Courtesy archdaily

At first I fell in love with the back elevation of this kitchen. Then I realized there was this indigo blue island in-front. Although I’m not a fan of vivid colours in a kitchen, perhaps it’s the cleanliness, I found that overall this is smart, symmetrical, and interesting. Pump up the jam.

Source: TreeHugger.com

I’ve been on this black & white kick lately. Everything I want to design has to have black & white. It’s a struggle, believe me, especially when clients want wood.

Living in a smaller West End space myself, I have to find unique and interesting ways to use space, and one way is with white. You can see from this 185 Sq. Ft. (17 sq. m.) apartment for sale in Gothenburg, Sweden, that the predominant use of positive and negative makes the space feel huge. What it also does, is makes the other colours pop from their background. Not to say that you can’t do this with another colour, say the Black Apartment, but you can see how the white makes you feel fresh and crisp, while an opposite use of black as the primary colour would make you feel sexy and sleek.

I’m off to plan a white shirt rebellion.

Source: TreeHugger.com

I feel like I have so much catching up to do, so I’m going to start with the most amazing factory tour of Merit Kitchens I had last week. I can’t not begin to tell you how proud I am to be able to specify this product every single day. The craftsmanship, the quality assurance, the no-frills extras… these are just a few bits of the greatest parts of Merit Kitchens. Here’s a peak a the behind the scenes:

]]> http://coreyklassen.ca/2010/04/28/awe-cabinetry/feed/ 0 http://coreyklassen.ca/2010/03/04/digital-photo-backsplash-hit-or-miss/ http://coreyklassen.ca/2010/03/04/digital-photo-backsplash-hit-or-miss/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:56:55 +0000 Corey http://coreyklassen.ca/?p=2166

So I’m reading my feeds this morning and I’m doing my usual scan for my chic picks and eco-chic picks (which are new categories I just added because I love the label) and I came across this:

After I finished throwing up (because this is a disgustingly gross picture, I mean, the least Okhyo could have done here is added a sexy or sentual picture that makes you want to clean yourself rather than feel like you’re being dumped on by a thousands pounds of water) I came across the kitchen backsplash pic which is much more interesting:

Now, be warned that this isn’t really something that we should all rush out and do to our backspashes because, afterall, there is a bit of a goddy factor when considering your photo backsplash; but I think it’s a cool idea for a more minimalist space.

Is it a hit or a miss?

via Unplggd

Look. Really observe closely. This could be the future kitchen… I’m just totally speechless because it’s so amazing. This is, not only how we could cook, but lead our lives in the not so distant future. Wow. Major props to Henrik Otto at Electrolux. More here.

Image courtesty stayingLEVELvia Flickr

In the last 7 years, there has been a major increase in renovation and construction in Vancouver, BC and when Wall Street was dealing with the sub-prime mortgage fiasco, Vancouverites generally didn’t blink an eye. Some larger corporations were affected, and they laid off workforce that worked satellite out of Vancouver (some of these people are still looking for work) but generally the economy dialed up in VanCity. Everyone is still renovating, and they’re always doing the kitchen first. But it’s not all roses, sunshine (HA!), and unicorns in this bubble of a Rainy City and the grass may be green in the coldest of months, but it’s has me wondering if it is greener.

Mayor Gregor has made his promises to become the Green City Capital. He also wants to change major traffic routes, increase public transportation funding, and reward urban density and sustainable developments. We’ve recently been granted Laneway Housing, which basically means you can tear down your garage and build a smaller slab-on-grade home. But the Millennium Water (Athletes Village) has been plagued with construction problems and the city had to downgrade their credit rating and fund the additional $150Mil in budget shortfall. For those who don’t know, Vancouver proper has no where to go but up – just like Manhattan – and there are very few vacant lots or character homes to purchase. This all formulates to a building frenzy and as an Interior Designer in this special market, I can’t help but wonder what happens after the post-Olympic exodus.

Image courtesy luv and revolution via Flickr.

“[T]he victory may be short-lived, with experts predicting the bubble will pop when the harmonized sales tax kicks in on July 1.” writes Raphael Alexander for the Vancouver Sun (February 22, 2010) “Homebuyers will likely advance their demand for houses before the HST is implemented, meaning fewer purchases in late 2010 and early 2011.”

But Paul Jenkins, Senior Deputy Governor for the Bank of Canada, has a different opinion. “I would certainly not say we are looking at a housing bubble,” says Jenkins (Mordant, Reuters, February 22, 2010)

I thought I needed to look at some more concrete economic data and remembered that I sat thru a presentation by Bernie Magnan, Chief Economist at the Vancouver Board of Trade, about a month back, and he’s predicting a reasonable GDP increase over 2010, especially in construction and lumber. The Economist ranks Vancouver the most livable city in the world. It appears that rental vacancies will be going up after the Olympics as a migrant workforce returns home so it looks like they will level off, but real estate sales are increasing steadily. I have a good source in the rental placement industry, and landlords are scrambling this month without monthly tenacy rate reductions. For example, $1,050 for a 450 square foot 1 Bedroom apartment or $5,995 for a 3Bedroom penthouse seem a bit on the steep side for what you’re really getting.

So there may be a vacuum in Vancouver (VAN-cuum, HA!), but I guess there’s really only one conclusion, kitchen and bath sales can only go up from here. So I say, let’s pimp those kitchens and bathrooms like there’s no tomorrow!

How envious am I of all the designers on the East Coast who headed out to the Brizo show. Their tweets were endless… and only agrivating because I SO wanted to be there. Other than a bunch of kitchen fittings, I’m sure that I don’t have to tell you that the biggest tease was about Jason Wu’s collaboration with Brizo at New York’s Fashion Week 2010. Could I be any more envious?

Just to translate the magnitude of Brizo for non-design types, it’s like the iPhone… super cool, super slick, and so very chic. But when I say that New York City is a buzz with Brizo, I really mean the world, and when I say the world, I really mean the Milky Way Galaxy. The form of the 2010 faucet collection is, to say the least, very organic, vulva even. I mean, who would have thought that I would look at a faucet (above) and think of curves, sex, sensuality, and nature. A facet, after all, has but a couple of functions like dispensing water and pulling the stop of a sink but you’ll never buy another faucet when you have one that is as an ephemeral experience such as the fixtures being pumped out by Brizo.

What surprised me most about the Brizo collection were the faucets that I was personally attracted to. I’ve always been very classical in design with punches and hits of inspiration, but what I found was that I was drawn to the hyper-modern and the modern designs that were geometric. Now, this may not be a shock to some of you, but I’ve always love organic sculpture and, in fact, I produced bio-morphic sculpture during my degree at the School of Art in Winnipeg.

Overall I am impressed by Brizo. I hope to see much more of it, and I hope to enjoy the lucky client to let’s me specify it.