More on Kitchen Designs from Warendorf
16 February 2012
“Never Gonna Give You Up”
Last week my blogging partner and I went at it a little on kitchen design, specifically as it applies to a rather unique kitchen design by Philippe Starck for Warendorf. In a somewhat serendipitous moment, I titled that blog “Defining Greatness“, not knowing that I would return to that subject as soon as this week. Really, it was just a play on words, because I’d started that blog with a quote from an interior designer who said he didn’t think Great Rooms were so great!
Well, as it turned out, my blogging partner didn’t think much of the kitchen that was the subject of that blog, namely the Tower Kitchen because it’s much too small for his needs. Joe Dusel (we’re both Joes, so I switched to Joseph!) is a dedicated family man with a wife and two daughters. Theirs is a wonderful kitchen with granite countertops and Joe’s cabinetry, and they make full use of all the space available, especially their kitchen island. There are often two cooks in that kitchen, and on special occasions, all four of them are hard at it. Wonderful as I think it is, that Tower Kitchen from Philippe Starck is just not going to give Joe anywhere near the room he needs to prepare meals the way he has come to do it.
But on the other hand, it would suit the wife and me just fine. As I’ve many times pointed out, we’re a long-time-married, always-childless couple that eats very simply. During the week “cooking,” consists of little more than opening a can of soup, which is why I put it in quotes. Weekend fare may be bacon and eggs for breakfast, and steak sandwiches for dinner, but we never use more than two burners on the stovetop. Fifty weeks out of the year we could get by just fine with a hotplate and a coffee maker.
But that brings me back to Warendorf in particular and European kitchen design in general. I write about it a lot, because I find it exciting, and what most excites me about their concept of kitchen design is their recognition that not everyone lives the same way. As I pointed out in my back and forth with Joe last week Warendorf makes some nineteen different kitchens. Not even Mr. Starck is content with only his Tower Kitchen, ground breaking as that design is; he’s designed four totally different kitchens! It’s because Mr. Starck and Warendorf recognize that not everyone lives the same way.
All of the kitchens in this blog are from Warendorf, and they run from the very traditional to cutting-edge modern. In fact the kitchen at the top of this blog is their Professional Kitchen for Home Chefs, which I wanted to make sure to include because it’s one that would surely meet my partner’s needs. All you can see is a bit of a corner of it, but there’s an island to the right in this picture. And Warendorf will be the first to tell you that they will happily design this kitchen to meet the end user’s exact needs.
And that brings me to what most bothers me about the state of kitchen design in this country. There is too much of the Same Old, Same Old, and it is NOT the fault of kitchen designers. Really, it is the fault of realtors, more specifically their perception of the marketplace. Realtors have come to believe that a house sells fastest when it is the same as every other house. So the people who never take baths must always have at least one shower/tub combination in their home because the next buyer may want a tub. And if you’ve been in that house thirty years or more and hate your bathroom, well, too bad. One day it will have to be sold, and it cannot be sold with a shower only. Or so runs the conventional wisdom.
The problem with that kind of thinking, though, is the failure of all concerned to recognize that there may be others out there who don’t want a tub. Some people want a big dining room; others don’t want one at all.
Joe has a truly wonderful kitchen, much better than anything I expect to build for myself, because I won’t be using granite for the countertops, and I don’t have room for a separate island. Nothing I can do will ever give my kitchen the WOW factor that Joe’s has, but even so, for as small as our kitchen is, I prefer it to his. Joe has a much larger, more formal home than this one. Our little kitchen butts to the large family room, and during football season, my wife stands at the counter so she can watch the NFL game while she’s preparing steak sandwiches for us. And eventually, I hear the magic words, “I’m ready to start assembling these; pour an ice-cold beer for us, please.” C’mon, now, you don’t think I’m going to give that up, do you?
Joseph
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