Snaidero Ola Kitchen Designs
26 February 2010
“Just Doing It”
Snaidero creates some of the most innovative and user-friendly kitchen designs I have ever seen, and that’s saying quite a bit, because I’ve been a kitchen junkie for two years now. Day after day I find myself on the internet, looking for new material for this blog site and inspiration for my kitchen yet aborning. European designs have gotten a disproportionate share of attention from me in these blogs, but I think they’ve earned it by providing a disproportionate share of truly innovative designs. And Snaidero in particular is most definitely on the cutting edge.
My partner sometimes asks me where in the heck I get my ideas for these blogs, but, really, the question is where do people who sit down and design an entire kitchen get their ideas? A new kitchen design is something that must succeed at so many different levels. The goal is to make a place that is not only easy to cook in but fun to do so. And what makes a kitchen fun? First would have to be the obvious, something nice to look at in the design itself, something, if it can be done, that just takes one’s breath away. OK, awesome kitchen. That’s step one, he says breezily, knowing full well that he is not the one who is actually going to come up with awesome.
In the minimalist designs that are in such vogue in Europe these days, awesome is both easier and harder. Easier, I think, because there is, after all, a fair amount of design work that has preceded one, but more difficult in that one always runs the risk of having, once and for all, run out of ideas that are different, while still being practical, because in the end if the kitchen does not do it’s job, then it has no function.
OK, after a setup like that, the pressure is really on Snaidero, right? But I doubt they’re really feeling any because of the wide range of kitchen designs they have developed over the years. The Ola is one of their more durable entries in the “awesome kitchen designs of all time” category. Actually, with this one I got a language lesson because Ola is not the nonsense word I thought it might be when I first encountered it; it means wave in Spanish, which is clearly apt for a kitchen design like this one. But Ola is more than a name; it’s a concept; it’s soft curves and bright colors coming together to bring a fresh look to kitchen design. It also has, as it must, a lot of practical design considerations to recommend it.
As it is with all of their kitchen designs, Snaidero offers the Ola in several different sizes and configurations. For those with limited space (that would be me!), there’s a single galley style kitchen; those with more space might prefer the red Ola at the top of this blog. And, as always with superior designs, there is more.
I have long railed against the absolute waste of space that constitutes the cabinets above an under-cabinet range hood because the six-inch vent pipe bisects the space and renders it useless for any meaningful storage space. I bring that up, though, because Snaidero has done a wonderful job with that cabinet, as evidenced by the storage space they created for glasses and dishes.
The concept of a separate lid drawer rollout inside the pots drawer is not new, but this is the first one I have found myself wanting for my own kitchen. Yes, those lids take up space and clang to the floor quite a bit, but that extra drawer has always struck me as something that would, if shallow, not have enough room for the lids; and if big enough for all the lids it needs to hold, would take up too much of the space for pots and pans! Snaidero has come up with a solution that is both elegant and eminently practical. It’s a deeper than usual drawer with elements to aid in stacking one’s pots, as one would on a shelf, but the difference is that this one rolls out and has a lid holder that will actually hold the lids in place. Truly, it is an idea with such perfect logic that one wonders at oneself for not having come up with it on one’s own. Still, I didn’t, and they did.
Joseph
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