Disguise Your Appliances

Taking Care Beside higher price tags, there are some drawbacks to integrated appliances. Wood panels are especially vulnerable to moisture. The biggest threat is handling units with wet hands. Moisture can wear around handles and knobs and mar the finish. Another downside is that when appliances have to be replaced, the front panel may also need replacing. That not only adds to the cost, it adds on a complication: finding an exact match with the surrounding woodwork. Designer Troy Adams hides a Sub-Zero refrigerator-freezer inside a Japanese-influence cabinetry. Beyond the Kitchen Now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t innovation is allowing appliances to move out of the kitchen without sacrificing style. Small refrigeration units are doubling as tables in bedroom suites, wine cellars, exercise rooms and finished basements. “Under-counter refrigerators have become more versatile and stylized to accommodate the way people live,” says Salerno. The Surprise Inside Dishwashers are another commonly masked appliance. With control panels atop the door, they can easily disappear behind cabinetry. In addition to standard panels, Salerno has disguised dishwashers with shallow grain-bin drawers filled with beans and pasta. Chalkboard facings are another option, allowing the real estate to be used as family message centers. Custom dishwasher panels can add 50 percent to the cost of the unit, but Salerno is quick to add that clients rarely regret going “that extra step to customize. That type of detailing says it’s a custom piece. And that can drive an entire home.” For faster, less permanent facelifts, magnetic panels are available in a wide range of styles, from whimsical to classical. Other hide-and-seek appliances? Cooktops concealed by cutting boards when not in use, paneled warming and refrigerator drawers and microwaves that slide out behind pocket doors. Artful ventilation hoods, such as Miele’s stunning wall and island-hood line, are so sculptural in design, they often wind up as kitchen centerpieces. Karen Black-Sigler, a certified kitchen designer and owner of A Karen Black Company in Oklahoma City, Okla., keeps her clients’ kitchen visitors guessing with hidden TVs. “We put flatscreen TVs into sleeves that pop out of islands and then revolve 360 degrees. It’s a great way to integrate televisions into the kitchen.” Once upon a time, kitchens were off-limits to guests, but no more. Now they’re central to entertaining. And guests love the element of surprise, says Black-Sigler. “It’s exciting. When you’re able to walk into a kitchen and have people wonder where your appliances are, you have a kitchen that doesn’t look like a kitchen. And that’s appealing.” Trending Up The trend to disguise appliances as armoires and furniture pieces took off in the early 1990s. Then, says Black-Sigler, came the popularity of stainless-steel appliances and suddenly consumers became comfortable with refrigerators, dishwashers and ovens being focal points of their kitchens. But she’s starting to see a trend back to appliance integration. “Lots of people have had stainless-steel appliances and they understand the difficulties in keeping them smudge-free, so we’ve gone back to integrated appliances a bit more.” For those looking for the ultimate disguise, there’s Troy Adams’ hidden kitchen, which is actually a kitchen within a kitchen. Prep and cleanup is secreted in a separate room behind wood paneling allowing the main display kitchen to remain a spic ’n span showplace.

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