A Kitchen Design Blog

It's three years today since I made my first entry in this blog! 

Holding a favorite Scandinavian plate in my kitchen from the island of BornholmMy initial thinking was that I finally had an outlet to talk about, really, to share, my 20+ years of experience as a business owner and Certified Kitchen Designer in nearly ALL types of kitchen design...super luxe high end to builders' condos, all different styles and themes, and kitchens in shades of (environmentally) green. I have lots of experience to draw from, knowledge gained from many sources, hopefully presented with a helpful perspective.

KITCHEN THERAPY VIA BLOGGING

Always an intense student of human behavior (including my own ongoing navel-gazing) as well as being fascinated by the WHYS behind my clients' design decisions, in part, to make sure their decisions are authentic/organic to their needs and/or desires, much of this blog has been dedicated to highlighting potential pitfalls in the decision making process of designing one's kitchen.

Many people do a kitchen once in their lives. If not once, then at most, only a few times more. The decisions made NEED to be as right as they can be at those moments in the design process. It's a time to look in the present, as well as forward, and back, especially, as I help my clients and readers unravel habit vs. desire, as one example. This is a part I love about writing this blog and working with clients whether for a one hour session or for a year and a half project. It's easy and natural for me to "nudge", probing for answers, hopefully in positive ways. I simply love the process, and I'm good at it. I define the "still waters run deep" personality for better or worse...my kids will gladly tell you the "worse" part of my being a deep thinker. Hmm, my husband may too, for that matter.

A REAL PASSION OF MINE

At the time I started this blog, I also immediately thought, "Yes, now I can also share another passion of mine, one that is little known and rarely followed here in the US - Scandinavian kitchens! Yes, I'm completely biased, having a 100% Danish heritage as a first generation Danish-American, having visited my family in and around Copenhagen my whole life.

That said, there IS a quality to many Scandinavian kitchens that is unique, intelligent (not as much "stuff"), and just downright visually interesting - if not always beautiful in a conventional way. I've been lax and am gearing up to show you more of these great kitchens soon. I strongly believe the Scandinavian kitchen is at once classic and always fresh. 

At last count, I have close to 160 magazines from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden in my Scandinavian magazine "library" with a subscription of about 5 right now. They are all in my office, categorized by name and date. Did I tell you I'm just a bit obsessive? Let me tell you about my 200 roses from my previous garden, which we just left a year ago, not to mention the tens of thousands of rose, perennial and garden images in my hard drive. But, I digress. It's a blessing and a curse...but it is a life lived with passion, I'll tell you that! It may be why most of my posts are longer than shorter. 

WHAT'S NEXT?

Hmmm...good question! What would YOU like to learn more about from me? Please share that with me in the comments.

You can absolutely count on my continuing, and intense, observation of lifestyle trends in the home, talking about how new products make our lives delightful, all the large and small things we need to remember as we design our kitchens, and always...the meaning of life in the kitchen!

 I'll continue to (happily-cool food and people) trudge through 20+ kitchen/design events/seminars in New York City in one year, attend several design related conventions in and out of New York, scour the blogs and magazines for new insight, hang with my tweeps on Twitter and chat with fb fans (be a fan!) fly here and there for product training, and read every single press release. How lucky am I? This industry is the BEST.

And my readers? You're REALLY the best, and you feed my soul when you comment. Now, speaking of commenting, I do need to be better at responding to comments, and I will try. I read every one. I have my hand in so many things (big news on a few fronts to come) that there is always something that has to "give" somewhere. But I'll tell you this: the second I get a comment, I stop what I'm doing to read it however long or short it is. They just give me such joy during my day. I pledge to engage more with you, to reciprocate for the joy you give me.

Thank you!

Delta Pilar Faucet - Touch20 Technology

About a month ago, I was asked to review the Delta Pilar Faucet with Touch20 technology and provided the product by Delta. I knew this might be a perfect product for my son Independent Product Analyst to test in my apartment in Manhattan Independent Product Testing Laboratory.

Review aside, do you know what the chances are to get your college kid to return an email, let alone write about a piece of his life on his mom's blog? Reading his review (it was sent to me at 3 am-no surprise there) gave me much insight into features, benefits, and new, learned, behaviors surrounding this faucet technology. Without further ado, here is my son's manifesto comprehensive review (as well as evidence of where my college dollars have gone these past nearly four years-graduation in May 2010!) I think you will enjoy reading this as much as I did. I asked for a paragraph or two, but I couldn't edit it, it's too good!

