Green Kitchens That Go From Mild to Wild

Historically, contemporary style has somewhat belonged to the "big cities," such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston and a bit to South Florida. There was a lot of talk in 2010 about a universal trend towards "warm contemporary" styling, and Middle America streamlining their design tastes into a modern fashion. I would love to receive feedback here from designers and homeowners alike as to what their product interests and experiences have been recently.

One of the most noticeable style trends I see is the use of reconstituted (recon) veneer in cabinet finishing. If you aren't familiar with recon veneers they are a material created from natural trees grown in managed forests. The timber is grown in Europe and Africa, as well as a few other places. Once cut the logs are rolled in a slicer against a blade to "peel" the tree down. These sheets are then cut into "leaves", dried, processed, arranged and then reassembled into wood  blocks that are then cut again into 0.6mm sheets that can be used in cabinetry and furniture manufacturing all over the world. When applied by a skilled craftsman, the grain matching and finishing can have a most interesting effect.

This process increases the trees yield by over 40 times as opposed to using it as cut lumber. Additionally all of the dyes used are water soluble and when bleaching is required the bleach is processed and disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. Once applied the veneers can be finished in a low or high sheen depending on the client's preference.

The veneers are optimum for use on slab doors which are used to create beautiful and sometimes exotic looks in contemporary kitchens. In our showroom, which has several live kitchens, most often it's out contemporary Haze Veneer kitchen which is chosen by TV shows and vendors to use for Photo shoots. In the last three months I have had the opportunity to design in Ebony, Gray Obechie, Haze, and Teak. Each select material has its own subtle but beautiful impact on the design, as well as the much bolder Zebrano.