Top Five Kitchen Trends

Last month's Kitchen and Bath Industry show, where over 1,000 companies exhibited new products, gave insight into the latest trends. This year's kitchen features products that are: earth-friendly; high-tech; colorful; designed for fresh, healthy food preparation; and all about convenience-meets-multifunctionality. Here's a peek at products that embody these top five trends in kitchens...

1. Earth-Friendly
Green is in all over the house—perhaps most of all in the kitchen. Renewable and recycled, environmentally safe, and energy-efficient products abound.

Sustainable Tabletop
Teragren's formaldehyde-free, food-safe bamboo parquet butcher block, available in natural or caramelized colors, is perfect for kitchen counters and tabletops. Also shown is the company's Studio wide-plank floating floor, which is available in vertical or flat grain; it features TeraLoc, a self-locking system that requires no adhesive. Made with environmentally safe materials from rapidly renewable Optimum 5.5™ Moso bamboo, Teragren products are as green as they are stylish.

Safe Surface
The EQcountertop from VT Industries uses a low-emitting particleboard core, water-based adhesives, and Greenguard indoor air quality-certified laminates (from laminate manufacturing partners) to offer a green, healthy surfacing option. Shown is VT's Nova profile with Wilsonart's mesa gold laminate.

2. High-Tech
The kitchen of the future is here now, chock full of techie elements that meld functionality with fun.

Now You See It, Now You Don't
If you think cleaning your gas stovetop is a drag, you will love Fisher & Paykel's Project Luna stovetop. A frameless piece of 36-by-16-inch black glass supports three individual glass burners that, when not in use, retract flush into the surface. A button prompts them into place for cooking. The Aero burners offer a sparkless ignition and an instantaneous flame, ideal for precision cooking. Due out in the U.S. market next year. Fisher & Paykel

3. Colorful
Stainless steel might never go out of style, but it's sure losing some steam against this year's bright appliance hues.

Dishwasher with Personality
As part of its Preference collection, Dacor recently introduced 24-inch dishwashers in an array of colors. A floating glass front panel is available in six colors: anthracite gray, sterling gray, titanium silver, blue water, slate green (shown), and black.

4. Fresh and Healthy
Companies are catering to nutrition-conscious consumers with products that help keep cooking healthy.

Faucet Filter
Enjoy the freshness of filtered water at your own sink with Kohler's Carafe kitchen, which integrates a water filtration system. A single-lever operation and 360-degree swivel spout keep it all together in one stylish fixture.

Clean Copper
Copper's natural antibacterial properties make Native Trail's offerings especially alluring. The Farmhouse Duet recycled copper sink with a double basin and exposed apron front is available in an antique copper finish (shown) or a new brushed nickel finish.

5. Convenient and Multifunctional
This year's products pack it in for multitasking, time-challenged consumers.

Super Sink
A sink is no longer just a sink with Franke's new Active Kitchen collection. The Mythos sink system (shown) offers an array of accessories including a flexible, tempered satin glass preparation board, a colander, and drain tray. It is available with Franke's rail system for handle mounted components, a pull-out sprayhead faucet, and a matching Mythos vent hood.

Easy Switch
Satisfy your craving for change with Broan's new ready-to-hang decorative backsplashes. These tumbled-marble, pre-assembled fields of tile hang with all the permanence of a picture frame. It's available in four designs, each in a brushed aluminum frame.

Source: This Old House
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Food Trends In 2009

Apartment Therapy offers the following article on what they believe will be the trends in the foods we'll be eating in 2009 and why we'll be making certain choices.
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What will 2009 bring to our tables? What will be the big stories, the hot new trends, the foods everyone is talking about? Well, at the risk of sounding terribly blasé, we really think that there is nothing new in the world of food; trends come and go, tastes swing to and fro on a predictable schedule, and through it all, good cooking endures.

Having said that, here are some of our thoughts on what sorts of good cooking will be most popular this year.

It's the Economy, Stupid.

It may be cliché by now, but it's still true. In 2009, the food climate will be dominated by the economic outlook. Here are some of the ways we think that will play out.

• Fridge-clearing cooking: Dishes, in fact entire meals, made from what's in the kitchen. Everything but the kitchen sink style. The obvious applications are soups and casseroles, but we think people will take this way of cooking beyond comfort food, creating salads, pizzas, grains and even desserts with on-hand ingredients instead of doing a big shop.

• More pig: We think the pork trend will continue, with cooks getting even more friendly with a wider range of pork products like guanciale (cured pork jowel), speck (smoked prosciutto), and lardo (cured pig fat from just beneath the skin).

• The emphasis on cheap cuts of meat won't end with the pig; look for more recipes for beef short ribs, shank, shoulders.

• Even cheap meat, though, will be less popular than the almighty egg. Even organic local eggs are cheaper than meat; look for them as a cheap source of protein in many dishes this year.

• Beans will be big. We also think will be an increased emphasis on cooking with beans. They are affordable, fun, and comforting in these strange times. Let the new Rancho Gordo cook book be our guide in 2009. (Look for a review this week.)

