Some of the biggest names in the kitchen and bath industry may be feeling like Jennifer Aniston this week. Just as the wildly popular actress was snubbed by the Oscars for her role in Cake, well-known luxury brands such as American Standard, Waterworks, Caesarstone, Kohler and Graff did not make the awards list at the 52nd annual Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) held in Las Vegas Jan 20-22.
KBIS judges favored old-world luxury, planet-friendly, and technologically-advanced designs. And the winners are…
LG Hausys, Best in Show for Techtop
LG Hausys won the Best in Show award for Techtop, wireless technology that allows you to charge your iPhone on your kitchen countertop. The company’s Viatera and HI-MACS countertops can be embedded with surface technology that lets you charge your mobile devices while you cook, clean, watch TV or sleep. You don’t have to hunt for chargers or deal with cluttered cables – you just set your device on the charging station and walk away.
Viatera is a solid surface countertop composed of 93 percent quartz. HI-MACS is a seamless, non-porous surface designed to have the strength of natural stone with little maintenance.
Brizo, Best of Kitchen Gold Award for Articulating Faucet
Brizo took the Best of Kitchen award for its articulating faucet. It was inspired by an architect lamp, and its spray wand works by docking and undocking it (rather than pulling it down). Two Brizo collections – Artesso and Solna – will feature the articulating faucet. The faucet is expected to sell for about $700.
Brizo’s Artesso collection, somewhat industrial in design, comes in four finishes – chrome, polished nickel, bronze and stainless. Solna, inspired by Scandinavian furniture, can be finished in bronze, chrome, stainless, matte black and matte white. SmartTouch Technology, which enables water flow with a touch on any part of the faucet or handle, is available on both faucet designs.
Walker Zanger, Best of Bath Gold Award for Tailor-Inspired Bathroom Tile
Marble meets wood-finish ceramic in Walker Zanger’s masculine Sterling Row collection of tiles.
The tiles, inspired by men’s business and formal attire, leans toward a color palette of blacks, whites and grays. The marble is smooth and the ceramic striated.
The gold-prize collection comes in eight patterns, including Oxford, Tuxedo, Wingtip and Houndstooth, and the tiles are priced at $145.
Walker Zanger has been featured in magazines such as House Beautiful, Consumer Reports, Luxe Interiors and Architectural Digest.
Brondell, Best of Kitchen Silver Medal for Integrated Kitchen Faucet
Do you feel guilty about drinking bottled water but hate the fuss (and aesthetics) of water filtering systems? Brondell’s award-winning integrated faucet delivers pure filtered water directly from your main kitchen faucet.
The faucets can be installed in your existing faucet space with no need to install a separate water filter or drill holes into your countertop.
Your faucet will still deliver plain tap water – hot and cold – as well as filtered water.
ROHL, Best of Bath Silver Medal for Gold Faucet
Worried that you missed last year’s gold trend? The hue’s still in the news and earning accolades.
ROHL’s Michael Berman Graceline C-Spout Widespread Lavatory Faucet, inspired by luxury ocean liners of the 20s and 30s, is streamlined and features a long, graceful arch.
The dial-shaped handles may remind you of ship cleats, and the handles come with built-in thumb impressions. The faucet is priced at $1,599.
During KBIS, ROHL announced a new blog that celebrates authentic luxury for the kitchen and bath. You’re invited to submit pictures of things you feel qualify as authentic luxury and share on Instagram, tagged #AuthLux1983.
Also Noteworthy
More than 700 exhibitors and some 24,000 visitors attended KBIS, the largest kitchen and bath event in North America.
Members of the Modenus Blog Tour did the judging and included interior designer Linda Holt, who has been featured in House Beautiful and Huffington Post; Regina Sturrock, a Toronto-area interior designer; Michelle Cortizo, who has been featured on NECN’s New England Dream Home, and the founders of Kandrac Kole, a nationally recognized interior design firm featured on HGTV and in The New York Times.
Other KBIS entries that didn’t get top nods from the judges but worth mentioning include these:
- Arras Bath Vanity by RYVYR. Modern and sleek, the vanity can stand on its own or be mounted to the wall. Comes in both black and gray.
- Japanese Weave Screen Block tiles by Ann Sacks, which can be used as wall decorations or assembled to create a space divider. They herald Daniel Ogassian’s love of the glass and cinder block designs popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
- Decora cabinets in three soft neutrals: fog, cliff and shadow.
- Omega bath cabinets. The Passage collection offers a fresh, uncluttered look for bathrooms.
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