SPOUTING GOOD DESIGN
Fresh looks in new shades add flair to bathrooms and kitchens
The same way shoes and handbags can make or break an outfit, getting it right with home decor accessories, like faucets, in kitchens and bathrooms will help achieve a desired look.
“When we’re doing kitchens, I would say, besides the layout and functionality of the millwork design, the faucets and the handles are key to bringing the whole space together,” says Vancouver interior designer Anna Dhillon.
Keeping functionality in mind is important, says Dhillon, noting requests from her older clientele for big levers, which goes against the current trend of clean, minimalist, lever-less faucets (with round or square knobs or having the on/off function integrated into the faucet spout).
Gold faucets have been huge, she says, both in kitchens and bathrooms, recently using one in a Vancouver loft project with great success. “We did it on budget,” she says. “So we did all Ikea cabinetry, but I think it turned out really unique with the gold. The gold really took it up a level.”
Dhillon used black metal handles in this same kitchen, which, she says, is replacing chrome and nickel in popularity when it comes to faucet design.
“You see that classic look with the black faucet, with the white subway tiles and the grey grout,” she says. “Very Brooklyn chic.”
We will also be seeing more white faucets, she says. “Last year, or the year before, most of the appliance companies started doing white appliances — most of the European ones,” she says. “White kitchens became very popular, whereas I think in North America we might be a little bit delayed for that. People still like the black, or the stainless, but in Europe they’re shifting to white refrigerators, white stoves, so it kind of makes sense that the faucets follow suit.”
For handles, Dhillon goes to Bradford Hardware in Vancouver’s Armoury District and for faucets, she likes Cantu, Waterworks and Fantini.
“Dornbracht is really the leader,” she says. “They started the trend in faucets and then everyone else kind of copies them.”
Dornbracht recently showcased Lisse, a “new collection of streamlined fittings designed by Sieger Design” for the entry-level price point; pairing it with the Twice basin, by Dornbracht’s newly debuted sister brand Alape. Twice is also designed by Seiger and will be available this fall.
Signature of Dornbracht, the Lisse collection, does offer a watersaving option for the single-lever basin mixer, which reduces water flow from 5.30 litres to 3.8 litres per minute.
Playing with the different ways water can flow from faucets and how beautiful it looks while doing so is something luxury bathroom brand Axor explores annually, at the Milan Furniture Fair (Salone del Mobile) through their Water-Dream project, inviting five leading architects and designers to “Create your own spout.”
This year Gam-Fratesi, FRONT, David Adjaye, Werner Aisslinger and Jean-Marie Massaud presented incredible spout creations from ceramic, bamboo, granite, metal and marble, all suggesting different possibilities for “bathrooms of the future.”
Kitchens of the future might look a lot like those found in restaurants if the current commercial-inspired home kitchens trend continues, with Moen just releasing the Align “one-handle pre-rinse spring pulldown kitchen faucet.”
“It’s an industrial-looking, prerinse faucet, something like you might see in a commercial kitchen,” says Garry Scott, vice-president of wholesale marketing and brand development for Moen Canada.
At Moen they’ve found that consumers are really wanting this professional-grade style, adapted for residential, says Scott, naming it “prosumer.”
“Typically (faucet spray wands) don’t go that far down,” he says. “This one has a lot of reach, so you can get right down there into the sink to get everything clean and then it retracts effortlessly back.”
When people think of these spray wands, they often think of how messy they can be to use, says Scott, so at Moen they’ve developed Power Clean spray technology for these wands, promising 50 per cent more spray, with less splash.
Good faucet design is rewarded, says Scott, with Moen’s Arris freestanding tub filler receiving a 2014 Good Design award and an Adex Design award for 2016.
“Free-standing tubs are becoming increasingly popular,” he says. “(The Arris tub filler) has a wobblefree installation. You won’t have to worry about it coming out of the ground and it has installation brackets for concrete as well.”