• We think this sensitivity to budget concerns will also play out in the local/organic/seasonal movement. Except, when people make decisions to buy from sources close to home, they'll be doing so for economic reasons as much as idealism.

• We think that the organics industry will be under increasing pressure to lower prices as people make cost-cutting decisions to buy only the organics they think are strictly necessary. Will this lower organic standards and principles? We hope not.

Food for Pleasure

And yet the economy isn't the only news in town. As people cut back, we predict that they'll find pleasure and luxury in the relatively low-cost world of food. We predict a renaissance of American cooking as cooks stay in instead of dining out. Here are some of the flavors and trends we think will be popular.

• Upscale comfort food: Mashed potatoes, glammed-up casseroles, towering layer cakes, and a return to home baking.

• Small indulgences will get all the attention: Really good coffee, high-end chocolate, and great cheese will be allowable indulgences in exchange for tightening budgets and fewer restaurant meals.

• The cupcake will die. And resurrect. Those cupcakes! They really are out, and yet their unsurpassable cuteness means they will always have a life in the blogosphere. Although, we think that mini layered cakes or those CakePops have a chance to supplant them eventually.

• Look for a cheese course, instead of a sweet dessert.

• We hope 2009 will mark the return of small independent butchers. Cheers to Tom Mylan's new butcher shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He emphasises local, humanely raised meet. We're really hoping to see more shops like this, please.

• Desserts with a savory ingredient: peppered panna cotta, soufflé with fennel and of course, herbed ice creams.

• We're seeing many more potato chips, both homemade and purchased from local and artisan makers.

• Also hosts had shunned dip as too old fashioned or plain. There's nothing wrong with some homemade onion dip in 2009, just hold the soup mix please. Have fun and experiment with your own homemade dips. This can be a good way to use up extra bits of spices too.

• And of course, we have a new President as of January 20. What will be served at the White House? We think there will be a lot of interest and focus on presidential eats over the first few months of the year, and hopefully a renewed course of public policy aimed at making American food even better.

Those are our slightly obvious, slightly tongue-in-cheek predictions for 2009. But whatever happens, we promise that we'll be here blogging food, cooking, and (hopefully) good ideas for the entire year to come. Do you have any hopes for this year, or topics you'd like to see covered? Tell us, and throw in your predictions too.

(Images, clockwise from left: Ojo de Tigre Ranch Gordo beans, from Village Market; Kevin Demaria for Gourmet.com; and Speck dell'Alto Adige at Formaggio Kitchen.)

Pork and Beans: Food and Cooking Predictions for 2009

10 Interior Design Trends For 2009

What are the projected trends for 2009? From which corners of the earth will they come? What color palettes will grace our homes over the next decade? There are trend watchers whose business it is to let us in on the secrets. Point Click Home has compiled a group of trends for the coming year and probably decade. You'll find ten of their selections below, but check out the entire group here.

TREND: Glacier
Icicles are a staple of the wintertime theme but these Dolce Villa Decoration designs are non-conformist in every way. Dangling from a porcelain white rim, these spindly icicles take “glacier” to its most modern edge.

TREND: Glacier
Hand-blown vases by Egizia in clear and polar white patterns read like snowflakes or a modern lace. Also available in clear, each vase can be transformed into a candleholder radiating flickering patterns of light.

TREND: Red and Orange Palette
Fire engine-red and flaming orange warm up the tabletop arena this season. Le Jacquard Français sets the table with spicy tones and zippy stripes in all shades with 100% cotton.

TREND: Modern Patchwork
These gorgeous silk pillows in red, plum, and pink by Asiatides have graphic punch that won’t take a back seat. There’s something nice about big pillows in attention-getting colors.

TREND: Mustard and Plum Palette
When it comes to fanciful dinnerware Porzellanmaufakur Reichenbach manages to combine the playful with the sublime. On these pistachio green serving plates edged in gold 3-d pincher bugs double as decoration and a clever handle. They stack beautifully with purple dinner plates and serving bowls.

TREND: Mustard and Plum Palette
Paisley may seem classic but this updated color combination seen at Bagnaresi Casa is fashion-forward and distinct. In this regal pattern, purple and yellow find their earthier hues.

TREND: Mustard and Plum Palette
These dark plum pillows by L'Opificio can be made to measure and customized in special color combinations and fabrics. Luxurious and refined these Italian beauties come in linen, velvet, silk, and brocade.

TREND: Caravan
A revival of interest in eastern European folk art has generated a wealth of new products at Asia Tides, including these graphic tea canisters in bold concentric vine patterns.

TREND: Caravan
Russian nesting dolls become cutting-edge décor in tinted glass by LSA International . Stack them up for a layered translucent effect. Pop Russian style is utterly cool in glass.

TREND: Caravan
At Becara, suzani patterns inspired by handcrafted coverlets from Uzbekistan are bursting into the limelight. Not for the pattern-shy, their upholstery on fabrics, rugs and pillows bring ethnic punch to home décor.