DECORATING IDEAS FOR OPEN CONCEPT KITCHEN AND LIVING ROOM
one of the trends we've been hearing about over and over in the past couple years has been the idea of appliances almost hiding within the kitchen. things like refrigerators and dishwashers hidden behind panels and cooktops being integrated within the counter. in our minimal kitchen, we wanted to explore those concepts and look at how appliances
would completely disappear. glass is really unique because you can hide things behind it, but also allow technology elements to be integrated. so you can actually add lights behind the glass, but you can see through the glass into like an oven cavity. but you turn those lights off, and the glass becomes dead front so that you can't see within so it becomes almost a hidden appearance.
this is an extreme expression of a minimal kitchen. this is a very high-end look that is in a compact footprint and it allows the user to completely hide the countertop when not in use. so what's cool about that is if you are in an open-plan environment, where the living room, the kitchen, and dining room are all one space, if you want to hide the clutter when the kitchen closes, you can do that.
this concept is really unique because it closes completely. so, we've got an herb garden at the top of the appliance that allows people to grow spices and herbs for dinner and then the countertop features an induction cooktop and a sink. what's really nice about it is that those two elements come together and hide the countertops so that you can hide all the clutter when you don't want to see it.
so within this concept, we tried to include all the major appliances - a refrigerator, a freezer, induction cooktop and oven, and an advantium oven, as well as a small dishwasher. each of those appliances are hidden behind that black glass, but when you don't want to see them, they just go away. then kind of built into that black glass is all the induction controls. those are also
designed to fade away when not in use.