Kitchen & Bath Design News recently posed the question to dealers and designers in the kitchen and bath industry: “Where do you see technologically integrated kitchens and baths heading in the future?” Following are some of the responses KBDN received:

“I think that wiring homes for wireless networks and home office systems, and having proper power to homes [are going to be key concerns in the future]. It seems that we’re doing everything we can to be connected because we all live such active lives. For example, I work from home and most of my clients also work from home, so they are over our shoulder all day long. They have the flexibility to keep in contact.

The part that troubles me is figuring out how to get an enormous painting to disappear in the kitchen ceiling to conceal a flat-screen television over a fireplace where it never should have been in the first place. From a technical perspective, we also might see an issue with technological products having problems with reliability.

Ironically, it seems the more advanced the technology becomes, the less reliable those products become. Therefore, the higher the performance of the appliance, the more critical the [reliability of the] components of that product become, in my opinion.

We really don’t need to be at the level that we’re at for everything that we’re doing. I worry that certain items may not be right for every high-end kitchen or bath. However, from a designer’s perspective, I would not want to give up the technology, either. I certainly don’t want to go back to the days of putting a piece of trace over an outline of the room and taking stabs.”

Steven M. Levine, CMKBD, president
Euro-Plus Design, Inc.
Madison, CT

“A s baby boomers age and the next generations come up, there will be much more of a demand for everything to be computerized. People can call up their oven and turn it on, but I think [this type of technology] will be even more common in the future. Depending on the budget, the options are nearly unlimited. Clients can watch the news in their bath each morning, and there are kitchen countertops where you can read your computer-generated recipes on the countertop.

Young people are growing up with these things and [are more comfortable using that technology]. If they are willing to pay for that technology and want it available, then we will make them happy. Is it helping the overall design? I don’t know. But I am not the average customer.”