Euro Cucina 2014

I'm home and just about recovered from my jet lag.  All pics are up for your perusal.  It was a fabulous trip and my heartfelt gratitude goes out to the golden peeps at Blanco, including travel mate Christy Emens as well as Lori Dolnick of Frank Advertising.  I was honored to be included with fellow bloggers Marilyn Russell (DesignMagnifique), Kelly Morisseau (KellyMorisseau.com) and Grace & Ken Kelly of (kitchendesigns.com).  Having been to many trade shows in the US over the years, I've always wanted to experience the bigger, global picture.  Now I have and it was amazing. I arrived on Monday morning ready to explore.  Lori and I took a stroll and stumbled upon a delicious lunch and a very cool design museum but first things first.  I'm dying to tell you about all the products and trends I saw at the big show.  Euro Cucina only comes along every two years as a part of the Salone del Mobile. Milano.  There is also a whole section devoted to the bath called Salone Internazionale del Bagno. Kitchen gadgets and appliances are shown in the FTK section.  I did a pretty good job of covering those but I estimate that was only about 20% of the entire show, the rest being furniture and other aspects of design.  Here's what caught my eye.

Counter tops were either very thin or chunky, like 1/2"  for the thin and 3" for the chunky.   I saw a lot of mixing of materials, in fact, that was probably the one biggest trend I saw for both counter tops and cabinets.  It is also one that can easily be adapted to our US market.  Counter top materials are much more adventurous than the usual granite or quartz that we are used to here. I saw wood, Corian, recycled composite material and more.  The overlapping installation here was also quite common.The kitchen sink saw some new innovations including lots of accessories and different methods of installation.  The inset style above, by Blanco, is factory installed by Leicht for a perfect fit.  This particular one is not available to us in the US but we can get the Precision model with the distinctive square corner interior for undermount applications.  Cabinets featured lots of defined graining in woods such as white oak, rosewood and walnut in both horizontal and vertical directions, sometimes on the same door.  I also saw some interesting variations on the popular slab and Shaker silhouettes.

LED lights illuminated the interior of all cabinets including drawers.  Just open the drawer and contents are illuminated.  Cabinetry, for the most part was sleek on the outside, party on the inside!  By that I mean that interiors were tricked out to the max to ensure convenient and efficient storage. Oh and yes, that 's a truck load of chocolate on the top, almost as intriguing as the drawer.  If you think that's eye candy, just wait till you get to the end of the post!

CleverStorageUS by Kessebohmer showed this blind corner pull out (below) which I specify all the time.  I think it's really the best way to take advantage of an awkward space.

Traditional styling was represented but examples were relatively few.  Some very opulent looks, traditional with high tech functionality

Visual Texture was abundant on cabinet fronts with laminates that look like the real deal.  But don't let looks deceive, these laminate fronts behind us (below) are by Leicht and are smooth as the proverbial baby's bottom!

Italian men were also on display and I would be remiss if I didn't cover that aspect of the show.  So there I was minding my own business, when a fashion show erupted (it was actually in the Bath section of the show).

 This is just the first in a series of posts about Milan and Salone Internazionale del Mobile.  Upcoming posts will include our visits to Acheo and Poggenpohl showrooms and much more.  So what do you think of these kitchen trends so far? I think some will make it over the pond but you can always know that whatever we do, we'll do it with an Americano twist. More later :)Click here for a peek at all my Milan photos!