The JLC staff receives hundreds of announcements for new kitchen and bath products each year. Some are memorable, others not so much. Most big manufacturers have a range of products to satisfy every taste, so it can be hard to discern trends behind these announcements, but trends are there if you dig a bit. To uncover them we interviewed a variety of K&B product experts, from designers to manufacturers to market researchers. Their insights should help builders and remodelers determine which product types their customers will warm to.
The most important trend is that kitchens and baths continue to be the two areas where homeowners want more space and better space. A recent study by the Research Institute for Cooking & Kitchen Intelligence (RICKI) in North Carolina found that even when buyers are downsizing their homes, only 15% would be willing to accept a smaller kitchen, and just 13% a smaller bath. Nearly half (46%) would sacrifice the family room or living room for that kitchen and bath space.
The reason that's true for the kitchen is that everyone is spending more time there. It is a place for socializing, entertainment, and even work. At the same time, people still have to cook and eat, and in many households the space needs to accommodate two cooks. But there are three obstacles to satisfying these demands. The simplest one is budget; the other two — demand for customization and need for storage — can require some creativity to overcome.
With today's multi-tasking kitchens, it should be no surprise that the RICKI study found a growing interest in customization. "Most people don't want their kitchen to look like everyone else's," says Brenda Bryan, the organization's executive director. The catch is that most also worry about hurting their resale value.
This worry helps explain the popularity of "safe" cabinet choices. "We have gone from traditional cabinetry to transitional designs with clean lines," says Alan Zeilinski, who owns Better Kitchens in Niles, Ill., and was president last year of the National Kitchen & Bath Association. He says that nationwide, the most popular colors for cabinets are whites and off-whites, while stainless steel continues to dominate the appliance world.
The customization is happening in countertops, backsplashes, and — especially — islands. "Buyers are looking at the island like a piece of furniture," says Bryan. "It's a place to make a personal statement." The island's cabinets can be a different color and style from the main cabinets, and there can be two or three counter heights with different countertop materials. If the homeowners want a more consistent look when they sell, changing the island will cost less than changing the look of an entire kitchen. Contractors who understand this might offer a menu of stock cabinets while aggressively promoting their custom island designs.
People who use the kitchen more also tend to want to keep more stuff in it. Consequently, storage budgets are rising, with 44% of respondents in the RICKI study spending more on this item. Designers are specifying taller cabinets and more walk-in pantries, while manufacturers are responding with enough new storage and organization products to meet anyone's needs.
Storage is also in demand for the bath. "We're seeing a decline in pedestals even for small baths, because there's no way to store things," says Zeilinski. "We're also seeing more demand for wall-hung storage."
Another thing people want with them in the kitchen is their gadgets and music, and that's especially true of younger buyers, according to our experts. They suggest including nooks or shelves for wireless speakers in the kitchen and bath, and dedicated charging stations for tablets or smartphones in the kitchen. "Many people want to play music, watch a movie on the tablet, or talk on the phone while cooking," says Bryan.
Surfaces
Surfaces are where budgets and customization meet. The RICKI study found that along with more partial remodeling (people changing cabinet faces, backsplashes, and countertops), there has been more demand for better counters.
The countertop trade is dominated by small fabricators, so there are no hard numbers on how much of what materials are being installed. But Kevin Cole, communications director with the International Surface Fabricators Association, says that his experience with fabricators across the country suggests the following rough estimates, based on the square footage of each material installed.
- Laminate: about 55% (of total)
- Solid surface: a little over 12%
- Natural stone: 9%
- Engineered stone: 7%
- Tile: 7%
- Cast products (polymers and concrete-based): 7%
- Other (stainless steel, glass, for example): 3%
Laminate's high share reflects its dominance in entry-level homes, but stone has taken the lead in remodeling, with installed square footage growing 9% or 10% per year. The lion's share of that is still granite, although engineered stone has been gaining. This is especially true for recycled products like Cosentino's Eco. Customers are also more willing than ever to experiment with different counter combinations. As mentioned above, mixing of materials is becoming more common, so you're seeing more projects with a solid-surface counter, a granite island, and a tile backsplash.
Fixtures
When it comes to fixtures, consumers have come to expect water savings, though much of that trend is driven by government regulations. What really pushes their buttons is ease of use. Happily, today's fixtures satisfy both desires.
The best fixtures are engineered to reduce everyday frustrations. Cooks with food-caked hands usually work lever faucets with the elbows, but a growing number of companies — Moen, Kohler, Delta, and Daze, for instance — now make hands-free models that are activated by waving a hand or utensil beneath the spout, or by simply touching any part of the faucet. These and other companies — such as American Standard, Chicago Faucets, and Speakman — also offer residential hands-free bath faucets.
There are also electronic showering systems that can be programmed to give each family member a particular temperature and flow rate, although designers say that the market for these is small. However, a surprising number of buyers are interested in custom shower systems with steam, according to Sam Rose, director of Showroom and Builder Business Development at Ferguson Bath, Kitchen, and Lighting Gallery. "We're getting more requests for these than ever. It's a part of the bath that has been underemphasized by distributors."
Another priority in the bathroom is saving space. One solution is Kohler's new Veil wall-hung toilet. Because the tank is embedded in the wall behind an access plate (it requires 2x6 framing), the toilet protrudes only 21 inches into the room (compared with 28 inches for a standard round-bowl toilet and 31 inches for an elongated bowl). And the wall-hung design makes cleaning a lot easier.
