Then there are kitchens that rise to a different level. These are the untouchable kitchens you see in Dwell or Architectural Digest. These can be so sleek and pristine that it appears that their owners never step foot in them for fear of sullying the microbe-free surfaces with a crumb of food. But that’s a whole other story.
Ultra-Modern Features You May Expect To Find
Bold lines, flat planes: Straight, unyielding lines abound. Stark color contrasts: White against black, black against white.Monochromatic: Sometimes, the kitchen hews to one color as much as possible, often white or black. If not this, colors are different but stick close to the same tonal range.Hugely vibrant colors: A third color scheme employs one shockingly bold color–red, orange, blue–and uses this in great quantity throughout the kitchen.Synthetic materials: Melamine, steel, glass vs. real wood.European: Scratch the surface of any ultra-modern kitchen design and you’ll find European provenance, usually Italian. Minimizing the natural look: Often, melamine surfaces will mimic the look of real wood, and some kitchens have flat, hard-edged panels of wood as accents. But this is about as far as it goes.Clean and spare: De-emphasizing clutter and junk that most people hate in their own kitchens.
Aran calls this surface brushed thermotreated oak, and it’s a material found in many modern wood Italian furnishings: Wood is heated by steam to 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 hours to give the wood an attractive finish. This is Italian cabinet maker Aran’s Penelope line of laminate-faced cabinets. Note, too, that super-modern kitchens love the flat, uninterrupted look as much as possible. The generously large rectangular undermount sink lies flat in the peninsula, with no interruption from counter to sink. The two wall ovens are perfectly flush with the cabinets. Handles do not protrude–they are inset. In fact, one more comment about the character of these ultra-moderns is that they usually have an air of commercial kitchen about them. The stoves are big, often with as many as eight burners. Two wall ovens, not just one. Tons of floor space. Stainless steel everywhere. There’s even a smoked Plexiglas splatter screen around the sink. This one comes from Ernestomeda, a maker of high-end kitchen elements based in Italy.
