Archive for February, 2011

Susan Palmer CKD, CBD

After more than 30 years of creating memorable and award-winning kitchen designs, Susan Palmer is retiring. But not before she blogs one more time! And we’re so appreciative that she’s posting here and that we were able to spend a wonderful weekend at IDS 2011 sharing her experiences with the BLANCO Design Council. (Of course all the greats retire and then come back… so can we really say this is her very last post?? SUSAN??)

IDS 2011 – Toronto, Canada

By Susan Palmer, CKD, CBD

With much appreciation to our host, Blanco, our visit to the beautiful city of Toronto Interior Design Show (IDS) 2011 show was a huge success.  Before the show, our group traveled to the factory to see first hand the manufacturing of Blanco’s SILGRANIT II kitchen sinks. Mr. Flavio Bergamin, Blanco-Canada President, displayed all the qualities of a proud manufacturer as he personally gave us a tour of the facility.

Blanco’s new color, “Truffle,” will launch April 2011.  The rich color works with cool, warm, dark or light color tones in the kitchen, and enhances granite and quartz countertops.  Blanco points out, “SILGRANIT II sinks, made with 80% natural granite, are scratch, stain, acid and heat resistant; easy to clean and non-fading.  These ultra-durable sinks come in 22 shapes and in 7 colors from cool to warm, boasting versatility and design.”

While the process of producing their beautiful sinks was enlightening, the most fun I had was trying to destroy the sinks!  We tried various food products known to stain strongly, but with a soft scrub sponge and water, the stains washed away in record time.  No harsh chemicals required!

My task was to take a stainless steel fork and scrape/gouge as hard as I could.  What fun!  After working really hard at it, the appearance of my toil looked horrible.  I feared I had overdone my efforts, and ruined the sink.

Appearances can fool you, as the “damage” was metal fragments from filing down the fork, not cutting into the sink surface!  Once again, the trusty soft scrub sponge did the job!

The crème dela crème was dropping a steel ball the weight of canned goods from a four-foot height…no problem!  Not a dent or scratch left to show the nasty deed!

As a designer, I often have clients express concerns regarding color trends. Remodeling a kitchen is a large, long-term investment, and it’s understandable for people to hesitate during the selection process.  While it’s “safe” to stay with basic neutral colors, remodeling is an opportunity to express your self and be unique.  No one wants to be told their selections are passé’.  I recommend using colors in low cost ways, such as painted walls or interesting backsplashes that can easily be changed in the future.  For a more long-term item, I can see these Blanco colors being strong for many years to come.  The powdered granite not only guarantees an almost impervious sink, the natural colors of the granite will always be fashionable.

According to Blanco,  “Accenting the kitchen faucet with haute couture color is an exciting way to bring the inspirational hues of SILGRANIT II sinks out of the sink and onto the countertop,” says Tim Maicher, Director of Marketing for BLANCO. “It’s an eye-catching detail that adds a little extra something to the kitchen color palette. Color is innovation. And BLANCO is the color innovator.”

Joining a line of trend-provoking BLANCO color faucets including: Café Brown, Biscotti and Anthracite, Truffle will come in full color on the LINUS^™, ACCLAIM^™ and TORINO^™. It will appear as a color accent on the chrome PURUS II^™ (on the base).

While Blanco sinks are modern in shape, with the new colors added, I can see even very traditional style kitchens enjoying their use.  Combining Oil Rubbed Bronze or Copper fixtures will be beautiful with the SILGRANIT II. Thank you for the opportunity to post! Please enjoy a few photos of Blanco’s booth at the IDS-2011 Toronto show.

We are so excited to be filming demonstration videos for the NEW BLANCO Website (coming soon)!

We spent last Thursday, February 10th on set at Poggenpohl’s new Philadelphia Kitchen Design Studio with Angela Pfeifer, Showroom Manager/Kitchen Designer for Poggenpohl and Christy Emens, Marketing Communications Manager for BLANCO. Poggenpohl’s stunning showroom was the perfect setting to shoot the new demonstration videos for BLANCO’s RONIS Entertainment Sink, SOLON Compost System and 3-in-1 Strainer. Video is such a great medium for telling a story – especially when you have such innovative and dimensional products.

Angela and our producer Larry polish up the original SteelArt sink on display at Poggenpohl.

Lights, Camera, Action! RONIS and SOLON are getting their turn!

Yes! We're having a party! At least RONIS makes party prep easy!

Christy Emens preps for her demo video on SOLON.

Photo Courtesy of Cristina Ferrare's Big Bowl of Love airing on OWN.

Cristina Ferrare’s Big Bowl of Love cooking series – newly launched on the new Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) – features a beautiful new kitchen set complete with a BLANCO RADOS™ faucet and MAGNUM™ Apron Front sink.

The focus of the Cristina Ferrare show is food, friends and family! Cristina’s two daughters, Alexandra (23) and Arianna (20) will make regular appearances on the show to cook and talk about family recipes. Also joining Cristina in the kitchen will be her husband, sister, mother and extended family. Some of Cristina’s friends (many of whom are celebrities) will also be making appearances on the show. It will definitely be a fun affair!

BLANCO's Big Bowl of Love - MAGNUM Apron Front Sink with RADOS Faucet

Cristina believes cooking for family and friends comes from the heart and is an expression of love so her personal catchphrase, “Big bowls of love” perfectly describe her cooking style! Cristina is passionate about food and believes that every meal, no matter how simple should be a celebration! She has made regular appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show to showcase her love of food and cooking — and now she has her own series!

In addition to offering practical solutions to culinary challenges, Cristina will offer advice on table settings for family meals, intimate dinner parties and large gatherings. Her goal is to make cooking and entertaining less complicated and more enjoyable!

For chefs like Ferrare, every detail down to the grids are important.

Cristina Ferrare is a former model, gourmet cook, furniture designer and best selling author.

BLANCO’s Design Council, an elite group of designers/bloggers toured Toronto last week for Canada’s Interior Design Show (IDS11). The Design Council toured BLANCO’s SILGRANIT facility in Toronto – where a majority of North American SILGRANIT sinks are made. Designers were treated to a sneak peak of the new SILGRANIT II Truffle sink collection, displayed for the first time at IDS11 to rave reviews from the design community. Grey was the “IT” color at IDS11. Note: Truffle will launch in the U.S. in April.

Toronto’s IDS offered a wonderful array of home furnishings exhibitors, seminars and more. Beyond home goods manufacturers, there was a wide selection of craftspeople and artisans who showed off their work and the flair that makes Canadian design completely unique from both the European and American shows we’ve attended. (Take natural materials like exposed live edge wood, fur and antler… mix with modern and Nordic design elements… add Victorian influences like tea, crystal and color… and it’s uniquely CANADIAN!)

IDS from the camera of Design Council member Gloria Graham-Sollecito (http://kitchensforliving.net).

BLANCO SILGRANIT facility in Toronto, ON

Gloria somehow snuck a camera in for this demo. 2-day old stains on a SILGRANIT Sink about to be washed away.

Truffle is on trend!

Design Council relaxes after a hard day of touring! Photo thanks to Joe Freenor at CFT411.com!