Cabinet & Furniture Trends & Information

Electrolux ICON Designer Coffee Maker E24CM75GSS

 

 

“Java”

 

Every now and again as I’m researching these blogs I find myself wondering what kind of things I would include in my kitchen if price meant nothing at all to me. And one of the items I came across in that regard, namely the Electrolux ICON™ Designer Built-in Coffee Maker seemed, at first blush to fall into that category. But the more I look at all the things this item does and then compare it to both its $2700 price tag and the reputation of Electrolux itself, the more convinced I am that it is actually a modestly-priced necessity, and I say that even though it does NOT dispense beer!

What this coffee maker does is a little bit of everything, in so far as coffee is concerned, that is. But if you’re like my wife—man, do NOT talk to her until she’s had her coffee in the morning!—that’s a great plenty.

Actually, there is a lot to like in this coffee maker. Start with the fact that it is a 24″ Built-in Coffee Maker with Automatic Grinding and Brewing. And for someone who is as serious as the wife about her coffee, this just has to be the ticket. But I have to say that all the attention she pays to this familiar brew makes a difference. She cleans the coffee maker every thirty days and insists on making the coffee herself (that’s worth pointing out because we don’t have a conventional wife-kitchen/husband-grunt-work marriage) because she thinks she does a better job. OK, OK, she does! But I bring that up because some years back my mother gave us a coffee grinder that she used on weekends for that wonderful cup of coffee from fresh-ground beans. But during the week there’s never really time for that sort of thing, so it eventually fell into disuse.

Well, now. Electrolux has solved all that with their Beverage Dispensing Compartments. They have actually included two separate compartments to enable one to quickly choose between regular pre-ground coffee and whole coffee beans. You simply load them up on a regular basis, and on a day-to-day basis, push a couple of buttons, and you’re good to go. They also have a Stainless Steel Dispenser with two spouts, which enables the user to dispense two cups of freshly brewed coffee at one time, which is probably the very feature that would push this baby over the top, as far as the wife is concerned.

She does not like old coffee. In fact, if I get up before her on the weekends, I simply wait until she gets up to have my coffee, because her first question was always, “How old is this coffee?” Now, to me, that really never mattered very much, but over the years, I came to realize that old coffee loses a lot in flavor, becoming rather bitter. The best coffee, really, is the first cup from the new pot. With the Electrolux coffee maker, that’s what you get with every cup—fresh brewed!

But wait, there’s more! The Electrolux ICON™ also has a tamping system program which is designed to work in conjunction with the reverse water flow to bring out the full flavor in espressos. And did I mention the blue display lighting that illuminates the function buttons and brewing compartment with the touch of a switch?

All in all, you really cannot get past the fact that it’s a lot of price for a coffee maker. But it is also a lot of coffee maker for the price! And if a full kitchen remodeling is on your agenda of things to do, for less than three thousand more (your project is in the forties, right?), you can have a state-of-the-art coffee maker. And that ain’t jive!

Joseph

Stone Forest Powder Room Bathroom Designs

 

 

“Stones Will Play”

 

In the south of China there is an area of some 150 square miles formed of what was once a seabed, but which rose and some 200 million years ago became a towering, elaborate limestone rock formation that is called, with every justification, the stone forest. It has been exposed to the wind and the rain, and over that staggering period of time, it has been shaped and twisted into stone peaks, pillars, and stalagmites so that it now looks like nothing less than a stone forest, extending off to the horizon and beyond, as far as the eye can see. I know it’s really a stretch to say something like this, but maybe this is the sort of thing that first inspired man to do what he does with a hammer and chisel and a piece of stone. But wherever that inspiration first arose in the distant mists of prehistory, it is a fact that man is forever seeking out the new, the abstract, the untried, the different, the exotic. All of which is a rather elaborate way of introducing another Stone Forest of which I am acquainted and which, in its own way, is every bit as stimulating as the one found in China.

Stone Forest is an American company located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and since 1989 they have been creating hand-carved granite sculptures that combine the elegant simplicity of Japanese tradition and contemporary design. All of the designs are their own, which I like, and they use granite and other natural stones, not just some man-made material such as cement or cast stone. We live in an age where everything is machine-made and artificial, so I find it particularly intriguing to have come across a company that not only makes their own, but insists on carving their own… from solid blocks of stone!

A lot of Stone Forest’s work—like their Chinese namesake—is outdoor sculptures which have enjoyed a passionate response in both residential and commercial sites across the nation, but in recent years they have turned their considerable talents inward, to kitchens and baths and the many design possibilities for these two essential rooms.

