows high on the wall for privacy and steam showers are finding their way into his recent homes. He likes shower towers with multiple jets and showerheads for their ease of installation. Vessel sinks seem to be cooling off a little; most home buyers opt for a vessel sink, but not in the master bath. Witt says they are now used almost exclusively in the powder room.