Companies are also prioritizing new aging-in-place products, but doing so in a way that doesn't call attention to the fact. For example, American Standard's Champion Pro toilet is designed to meet ADA requirements — but don't expect it to be described as such. "We call it 'right height,'" says Gray Uhl, the company's design director. Walk-in tubs and accessible showers are also in demand, so expect new products in those areas. "The big focus in the next few years will be to continue developing new multigenerational products and accomplishing more in less space, with less water," Uhl says.
Some trends seem counterintuitive — like the growing popularity of the freestanding tub. Even as contemporary design becomes more common in the kitchen, Rose says, traditional styling still rules in the bath.
Spending trends. How have remodeling budgets changed compared with two years ago? According to the Research Institute for Cooking & Kitchen Intelligence (RICKI), consumers have upped spending on storage and organizational features more than any other category, even while their overall cabinet budgets have decreased. Part of the reason is that more people are upgrading their existing cabinets rather than buying new ones.
Appliances: More Time in the Kitchen
Just as with fixtures, the top sellers among appliances are those that address day-to-day frustrations. Take the French-door refrigerator with a bottom freezer, an arrangement that makes both boxes more accessible. This design has been a real home run for manufacturers, and everyone we spoke with reported brisk sales.
The latest appliances come with lots of embedded technologies, but the question is always whether they enhance usability. "People don't want technology for its own sake; they want it to be functional," says Bryan. While being able to control the oven from a smartphone has appeal to what Rose calls "the aspirational customer," it's not where most price-driven customers want to spend their budget.
Among the new technologies that show promise are enhancements to the fridge's water dispenser. For instance, GE has added a hot-water dispenser, an auto-fill option, and advanced filtration. The company says the new filter even removes trace amounts of pharmaceuticals from the water.
In dishwashers the most requested feature is silence, a consequence of people spending more time in the kitchen. "If you talk to manufacturers you would think that cleanability is the number one thing, but people assume that the machine will get dishes clean," says Zeilinski. "The feature they continue to lock in on is quiet." He adds that demand has dropped somewhat for integral dishwashers — those with the controls hidden on the top of the door — because of cost. "In 2012 integral was 60%, now it's about 56%."
Vent-hood makers have heard the outcry for quiet and are responding with veritable stealth models. Manufacturers publish different sound ratings for their low and high blower speeds; most of the development has gone into making blowers quieter at low speeds, to encourage users to keep them on longer. (High speeds are meant for spot ventilation, such as when someone burns a steak, so sound is less of an issue.) "Compared to five years ago, sound levels have probably dropped 30% to 40% in our products," says Brian Wellnitz, a marketing manager at Broan-Nutone. He says the company's IQ Blower system puts out only 1.5 sones, barely enough to hear, and that sound levels at high-speed settings have dropped 10% to 15%. The blower's digital motor uses only 4 to 8 watts of electricity.
At least one model also aims for visual stealth. The Best Sorpresa Cirrus model from Broan-Nutone is mounted flush to the ceiling and can be ordered with blower options of up to 1,200 cfm. The manufacturer claims that its perimeter aspiration technology increases air velocity by pulling air in around the edges and the center, rather than through a large filter area.
In the realm of cooking, Bryan says that RICKI's research found one of the fastest growing products to be the double oven range, which places a small oven box above the main oven. It's great for heating things up, and is more efficient from an energy-use standpoint.
The growing need to service multiple cooks is making point-of-use appliances mainstream among people who can afford them. "It used to be assumed that clients wanted a big fridge," says Zeilinski. "Now a lot of them prefer multiple smaller refrigerators and refrigerator drawers."
Zeilinski says that fewer people want to be stuck buying all their appliances from the same manufacturer. Instead, more of them are cherry-picking: shopping different manufacturers' products to get the features they care about and to make their budget dollars go further.
Lighting
Today's lighting products illuminate two trends mentioned above: They support aging in place by providing ample task illumination for people with declining vision, and they add class to even the simplest kitchen or bath. Rose, for one, says that his customers have been putting more emphasis on lighting. "Consumers are looking at lighting as the jewelry of the home. And more and more builders, remodelers, and designers see it as a way to put a real finishing touch on a kitchen or bath."
Of course, the big news in lighting is LEDs. The best models are now dimmable, have color renderings that mimic incandescents, and are omnidirectional. That last feature is accomplished with small light sources inside the globe that point in different directions.
Today's LEDs cost less and use less electricity per watt. Cree just came out with screw-in LEDs that are shaped like incandescents, shine just as brightly, and cost just $10 to $13. Philips is selling one for around $15.
On the energy side, manufacturers have made huge gains. According to Steve Nadell, president of Troy-CSL Lighting, outputs of his company's products have increased from 25 lumens to around 200 lumens per watt. This is made possible, in part, by more effective internal heat sinks, which let LEDs burn brighter without sacrificing service life.
Speaking of heat, consumers like that LEDs put out less of it than incandescents or halogens. "We converted our showroom to LEDs," says Zeilinski. "It has taken a big load off of the air conditioning, and customers comment about the lack of hot spots."
What's Next?
Our experts believe that the next five years will see the above trends continue with some new twists. While most expect to see continued growth in stone countertops, some also predict more preference for black appliances as younger buyers take over the market. There will also be more technology in the kitchen and bath, with affluent young buyers the main audience for remote control via smartphone apps, whether used to start the oven or program the electronic shower.
Aging-in-place will remain a big factor for the next few decades. Expect more and better task lighting as designers and engineers look for ways to make life easier for aging clients. Also expect more nonslip flooring, a wider range of dishwashers elevated off the floor to reduce bending, and a greater selection of wall ovens with side-swing doors. In fact, that side-swing oven door is typical of a lot of new products, says Bryan: "It may not be mainstream yet, but consumers are asking for it."
Charles Wardellis a JLC contributing editor.
