Our #ProjectLakelife Kitchen - My Favorite Appliances Part 2
Join me on my journey as we renovate our “new” 70s time capsule of a house on Lake Cherokee in Richmond, Virginia. This week I’m sharing my selection of amazing appliances from Signature Kitchen Suite. Their innovations continue to impress me and I’ve enjoyed designing our new kitchen around them. Soon, I’ll be able to share more than just the renderings of what’s to come!
Hi again from Lake Cherokee where I sit enjoying the beautiful view of the sunlight reflecting off the water. But behind me sits my pitiful kitchen that is half torn up waiting for it’s moment to shine like the sun.
I have clients battling the appliance waiting game as they are getting year long lead times from many of the heavy hitters in the luxury appliance realm. In my case, I was lucky when the vendor I selected had anticipated a growing demand and had ample stock sitting in their New Jersey warehouse. So my appliances are all here in Richmond waiting on my kitchen to be completed. In my case, it’s my cabinets that are holding up the process. But I’m pretty sure it will be worth the wait! And my trip to KBIS in Orlando a few weeks ago reassured me that I made the right decision about my appliances.
Enjoying the SKS booth at KBIS with my design besties, Jana Donohoe and Sarah Wilson.
In 2019, I had the pleasure of traveling to Napa, California with the Designhounds to tour the Signature Kitchen Suite Experience & Design Center. Check out my blog post about this amazing trip HERE and learn more about the beautiful SKS Napa EDC. This year at KBIS, Signature Kitchen Suite continued it’s streak of introducing ground breaking luxury appliances with its 48” French Door built-in refrigerator which won the Best of KBIS Award.
The refrigerator boasts two freezer drawers, a convertible drawer and a drawer housing the dual icemaker. The functional and innovative convertible drawer offers five preset temperatures ranging from 41⁰ F to -6⁰ F allows for precise food preservation across five temperature settings: chilled wine, fridge/deli, meats and seafood, beverage, or drop the temperature all the way down to make it a freezer. The dual icemaker provides options for both frustum ice and the slow-melting, spherical Craft Ice elevate beverages of all kinds. This 48” model will not hit the market until the end of 2022, so I’ll be installing the 36” version which is just fine for our empty nester lifestyle. But, this 48” version would have been amazing when I had two kids at home, both athletes.
The star of the SKS line in my mind is still the 48” Dual Fuel Pro Range and I’m excited to say that this beauty will be the star of my new kitchen!
I have clients that go back and forth between gas and induction when we’re designing kitchens and it has become a contentious debate. But with the SKS Pro Range, you can have both! There are four gas burners and a two zone induction cooking area. But the third zone on this cooktop is the one that has me the most excited … the sous vide! My husband and I discovered sous vide about 6 years ago when we had some of the best steaks prepared in a sous vide in a Nashville restaurant. Until recently, the only means of cooking sous vide (latin for “under vacuum”) was with a portable wand that would heat and circulate the water to the desired temp. We started experimenting on all kinds of things and quickly became obsessed. We went on to send sous vide wands to our whole family as Christmas presents. Now we’ll have the sous vide built into the top of this amazing range.
In addition to all of the capabilities this range presents on top, it also boasts an 18” steam combi-oven and a full size convection oven on the bottom. I can’t wait to incorporate this steam oven into our repertoire! My husband became even more sold on the 48” Pro Range when we enjoyed a virtual dinner party via Zoom during he pandemic with SKS Executive Chef Nick Ritchie. I’ve had the pleasure of watching Nick cook both at the SKS Napa EDC and at KBIS. You should check out some of his cooking demos and the Pro Range in action on the SKS YouTube channel.
So hopefully I’ll be able to bring home my refrigerator, this magnificent pro range, the SKS power steam dishwasher and the SKS microwave drawer soon! I’m excited to see this kitchen transformed!
This rendering shows my plans for the new kitchen. I can’t wait to see my vision become reality!
So, I’ll end with one more cool thing about sous vide. You can make some killer craft cocktails in it! Here is a fabulous recipe, courtesy of SKS, for a Carmen Miranda cocktail.
