Page 19 - Indulge February/March 2017

The trend, too, is not to limit them to kitchen nooks and in Bethlehem, expects demand for comfort-height vanities to be
eating areas. Trendsetters will put banquettes in mud rooms
(which provide a great place to sit while putting on/taking
off shoes), master closets, home bar spaces and playrooms,
Buss said. “You also can add a banquette to seating
spaces with a table and additional chairs to help break up a
spacious open floor plan without obstructing views.”
Linear gas fireplaces: Linear gas fireplaces are more of a
“here-to-stay” décor idea than a trend, Buss said. They can be
the focal point of any room from bedroom to family room to
more formal dining and living spaces. Gas fireplaces also can
be suspended from the ceiling or see-through to add even more
pizzazz to a room.
Black stainless steel appliances: The latest sophisticated
color for your kitchen appliances is black stainless steel, said had a display hutch that lit up. If they did, they were ahead of their
Dan Lenner, a certified master kitchen and bath designer
at Morris Black Designs in Allentown. It’s a darker shade of
stainless. “It’s not that stainless is going away, but I think
we’ll see more black stainless,” Lenner said. Manufacturers
claim it shows fewer fingerprints.
Scraped wood flooring: These floors offer textured rather
than smooth finishes. Their texture gives the floor a hand-
worked appearance, Lenner said. “It goes back to when
flooring was hand-planed rather than being run through
machinery,” he said. They are available in a variety of
stains and species of wood. On the plus side, they can
help hide minor scrapes and scratches, according to Floor
Coverings International.
Gray vanities in bathrooms: This trend isn’t new, but it
continues to grow, said Megan Cascarina, showroom manager
at Ferguson Bath, Kitchen and Lighting in Allentown. Any
shade of gray will do, Cascarina said: “just nothing too dark.”
What’s even “newer” may be pairing gray with a second color
such as white or turquoise.
Comfort-height vanities: The standard height of a bathroom
vanity is 32 inches. The most comfortable and ergonomic height
is 36 inches. Comfort-height vanities reduce stooping and
bending. Christy Zuk, co-owner of LIV Interiors and Construction
big this year. It is like most things in the home, she said, “it’s
trending toward what is more comfortable in life and easy to
clean and take care of.”
Reclaimed and repurposed: Reclaimed wood is finding its
way into dining tables, bookshelves, flooring and more. While
it’s not a new trend, area décor experts expect it to explode this
year and beyond. Lenner said people in the Lehigh Valley also
have a fondness for using parts from old industrial machines for
table bases, light fixtures and other things. This fits with another
trend that Zuk continues to see: Making your home your own.
Homeowners are going away from what everyone else has and
toward what they can make their own and is unique.
Interior cabinet lighting: Grandma and grandpa might have
time. The demand now is to add lighting to kitchen cabinets with
solid doors and not just the glass-fronted display-type cabinets,
Lenner said. “A switch turns the lights on when doors are opened,
just like your refrigerator. Even drawers can be illuminated this way
when opened,” he said. Slim LED light strips provide the lighting;
the strips can be recessed flush with the cabinet surface.
Deeper kitchen sinks: If you remodeled your kitchen years ago,
you might have gone with two sinks side-by-side. “For a while it
was a bowl and a half or two separate bowls, one big one and one
smaller one,” Lenner said. “Now most homeowners just want one.”
And that one may be deeper and bigger than you had when you
were growing up.
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