One of the designs that especially caught my eye is the New Wave Pedestal sink at the top of this blog. It’s a piece with a wonderful flow to it, and it looks very much like its name, a wave coming straight out of the wall and flowing to the floor with a wonderfully sinuous wave. I cannot think of anything more elegant for a small powder room.

Another piece that intrigued me was the simple block of carved translucent onyx with the purity of its form. It’s the sort of bathroom fixture that would make using it on a daily basis something of a constant rejuvenation of mind and spirit and body.

Finally, woodworker that I am, I cannot help talking about the Natural Edge Wood Countertops which Stone Forest has turned to in recent years. So, now I suppose we have two forests to talk about! But, really, it is an absolutely stunning combination that is both simple and complex, because you cannot look at it without thinking about the thousands—or millions—of years needed to create the raw materials, and then the careful shaping of both wood and stone by master craftsmen.

And since I’m speaking about master craftsmen, I think it is worth noting that a distressing number of purveyors of Japanese items on the Internet these days don’t really have any craftsmen on the payroll, master or otherwise. Their entire stock is purchased from importers, and they rarely even touch the items they sell; they simply take the order and pass it on to the importer for shipping. Stone forest is unique in a number of ways, I think, from their choice of materials to their designs, to their chosen palette, but what I find most unique about them is their insistence on seeking success the old fashioned way, by earning it through dint of no one’s efforts but their own. Stone Forest does more than “hold their own.” They make it!

Joseph

Ensci Mini Kitchen Design

 

 

“For All We Know”

 

  You can spend a fascinating half hour on the Internet by simply plugging “teardrop trailer” into a Google search and browsing through the results. The teardrop was one of the first campers ever made, starting in the 1930s and hitting its stride after World War II. You could purchase it ready-made or buy plans and make it yourself, an idea I sometimes find myself fantasizing about. Although the classic teardrop shape is still the most popular, they can be obtained in other shapes, and they come in a number of sizes, some of them so small that they can actually be towed by a motorcycle! But what most interests me about them, and the reason I brought them up is their kitchens. You  lift up the tail flap, and by gosh, there’s a full kitchen there, complete with stove, refrigerator, and running water! There is something about that marvelous utility of so small a space that has always appealed to me. Every time I have looked at one of them—and I sometimes encounter them at camping sites—I am convinced that no one else could possibly put a kitchen into so small a space.

Well, sir! 

Ensci is a French company that has come up with a kitchen design that is pretty much a perfect solution for those who cook only a little and have other uses for the space that would be taken up by a traditional kitchen. In one of the pictures we’ve shown here, there’s a lady doing what looks like her homework, which seems about right, I think, because this is probably something that would appeal more to a college student, someone who is much too busy to cook with any real frequency. Although, I swear, given our own cooking needs, I have to believe we could do just fine with it for all but about two weeks a year. Truthfully, if the oven’s of a fair size, we could get by with this kitchen for the entire 52 weeks!

How much sense does it make for you? I don’t know. What are your space limitations? We all want that glorious thousand square foot fantasy kitchen, but I’m not willing to cram myself into what would be left of the house if I took that route, and you may not be either. And if you are one of those with an outrageously cramped space that passes for a kitchen, this may be just the ticket. I sometimes cook in another kitchen that makes our own look like a palace in comparison. The Ensci kitchen would actually provide more counter space than there is in that other kitchen. You could run a wall of cabinets across one end for storage, use this baby for a multi-function kitchen island, and end up with more space, fewer frustrations, and NO banged knees! What’s not to like?

When you first see just the closed up box, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be particularly useful as an actual, honest to goodness kitchen, but it has a moveable countertop/tabletop that slides open to permit access to the range, sink, storage, cupboards and cabinets. Truthfully, I could probably store everything I actually use in this unit. Like everyone else we have a fair number of kitchen cabinets that are packed full, but the most of that stuff just sits. Get something like this, and the necessary “what-the-heck-is-this-throw-it-out” ritual would probably be fairly liberating.

I seriously doubt that Henry David Thoreau would have traded his hut at Walden Pond for anything, but looking at this little kitchen reminded me of the song he sang to himself while he was building his hut:

Men say they know many things;
But lo! They have taken wings,—
The arts and sciences,
And a thousand appliances;
The wind that blows
Is all that anybody knows

Joseph

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