Our #ProjectLakelife Kitchen- My Favorite Appliances
As we continue our #ProjectLakelife Renovation, the kitchen is at the top of my priority list. Appliances play a huge role in my kitchen design, as it should in every kitchen. I recently traveled to Orlando, Florida for KBIS 2022 where the competition amongst the luxury appliance brands was fierce. In this installment, I’m sharing one of my favorite appliance brands and the huge way in which they showed up to KBIS to assert their dominance.
Hi everyone! As I’ve shared, we are renovating the house that my husband and I recently purchased and there isn’t a room that isn’t getting some love. But of course, the kitchen is at the top of my list and the one that I’m most anxious to complete. To that end, I’m focusing several of my updates on this oh so important room in the house.
I recently traveled to Orlando Florida for the 2022 KBIS (Kitchen and Bath Industry Show) and IBS (International Builders Show). This is honestly my favorite trade show of the year. I’m truly like a kid in a candy store and I get the chance to connect with my design besties from all over the country.
Over the past several years, this show has become the battle of the appliance companies. Gone are the days that you just go down to Sears and pick out your suite of Whirlpool, Kenmore or GE appliances. There are so many other American and International players in the appliance space now that are bringing so many more options to the market. And if you’re building a custom home or undertaking a significant renovation, you’re likely considering appliances from some of the luxury manufacturers. And these manufacturers are in a fierce competition to bring to market the most innovative technology and jaw dropping styling! I could write for days on all of the players, but I’m going to focus on two of my favorite companies.
Monogram Appliances always knocks it out of the park at their KBIS booths creating an experience like no other and this year it won them the KBIS Best Booth Award. There was such a frenzy about this space that there was a waiting line to get in!
Villa Monogram, the Monogram KBIS booth destination showcased the brand’s latest innovations and collaborations in a variety of luxury living scenarios.
Villa Monogram Farm incorporates Monogram’s new 30” Fully Integrated Wine Sommelier and Monogram 30” Smart Flush Hearth Oven
Villa Monogram Mountain showcases the new Monogram Rotisserie Oven.
Villa Monogram Beach features the 30” Smart Electric Convection Single Oven and the 36” Integrated Panel-Ready Column Freezer and Refrigerator.
In addition to the Villa Monogram vignettes showcased above, Monogram also launched it’s first Designer Collection. Renowned interior designer and Monogram Creative Director Richard T. Anuszkiewicz created the collection in collaboration with the brand. It showcases two aesthetics, Brass and Titanium, and incorporates beautiful custom furniture style hardware. Another ingenious design detail were the 96” tall brass and titanium refrigerator column panels. With so many new homes being built with 10’ ceilings, these taller panels are a much better scale!
It was such a sexy look (and who ever thought I would use the word “sexy” when talking about appliances! Just look at the gorgeous hardware!
But Monogram is also about more than just looks! I did a hands on training session with them in their Chicago showroom a couple of years ago and I was very impressed by their technology and the breadth of their various options. We recently completed our studio kitchen and incorporated Monogram appliances so that we could share some of their more innovative designs with our clients and visitors.
We installed their 5-in-1 smart wall oven with Advantium Technology, their 30” integrated glass door refrigerator with the two convertible drawers at the bottom and their 36” induction cooktop. I wanted to highlight some of their more unique offerings so that we could bring our clients options that they didn’t normally think about. We’re in the process of planning an event where we can hopefully show off the muscle of this 5-in-1 oven with a live cooking class. If you’re not on our email list, you should join now so that you’ll be sure not to miss an invite to this event or any of our other regular events.
Well, that takes care of one working kitchen for me! At least I can go to the studio and cook on my Monogram induction cooktop! Now, if only I could get my kitchen finished at #projectlakelife. As I said above, Monogram is one of my two favorite appliance brands. Join me next time for a spotlight on the other brand and the one that I’ve chosen for my own home. I’ll also share some of the great new award winning introductions this brand brought to KBIS 2022. After everything I discovered at KBIS, it makes me want to design a whole new house just to be able to use all of these great products.
