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European Kitchen Cabinet Showroom Tour

Bob visits the Boston design center where he is schooled in the art of the European Kitchen. It is explained how Europeans view kitchen cabinets as a piece of furniture. The salesperson removes the toe kick to show how the legs are adjustable and not permanently affixed to the floor like most U.S. cabinets. The upper cabinets are hung like pictures. She points out many of the modern feature of European cabinet design.

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Clip Transcript For:

European Kitchen Cabinet Showroom Tour

computer-generated transcript - may not be 100% accurate

" I wonder what it is about European kitchen design that it's really become the hot thing in the last few years, European appliances, in-cabinet hinges."

" I think it's more the European concept that we are learning to know. For Europeans, kitchens are more of furnitures than boxes of cabinet."

" They look at this furniture."

" Exactly."

" Yeah."

" And when we look at it and we see the design that we have here, we are impressed with the look of the cabinet. The flush doors that has the frameless and gives us a lot of storage space, the lines of the corners above, the light baffles, the counter top and the toe-kick."

" Their repeating horizontal. Yeah."

" If you go down to the toe-kick. We're going to find here legs that are adjustable. It makes the cabinet easily move from one place to another one and adjust to the next floor of the next house."

" Now, if they are free standing, how do you attach the upper cabinets to the wall?"

" The upper cabinets are coming with this piece of wood at the back of it and we put this on the wall and the cabinets are hanged on it. [0:01:04]"

" They hang like a picture. They hang like a picture."

" Great."

" Now, you also said that there is no face frame on these boxes or these cabinets. Where do they get their strength?"

" If we look at the box from a close look, we're going to see that the corners here are mitered in a very unusual way and this makes a very strong box. If they are not thick, the manufacturer, I don't know, tried these corners by throwing the cabinets from a building that is 14-floor high. [0:1:32]"

" What happened is, the box broke to pieces, but the corner stayed just as they are is 90 degree angle."

" There a lot to be said for the adhesive there, for the glue is.."

" The box is made very well and it's an MDF box, you can see it's lacquered."

" Medium density fiber board. Yeah and then you say this is all lacquered it's not laminated?"

" True. It's painted lacquer in both sides in a very complicated procedure."

" This is laminates and the interior here is a tactical board."

" So, what are the some of the features of the kitchen cabinet that we've got here."

" We talked before about the toe-kick space that we had and if we look here, we see that this toe-kick space in this case as being used for storage of a stepladder."

" That's great."

" You can try and get up there if you want to."

" Up to the high cabinet. Yeah. [0:02:32]"

" One thing that I would like to show you is the attention of design that is being done by appliance manufacturers and kitchen design companies."

" Kitchen cabinet designers and appliance manufacturers are getting together."

" They speaks to get it right and we can see that continuation of the line, the same line of the panel is the same line of the panels of the cabinets. And the panel on the door of the dishwasher, it's not a coincidence but it is matching the rest of the size of the doors. [0:03:03]"

" We talked about saving space. We can look here at the corner and see how the corner space was utilized for maximum storage without the need as we use in the past to dig there in the corner and try to find what you put there."

" By not having the face frame you can do that, sure. What about the drawers?"

" This is cabinet with deep drawers under the cook tub. In the front of it, it has a bar that allows to put the lids of the cabinets. "

" You can adjust it."

" And we can adjust it as many lids as we want to store here. At the bottom, we have the Rubbermaid which prevent the pots and pans to bang with one with another. If I am standing here, this cabinet here is for trash and sometimes my hands are full of it and are not clean to touch the cabinet. So, with my leg, I can open the cabinet and throw the trash in."

" With the toes. Yeah."

" And close it back for the plate."

" Great."

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Choosing Kitchen Countertops: The Maintenance Factor

Here s another great tip from BobVila.com. To help you wade through the sea of choices for new kitchen countertops, take a long, hard look at how they compare for durability and maintenance. Having a clear idea of the amount of work you re willing to do to maintain and protect your new investment will make the decision less complex. Take stone, for example. After millions of years in the Earth, granite, marble and travertine are naturally hard and beautiful and for $50 to $100 per square foot, they can grace your kitchen. But they re also naturally porous, so you ll have to seal them every few years with a non-toxic sealer. Some kinds of natural stone can stain with acidic foods and can even crack if you put a very hot pot directly on them. Some, like slate long used for laboratory countertops are better than others at taking the heat and acids, but oils can darken them and they are prone to scratching. Engineered quartz stone, at the same price point, has solved some of the maintenance problems of natural stone. It s non-porous, twice as strong and tough to scratch or crack. Like anything else, though, even high-end countertops are only as good as their installation, so check references on whoever is going to do the work to make sure you start off with the best finish possible. Wood countertops require mineral oil treatments and occasional sanding for stains. Solid surfaces don t require treatment and scratches can be buffed away easily. But using trivets or pads under hot pots is important to avoid damaging any wood or plastic surface. Regardless of your budget, think about the way you cook and clean and how much extra work you re willing to do before you choose a material. Your new countertop should fit the way you live, not the other way around. Find out more at BobVila.com: the ultimate home improvement web site! 2008 BobVila.com

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