Customization & Function Highlight DCW Products

In the April 2024 issue of KBDN, I presented products and trends showcased at February’s Design & Construction Week. Here’s the promised second installment, looking at additional show highlights.

The massive event, combining the already large Kitchen & Bath Industry Show and International Builders’ Show, has grown too big to cover in just one issue! It’s hard enough to walk in just three days – am I right?

Since the show is so huge now – 30% more exhibitors on the KBIS side and close to 12% more show floor space on IBS side this year – my coverage is about 1,500 words longer too, just to keep pace. Last issue we looked at sustainability, wellness and niche markets. This issue we’ll look at these trends:

• Customization and personalization are becoming more widely offered (and welcomed);
• Functionality and practicality are core trends featured across a range of product categories;
• Color trends are zigzagging between neutral and nifty;
• The kitchen and bath sphere is becoming more internationalized than ever.

You’ll see quotes from other kitchen and bath pros who attended in this report; I find it extremely helpful having additional eyeballs when there’s so much to cover. These were provided via Facebook designer group comments. 

Customization and Personalization

Customization and personalization have long been a hallmark of luxury projects and still are. But it’s nice to see them becoming available at more affordable price points too. At the higher end, manufacturers like Bertazzoni offer appliance knobs homeowners can change with their mood or the seasons, and Café has the most customizable dishwasher interior I’ve come across. Cubic Outdoor Living brought customization to its outdoor cabinet line. Its versatile cupboard can be a kitchen, bar or practically whatever your clients’ entertaining hearts’ desire! One of its strengths is that it can fit into a more compact patio or terrace for clients with limited outdoor space.

Flex drawers for refrigerator/freezer combos that let you adjust from wine to frozen food are becoming ever more common at various price points too, from mass market Whirlpool and GE to upscale KitchenAid and Café. This is also true for the plethora of workstation sinks, with more compact versions that don’t demand an entire island or cabinet run to include this highly functional feature in your clients’ kitchens. 

Bathroom-wise, Kohler introduced its Sprig customizable aromatherapy shower amenity last year. This year, the company added a customizable SpaViva facial shower system with four different heads. On the storage side, the company introduced its Collage Medicine Cabinets with customizable options, Rev-A-Shelf debuted an adjustable pilaster system that lets you change rollout heights, and Häfele introduced COB, a flexible lighting system for your closet and cabinetry needs. 

Overall, designers like Christine Spillar in Littleton, CO appreciate the increased ability to customize for their clients. “The options for kitchen storage really showed that any kitchen can become completely custom with the right accessories,” she commented, adding, “From built-in cutting boards to containers for compost to glass and plastic organizational inserts…I found several items at this year’s show that I can use to offer storage solutions that make a kitchen easy to use so that everything has a specific place.”

Functionality Trend

Customization can also enhance functionality and practicality, as well as enhance and personalize style for each client. For example, Moen has created a sink base cabinet organizer to store its new Luxe Chef workstation sink accessories between uses, and a fair case can be made that the aforementioned Rev-A-Shelf’s adjustable pilaster and Häfele’s COB lighting also make chores easier and even safer (lighting can make a difference in grabbing the right prescription bottle for bedtime medication, for example). 

More laundry appliances that tackle pet hair also cater to functionality needs for pet parents. This was touted by several brands; I expect it will expand even further in future years. New combo washer-dryer units also enhance functionality, making laundry day easier. It’s great to see so many brands expand these offerings. Your laundry or mud room might also benefit from the practicality of Wellborn Cabinet’s side-opening utility cabinet. 

Practicality can be luxurious too. nobilia’s backsplash stemware holder is an example. So is the Qoldfusion walk-in cold pantry with refrigeration and freezer capabilities. Both make entertaining more functional. Jonathan Rowland in Chesterfield, VA cited another functionality enhancer trend via in-drawer outlets, especially for bathrooms. “They were everywhere!” he declared. He also pointed to the type of cabinetry lighting COB represents, and hidden storage features for this type of trend. 

Color Trends

I usually don’t spend too much time thinking about color trends (though I know many of you do). My reasoning is that a kitchen or bathroom will last more than a decade and color cues come and go with almost each season. There’s no remodeling equivalent of “fast fashion” when it comes to the big ticket items in client homes. There is an interesting niche trend of changeable appliance fronts that could create a sort of fast fashion equivalent for those who want to change their kitchen style on demand. 

