The Crowning Glory

In over 30 years of working in the building/remodeling industry, I have seen amazing changes in styles of everything from appliances and flooring to decorative hardware and countertop materials. One thing that has blossomed into particular focus is the assortment of moldings offered by manufacturers to “accessorized” your kitchen cabinetry.

20 years ago when I remodeled my own kitchen, 42” high wall cabinets were getting popular. Elimination of the need for the bulky, boxy bulkhead, and gaining another 12” of dish storage was here to stay. Cabinets were set clear up to the ceiling, which was never exactly level, and some type of molding was required. I used a small but decorative cove type molding, and I thought it looked great. Nowadays, we have many more choices of not only moldings, but even combinations of moldings. Why do we have so many choices to make?? Just look at the yogurt section of the dairy case in your grocery store. We demand variety! 







Another addition to the arsenal for a designer, is the introduction of an idea which beautifully highlights the shapes of crown moldings. We call this “Staggered” moldings. This technique places several taller, deeper cabinets clear to the ceiling only in strategic locations. Often they are the diagonal corner wall cabinet, the refrigerator cabinet, and perhaps an oven or pantry cabinet. I then use somewhat shorter wall cabinets to fill in. The result is more mitering of the crown molding which truly displays their shapes and beauty much more than just running it across in a straight line of cabinets. This creates visual interest and movement and prevents the doors from becoming a “wall of wood”. It’s tricky though, and does take careful planning. 

The Great Divide

When I’m helping clients design a new kitchen, I show them some cool ways I’ve found to manage the storage of some odd shaped items. The baking sheets, pizza pans, roasting pans, cutting boards, and muffin tins can be extremely difficult to extract if they are all stacked on top of each other. Inevitably, the one you want is on the bottom. Thankfully, these items and others can be organized neatly in small spaces with dividers installed in various cabinets. Tray dividers are vertical partitions or metal racks that enable the cook to find an item and easily slide it out for immediate use. These work well in spots that might otherwise be tough to reach. I like to see them above the refrigerator in the deep wall cabinet I place above. Even a shorter cook can usually reach the bottom corner of a pizza pan or cookie sheet. They are standing up like books on a shelf. Easy peasy!

Other types of dividers can be arranged in drawers to corral all those odd-shaped items we seem to collect. I know I don’t use my pastry blender very often,(apple pie maybe twice a year) but when I want it, I have a space designed exactly to fit it. The apple corer fits right under it. The Container Store (I love this place) sells a system to arrange items in drawers which was designed by a woman in California. She realized that with rigid plexi type plastic, the only tool necessary to cut a straigt line was a razor blade. All you have to do is score it along a straight edge and snap the pieces over the edge of your counter or table. In the kit are also some peel and stick u-shaped channels that allow you to keep the rigid dividers in place in the drawer and to each other. I took all those wicked kitchen tools out and arranged them on my counter first. I like having the most often used ones closest, and the weirder ones at the back of the drawer. Now I have a perfect place for even the shish-kebob skewers. That’s power! I got so excited I went back and bought more. I now have a special drawer for the plastic picnic flatware, the special spoons for pho noodle soup and even birthday candles.

Ten Reasons People Remodel

When I meet clients in the showroom, we first sit down and I try to learn something about their family and their home. Depending on the age of the house, and how they would like the new room to function, certain topics almost always come up. I don’t have to ask them why they want to remodel their kitchen, but these are reasons I often hear:

Top Ten reasons you want to Remodel your kitchen:

10) The appliances are dying

9) The floor is shot

8) There is horrible lighting 

7) Not enough storage and what is there is hard to reach

6) The Formica counter top has seen better days

Spice is Nice

Your kitchen may be a very clean and organized space. Perhaps you know exactly where every single item is. Good for you. If not, please know we are used to helping people solve some of their problems with organization in this most often used space.