We are a pair living in New York City, and we love to cook, which is a byproduct of our statuses as near-starving college students.  Therefore, the kitchen is a very important place to us. It's a small space, typical of kitchens found in New York's cramped urban dwellings.  We were thrilled at the opportunity to test the Delta faucet because, not only do we appreciate functional kitchen appliances, but we have a constant bone to pick with germs as well.

Our menus consist of a lot of meat, poultry, and fish, and before I met my girlfriend, cross contamination rarely, if ever, crossed my mind.  Since this realm of enlightenment, for better or for worse, every time I touch meat or fish I wash my hands immediately after.  Washing your meaty hands with a typical faucet is trickier than it sounds if you don’t want to spread any germs, as it usually involves a lot of elbows, wrists, forearms, sometimes even a foot, or a chin, in the attempt to maneuver the faucet lever higher or lower.  As you can see, this was becoming an issue.

Enter shiny new Delta faucet with removable head. The faucet head can be toggled between two different water flows; spray and regular stream, and it is nice to have both options.  There is a magnetic ring that holds the spout in place for easy removal and reattachment, although the head needs to be faced forward for it to take hold. In addition, the water pressure can go quite high which can be useful, and the temperature changes quickly between hot and cold, which means that unintentional scalding happens a lot less.

When we first started playing around with the touch feature of the faucet, we were like cave people at the dawn of time, touching and poking the object and measuring its responses.  In our studies, we found that it could be slightly temperamental, mostly when the area of the faucet being touched is wet.  This isn’t much of an issue since there is a whole lot of other area on the faucet from which the water flow can be activated and deactivated. 

Since we are dish-glove wearers when doing the dishes, it was of utmost importance that we didn’t have to de-glove to turn on and off the faucet, and thankfully we were not disappointed.  And you may ask “how do you move the faucet around then without activating it?”  It is a logical question, but the engineers at Delta have accounted for that, and designed it such that if you touch or grasp the neck and maintain the touch for a few seconds, it will not turn on or off but stay in the same mode.  This is subject to a certain amount of trial and error, however, and will most likely improve as the technology improves.

The old fashioned on and off handle is also “touchified,” which is confusing at times because you can turn the water on by touching and lifting it, although it must be in the lifted position for water to flow.  This reality takes a bit to wrap one's head around, but in the end we think it’s best to leave it lifted all the time, since it won’t turn on otherwise and it would ultimately defeat the purpose of the “touch and go” aspect of the faucet.  

An understandable concern with this, especially for city dwellers is "what happens when a cockroach (they have P.O. boxes in New York City) or rodent, or perhaps a pet, activates the faucet by accident?"  This is entirely possible since it can be sensitive to a small touch, but there is nothing to fret about because it will automatically turn itself off after four minutes (should be half that). Editor's (mom's) note: We do not have said cockroach or rodent issue-if we did, someone's head would be on a platter!

M&M Cooking TogetherSince Manhattan apartments are especially small, we are constantly in or moving around the kitchen area, so we had a lot of contact with the Delta faucet.  Besides the whole germ thing, the touch feature was very convenient just for the fact that you don’t have to reach those extra few inches and lift up the on/off handle; a quick flail of the finger or forearm is all it takes to turn the water on and let us complete our objective. 

The aesthetics of the brushed metal swan neck faucet are elegant, though I would like to see the touch on/off functionality migrate to different designs to suit a broader range of kitchen and bathroom décor.   The soap dispenser is however surprisingly boring, and it would have been nice if Delta could have taken their mission of decreasing cross contamination a step further by implementing an easy touch soap dispensing system.  Nevertheless, the faucet is the focal point of this unit, and deservedly so.  Since our use began, we have denied millions, if not billions, of pesky germs and other toxic bio hazards from inhabiting the surface of our faucet, making it one less pit-stop the little buggers can hitch a ride from.

As the designated but proud germaphobes of the family, we are happy to have this newly found sense of cleanliness and convenience in our lives.  It is a great start to something that I think will catch on for many. I now have the urge to tap every faucet I see to turn it on, which is either just muscle memory or the mark of a good product.  I think it is the latter.

Editor/mom/Susan: Thanks for the review! My personal observations, after light use over a four day period, are also positive. It was a bit confusing at the start as to what position to leave the main lever in, but it's not rocket science. You figure it out. I felt the faucet spout was too long, falling toward the front of our normal sized sink, which means it should be mounted as far back as possible. As far as the concept behind the technology, although I'm a believer (unlike my son) that exposure to germs makes for a healthy immune system (to a point, trust me) I cannot deny the benefits of its time saving (I'm very impatient) attributes. I like efficiency!