Traditional Home Magazine and a group of top designers from across the nation joined Thermador at the Experience & Design Center in Irvine last week, and a hot topic of discussion was centered around what the latest trends are for today’s great kitchens. While the kitchen space still serves as a command center within the home, a predominant trend taking hold is designing around entertaining and bringing that experience beyond the kitchen –designing with the guest experience in mind.

Multiple Prep Areas

Culinary enthusiasts love to host friends and family for elaborate meals. While more cooks in the kitchen continues to stay true as a trend, designers are seeing a rise in additional food prep areas and multiple appliances. Cooks are asking for additional butler’s pantries or catering style kitchens separated by decorative details like frosted glass doors. This allows the cook to hide the mess of food prep while keeping the kitchen spotless as an area for guests to gather and mingle.

Matching Secondary Kitchens

When planning and designing a secondary home, guest home or vacation home, culinary enthusiasts are asking for the appliances to match those in their main residence. Working with the same brand and appliances allows for a seamless transition as well as a cohesive design. Secondary residences are often smaller than a main house, so there are project specific constraints in terms of size that need to be kept in mind. The Thermador 30” Five Burner Pro Harmony® Range is ideal for guest homes or getaway condos as it is designed to fit into existing 30” cutouts.

Entertaining Throughout the Home

Hosting and entertaining is not limited to the kitchen or the dining room area in a home – more and more culinary enthusiasts are entertaining in every room of their house. This means that the transition from kitchen to living room, to outdoor space and to the guest room has to be seamless for guests. A fluid design is comprised of additional appliances installed in every room of the home, but also ensuring that they don’t look like they belong only in the kitchen. Beverage centers in guest rooms may include a Built-In Fully Automatic Coffee Machine and an under counter Double Drawer Refrigerator so guests always have a cool or hot beverage and snack at hand.

Jeffrey A. Davis Photography

Spa-Style Bathrooms

Traditionally, a spa-style bathroom would be created with steam showers, LED color therapy lighting and hot tubs. Culinary enthusiasts are taking this one step further by including a built-in coffee machine, wine refrigerator, and under counter refrigeration within the bathroom suite. Under counter refrigeration can be used to store expensive lotions, creams and organic makeup, as well as refreshing cucumber water or juice after a soak in the tub.

We had an incredible time hosting the Traditional Home team and the outstanding group of designers that shared their knowledge and expertise with us. Continue to visit our blog for more design trends, and for more inspiration on outstanding kitchen design check out the Thermador Kitchen LookBook.