Take Note, Builders: Design Styles With Staying Power

With a new generation of home buyers coming into the market, it’s more important than ever for the building industry to keep up with consumers’ ever-changing lifestyles. To stay ahead of the curve, the Whirlpool Corporation Global Consumer Design explores trends in industries including architecture, interior design, car design and even fashion, offering builders the benefit of a design team driven by consumer insights.

Here are a few design trends that builders should be paying attention to, and how Whirlpool Corporation design experts have anticipated and responded to them.

1. The rise of the "super kitchen." According to a recent Houzz survey, today’s kitchen also serves as a living room, family room and office, incorporating features and finishes that blur the line between the kitchen and the rest of the home. “Because kitchens now open up into a large living space, we have to ensure appliances are harmonious with the broader environment of the home,” says Jessica McConnell, Senior Manager for Color, Finish and Material Design Studio at Whirlpool Corporation.

“To understand this idea of a super kitchen, we collaborated with other industry partners such as designers and cabinet makers,” adds Jason Tippetts, Global Brands Design Manager at Whirlpool Corporation. “Fixtures such as cabinets and appliances need to be flexible across design changes, because you don’t replace them as often as other elements of the room.”

2. Modern, warm spaces
More than 60 percent of respondents to a recent National Kitchen & Bath Association Trend survey point to contemporary as the fastest-growing style for kitchens. When creating the newest Whirlpool Corporation products, “we wanted to turn modern on its head – we knew that modern could also be approachable,” says Tippetts. “People tend to think that modern equals cold. Satin and matte finishes are rich and warm, and incorporating them helps us blend with other materials in the kitchen.”

New color finishes such as the Whirlpool® Fingerprint Resistant Black Stainless Steel Kitchen Suite reflects personal taste and allows for a neutral canvas for the most important room in the home.

3. Seamless smart home
Consumers are looking for smart homes that are designed with technology that helps them save time on everyday tasks. The new Whirlpool® Smart Kitchen Suite intuitively learns habits and adapts to a family’s day-to-day routine, giving them what they truly want from the latest technology. Features such as Scan-to-Cook, integration with voice controlled connected devices and Amazon Dash replenishment present easier ways to automatically control appliances. Design experts also simplified the user interface, ensuring it was simpler and more intuitive to navigate.