We all know that kitchens now occupy the pivotal position in today’s wide-open floor plans. The kitchen truly has become the center of things, the hub that the rest of the living spaces spin off. Until we started reviewing projects for this issue, I couldn’t imagine that kitchens would get much more open than they already were. But it looks as if that’s where they’re headed, at least (for now) in warmer climates.
Fearless Sunbelt designers are literally pushing beyond the envelope of the house to transform the kitchen into a convertible indoor/outdoor space. We spotted this nascent trend in a number of projects we looked at for this issue, CUSTOM HOME’s 2006 Kitchen & Bath Design Guide. With sliding, folding, stacking, and French doors, homeowners can make the wall between kitchen and patio disappear at will. What’s significant about this idea isn’t so much that it will show up in new homes in all kinds of climates in the years to come (though it may), but that it celebrates the relationship between the kitchen and a home’s outdoor spaces.
This indoor/outdoor connection is probably one of the most useful design features a house can have. It multiplies the utility of both the kitchen and the patio by facilitating easy passage, both physically and visually, between the two for entertaining and for everyday activities. A convertible kitchen can easily serve as a staging area for outdoor dining or parties, as a convenient and water-resistant snack station for the pool and play area, and as a place to keep an eye on kids in the yard while preparing dinner. It’s the right kind of design idea for owners who want a house that lets them lead a casual, outdoor-oriented lifestyle.
But the kitchen isn’t the only room to get the open treatment. More surprising and even more dramatic is the opening of the master bath—to the master bedroom, to the view, and to the great outdoors. This is a trend that seems to have gained traction in the last few years and is one of the most prevalent among the dozens of baths we considered for this issue. An open bath is all about taking pleasure in one’s surroundings; it’s the next step in the development of spa-like baths.
What’s next for kitchens and baths? You’ll see clues among the beautiful examples in this issue. In the future, I think it’s certain we’ll see more ways to open up kitchens and baths as designers explore new ways to throw open the door and let even more fresh air into the two most important rooms in the house.