Melissa Sakell from the Washington, DC metro area noted this in her comments: “Color customization of appliances was widespread throughout the show. Being able to customize color/finishes is no longer just for the high-end market with brands like LG and Café making this option available to the mass market. Whether subdued or electric, it was very clear that color and personalization of appliances is no longer an afterthought.” Long Island, NY-based Meredith Weiss pointed to a major trend in luxury brands like La Cornue bringing bold color appliances.

Juliana Ewer in Houston agreed: “Color and customization options are everywhere for kitchen and bath. Focus is on ‘make it yours’ options and creating truly unique spaces.” 

Generally speaking, I thought the color and finish trends this year offered a split screen perspective worth noting: To encapsulate it in one brand, True Residential’s 2024 color intro, Champagne, updates the soft spoken neutral palette always popular for high-end kitchens. At the same time, its Barbiecore pink Sorbet installation at the front of the booth grabbed passersby with its cheerful energy.

Dallas-based designer Joy Maier noted the intensity trend too, especially in the faucet aisles, citing “the use of saturated, more intense color.” She noted vibrant fuchsias and oranges as two examples, and that sinks kept up with the vibrant faucet colors. “Soaking tubs were given their shot at color,” she added, with vintage nods and “everything from the sleek sublime color to the saturated bold color drenching traditional clawfoot tubs.”

Blues of all hues streamed beautifully across the show. Kohler showcased them in its fun new Kast bathroom sink line. SMEG splashed it in Dolce & Gabbana toile on its new Fab 5 countertop appliance and mini-fridge series. Various surfacing brands rendered it in natural stone-inspired countertops and tiles. Native Trails debuted a lovely Ocean blue in a vessel sink on display and a sexy soaking tub complement.

Internationalization Trend

If you went to any of the European trade shows a decade ago, you could expect that the offerings on display might hit our shores six months, a year, even two years later. One of the benefits of increasing kitchen and bath industry internationalization is that more European and Asian brands are prioritizing the U.S. market and we’re seeing much quicker release dates and a greater selection. 

On the KBIS side alone, there were more than 200 international exhibitors, a 35% increase from last year. The National Kitchen & Bath Association’s Global Connect program gets major credit for that growth; 42 of the international brands represented are part of the program, shared Sherry Qualls, one of Global Connect’s key advisors. (Disclosure: I traveled with Global Connect as part of  its 2019 delegation to Germany.) Global Connect client nations at KBIS this year included New Zealand, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, Australia, Norway, Finland, Japan and, remarkably considering the war raging across its land, Ukraine. 

There was an encore for the German Pavilion with well-known brands like Hettich, nobilia and Kesseböhmer, along with other less-familiar names that were introduced to KBIS via Global Connect. There were also United Kingdom and Brazilian stone company pavilions, and a row of kiosks for the smaller delegations. 

Ukraine was definitely one of the notable Global Connect debuts this year, following up its successful 2023 Las Vegas Winter Market Ukrainian Pavilion. (FYI, I visited their Market space when the show overlapped DCW and later introduced its representatives to Global Connect.) I was surprised to learn that the war-torn country is no stranger to kitchen and bath manufacturing, having long produced cabinetry and other goods for the European market, but it is new to the U.S. market. 

What might be interesting to American specifiers is that Ukraine’s manufacturing capabilities are modern, its shipping times comparable to other European imports, its quality high and its prices reasonably low. Meeting American sizing and precision needs, as well as hitting shipping goals, is an industry-wide focus for this key industry.  

Last Words

If you missed Part One of this DCW coverage, you’ll find Trend Spotting under the Trending menu at KitchenBathDesign.com. See you in Vegas next February? ▪

Jamie Gold, CKD, CAPS, MCCWC is an author, wellness design consultant and industry speaker. Her award-winning third book, Wellness by Design (Simon & Schuster, 2020), has a new Bonus Chapter: Lessons for How We Live Now, published October 2023. Learn more about her wellness design CEU presentations, books, blog and consulting services at jamiegold.net.