What "Trendy" Design Decisions Will Look Dated First?

The actual presence of bathrooms and kitchens in an apartment is going to look dated shortly. The next step is to make the kitchen look like a regular wall and the bathroom will double as a walk-in closet. Either that or people are going to start using slop buckets and fire pits. Perhaps, as the Caveman diet is currently growing in popularity, we will see the 'Caveman' condo craze replace 'green' in the next decade?

Perfect place for someone who wants to truly follow the "Paleo" lifestyle.
http://www.landwatch.com/Dutchess-County-New-York-Land-for-sale/pid/262198459

haha

---"Just put your dirty dishes in the dishwasher as you accumulate them."

Why not just ring a dinner bell for the roaches?---

My roaches never come when they're called. I'll have to try this. Thanks for the suggestion.

Wood counter bathrooms that require sealants.
Ditto on relatively porous stone kitchens that require sealants.

This is why God invented Formica.

Yes Formica plastic has it's advantages, but is very tarnished from an image point of view by its past uses. It is not a high end product. I don't believe I've seen a single super-luxury Manhattan building marketed in recent times highlighting a Formica kitchen. I could be wrong, so please point out. The decision to go with Formica is typically forced by budgetary reasons first and foremost.

Open kitchen owner here. I have found that the best way to curb snacking (open k or not) is to buy only food that requires more prep than opening the container. I buy what I need for the next few days, no more. Works well for the ages of our kids and partner's appetites.

Avoiding snacking is all about routine and habit. It just takes two weeks to develop a routine that becomes second nature. The reason why diets fail is an inability to get past the first two weeks, that and thinking dieting means starving one-self.

"It is not a high end product."

What makes something "high-end"?

And why does anything NEED to be "high-end"?

Low End Trendy design and Manhattan Real Estate?
High End is driven by price, demand and marketing.
I doubt One57 even considered Formica for one second.

But I agree it has its advantages and uses. There is a place for Formica in many applications.
For Washington Heights, spending money on granite other premium surfaces is insane, the cost will never be recouped in the least.

Excepting ready-to-go prefab laminated countertops, the price differential between Formica(c) and crappy granite is far less than you might imagine. All that substrate-forming, gluing, clamping and waiting gets pretty pricey.

Open kitchens are not going anywhere. This is not "trendy" -- open kitchens have been by a wide margin the prevalent design plan for decades. The kitchen is where people congregate, even if no one is cooking. People spend as much remodeling their kitchen as they do on their children's education. They are not going to build a wall around it, unless it is to frame it. And, if the presence or absence of a door dictates whether you are going to open yet another door to retrieve that pint of Hagen Daz, you have more issues than the layout of your house/apartment.

In a one bedroom an open kitchen makes the apartment feel like a studio. Three and four bedroom are large enough that the design adds little value in terms of space, besides which the larger apartments have an area in the kitchen big enough for a kitchen table or have a side nook area. This leaves two bedroom units where arguably it makes some sense.

which of these are you in?

Riversider, are you as opposed to a window in the shower as C0C0 is?

Vessel sinks will be outdated by the end of the decade.

Televisions mounted above a fireplace mantel. Who wants to look up that high? A fireplace should be a thing of beauty, with a great piece of art above it. It looks tacky with a television.

In the suburbs an open kitchen can look great, with small appliances scattered around a large kitchen. Most kitchens in Manhattan are small and the appliance are crammed together and take up most of the room. It looks terrible. I think galley kitchens with a great swinging door (with a round window in it) will be back. It can look great and keeps the kitchen mess from ruining the ambiance of your dinner. I love being enclosed and focusing on cooking.

---Vessel sinks will be outdated by the end of the decade. --

Vessel sinks have been outdated from the get-go. They always look stupid, especially when coupled with "trough" faucets. Talk about over decorating.

All those ridiculous "chocolate" finishes. It's the "knotty pine" of the future.

To avoid making things dated, ask yourself if it would have looked good 100 years ago. If not, then it will date in the future.

What are "chocolate floors"? Are we talking about dark-stained hardwood floors or something else?

"Televisions mounted above a fireplace mantel. Who wants to look up that high? A fireplace should be a thing of beauty, with a great piece of art above it. It looks tacky with a television."

Agreed.

I also keep my television set sitting very low in the wall unit; just 12 inches off the floor. At first glance it looks ridiculously low (only because we're all so used to seeing television sets sitting higher up on cabinets), but anyone who watches TV over at my place quickly realizes how much more comfortable it is to be seated and having the television set at slightly *below* eye level, rather than above it; it's so much easier on the neck, and for those of us of a certain generation who grew up watching television on the floor, makes floor-watching with big pillows much more comfy.

Not only are people hanging their ugly TVs above their pretty fireplaces, builders were actually creating a big hole/shelf above fireplaces where you could set your TV on a small stand. Someone please tell me why people think that looks good. I just don't understand.

I want me a super-high-quality projection teevee, so it's just a little tiny box on a high shelf or mounted on the ceiling or wall. But because I own my apartment (at great financial loss relative to renting), it would need color-compensation for my pistachio-hued walls.

"but anyone who watches TV over at my place quickly realizes how much more comfortable it is to be seated and having the television set at slightly *below* eye level"

if only you could afford a coffee table...

I hope that the small footprints of new construction kitchen/living rooms go out of style in exchange for a layout that allows for a dining space, it doesn't even need to be a separate room. Whatever happened to having an actual dining table that you sit down at for dinner?