As we begin the process of designing a kitchen for a client, there are typical questions that help us understand how the current kitchen does or doesn’t work. We then know how to proceed to correct problem areas. One common complaint is storage and retrieval of spices. The bottles are small, and often hard to reach, but most often almost impossible to find. I find the analogy of a library a good starting point for explaining how we can help make this problem go away. Imagine going into a Library to find a specific book. The books are on the shelves, but they are going every which way, and the titles are all turned where we cannot see them. That’s the frustration you feel when you are searching for that tiny container of Cream of Tartar. Some solutions:

Me and my Mud (Room)

Long ago, the mudroom of a house was the area between the outside of the house and the inside. In winter ice and snow, and in spring with constant rain, this room with it’s tile floor was a barrier to keep mud off the finished wood floors of the house proper. In households with animals such as horses, you can imagine the dirt that otherwise would have been tracked inside.

Nowadays, I hear clients referring to their “mudroom” but most often I find it is the laundry room between the garage and the kitchen. We have been referring to this as the “Family Foyer” because guests use the formal front door, but the family goes in and out this informal “mudroom”. For families with children, this room can become a problem as the kids routinely dump the coats, backpacks, shoes and sporting equipment on the floor when they come home. What can be done?

We have been working in some solutions to such an area and making it pull double duty. This can be a place to store out of season outerwear and shoes if we can build up to the ceiling. (mittens/hats/ beach towels/ flip flops) Depending on how large the area is, we can create cubbies, often with coat hooks and a place to sit so that it’s easy to hang up the coats and back packs and put on, take off, and store shoes and boots. It’s also a great place for mom and dad to park some of their gear so it doesn’t wind up on the kitchen counters. A “charging” zone can be created for the various rechargeable devices (phones, cameras, GPS, laptop, I-pods) that could develop into a snake nest of wires in the more public parts of you home.

NARI President's Breakfast

Kleppinger Design Group hosted the NARI President's Breakfast on Sept. 23rd. June Stanish was on hand to snap a few pictures of the casual networking event. The monthly NARI President's Breakfast is an opportunity for NARI members and potential members to talk with the NARI Metro DC President Jerry Levine.

Tupperware Nightmare

Let’s face it. Getting dinner on the table is a big enough chore. There’s the planning, the shopping, the prep work, the retrieval of all the cookware, the actual cooking, and the endless clean up. Can we make this easier please????
I have worked with many families over the years to help them create their perfect dream kitchen. Each project presents me with a unique challenge which needs specific solutions to make life easier. Some areas are a common problem, but we have great ways to address them.
One complaint I almost know I’m going to hear about is the nightmare of the plastic containers we lovingly call Tupperware. There is no question that it is tough to store and retrieve. The lids go missing as they seem to jump off the shelf. Finding the right size container with a matching lid is frustrating at best.

iPad for the Kitchen

The iPad may be the best solution for those looking for a way to have easy access to recipes, music and more in their kitchen. Not many people will go to the extent of cutting out the cabinet center panel and mounting the iPad behind the door, but it does make an interesting conversation piece. Check out a video demo and find out more about this unique iPad cabinet installation at technolog.ie.

More options for are becoming available everyday with many computer manufacturer experimenting with touch screen interfaces. The HP TouchSmart is a desktop PC designed to let users call up pictures, music, and email on the flat screen monitor with the just a touch. It also can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse.

Shiloh Offers Inset Door Style

Shiloh Cabinetry is now offering flush and beaded inset style doors. To see some of the door styles and finishes stop by the KDG showroom or visit the Shiloh website.

Crystal's Homestead Finishes

Furniture that has the look of generations of wear.

Crystal's new Signature Homestead finish represents the look of furniture or wood that has had two layers of finish applied, and through generations of wear, the top layer of finish has partially worn off to expose the finish underneath. The wearing of the top finish layer, and the sanding of the raw wood is hand done, thus creating a timeless, handcrafted look for your cabinetry.