It was really enjoyable to read the comments from 3 years ago, people didn't get their wish exactly regarding s/s appliances, although white appliances (white and s/s) are coming back into style.

huge master baths with soaking tubs, etc--where the apt is of normal size with normal room sizes--i had one like this, and lamented that the bath was not of a normal size, and the extra space used for a small office or a closet even.

i left the tub and bathroom as it was, tho, bc people like big grand bathrooms, and they help with selling--go figure

in some new bldgs you can find master bedrms which are 12 by 12, with bathrooms with a nearly equal footprint--dumbbuilder

While I am an open kitchen guy, I thought you would all enjoy the continued lively trolling / debate at Slate on the topic: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2013/08/against_open_concept_kitchens_don_t_listen_to_hgtv_and_keep_your_walls_and.html

How funny to visit the threads on this site after a couple years and see a post you created five years ago on the 2nd page! I still hate those bowl sinks, but I do think that they've become less trendy in the past few.

Thanks, RandyinNy; My take on the TV over the fireplace is a design that I thought was used in suburban family rooms. Not in a decently designed living room. At least in the suburbs they still have a living room aside from the family room. When the fireplace/tv people go to the movies, do they sit in the first row? No. I have a friend who bought a place with the ugly wires sticking out of the wall above fireplace. The good news is that a nice piece of art covered it up.

Hate, hate, hate those granite kitchen counters. Who wants to cook on a gravestone? And all those speckles, how can you tell if the counter is clean? Or maybe that's the idea.

Had to weigh in on the open kitchen. While I understand it can be nice to chat with friends while preparing a leisurely meal, most of the time we're just living. In a small Manhattan apartment, every opportunity for a moment of peace is treasured. This is what bugs me most about them. I feel like if I'm cooking for the whole family, the least I can get is a moment of quiet while my husband deals (or not) with the kids in ANOTHER room. If we have friends over, a few adults can still join me in the galley kitchen to chat quietly. Of course, the smells and dishes are another issue. I also strongly agree with the longing for the old dining area. We have this in our new place, and I love having separate living and diving rooms. They're not as large as in a new building, but they're cozy, and people can watch the game in one place and eat quietly somewhere else. It feels very civil.

I'm still seeing some nice white kitchens on Houzz, etc. We're renovating. How can we do a white kitchen that won't look dated? I still like how they open up a (yes) narrow/non-open kitchen.

So tired of everyone on HGTV yapping on and on about open kitchen. It's the same every episode. Can they ever feature someone that's willing to buck the trend? Yes a staged kitchen looks beautiful but a REAL kitchen where actual cooking takes place looks much different. Honestly a messy kitchen (let's not pretend that we're perfect) is a real eye sore. Also this is how developers pack more into the same square footage and sell you an apt. As for houses, an eat in kitchen is cool, but would never trade that for a dining room. Overall really don't care for open kitchen and it's not for everyone. Non-open kitchen lovers just need to come out and speak up.

HC6219 and Aael921, right on!

The open kitchen concept was first conceived by developers trying to maximize tight spaces; there's no way they could otherwise wall off that kitchen without turning the "living room" into an 8x9 dimly-lit prison cell. Calling it an "open kitchen" with a perimeter defined by "breakfast bar" or island fooled most people into not realizing they were living with their kitchen appliances and sink right in their living rooms.

You had to give the developers some credit, though, for making the most of what little space they had to work with.

But there's absolutely NO excuse for an "open kitchen" in sprawling suburban homes! Some of the most absurd I've seen are lovely historic homes gutted of all first-floor walls (leaving only drywalled support beams!), creating an open space of 1500 feet or more! It turns a home into what appears to be an institutional common area, like a college student union or the visitors area of a psychiatric hospital.

waterfall countertop, disturbingly ugly. bet the marble traders are all over this ugly new fad. i wouldn't be surprised if many owners remodel them to regular countertops soon and you'll find the spare marble selling on ebay.

Many owners re-model as soon as they become owners, especially common amongst the larger more expensive homes. People think that when they go high end they are adding value, but truth is the only people likely to appreciate it are themselves.

hc6219, I am completely in agreement with you. I hate open kitchens. When I bought my apartment (a large alcove studio in a prewar building), the previous owners had taken down the wall between the kitchen and living room and installed the ubiquitous breakfast bar. I immediately not only put the wall back up, but made the kitchen small (but so much more functional) and then had an L-shaped banquette built at the window, affording seating for 5 (6 with an additional chair) and a sensational view of the Bay. It made the apartment seem twice as big, partly because I also installed French doors leading into the seating area. Since you couldn't see the kitchen at all from the living room and you see another sitting room, the illusion is of much more space. And for those who think this is a mistake, my apartment was appraised significantly higher than those with the open kitchen concept. The pre-war architects knew what they were doing. At least I think so.

I smile every time I see this thread resurrected. The open/closed kitchen solution has been found: both. http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-rise-of-the-super-pantry-1410449896

Future articles:
"Why I moved my appliances into the pantry"
"Latest kitchen trends: turning the breakfast bar into a full table"
"Have our kitchens become dining rooms?"

Nothing really 'new' about the so-called Super Pantry--it's just a new name for the traditional Butler's Pantry...

I think the red lacquer barns in C0lumbia C0unty should have never been tried in the first place.

Wishouse - Those articles are dying to be published with no irony whatsoever. I'd subscribe just for the comments.