The northwestern U.S. is not the place for frills and frippery, but for kitchens and baths that work hard and play hard. “We are pretty eclectic here, plenty of contemporary design happening, but with all the natural materials technically   ts into a transitional design style. We have a fair amount of older traditional homes as well, but even within those homes the traditional design is less fussy, simplifed and cleaner,” says Paula Kennedy, owner of Seattle, WA-based Timeless Kitchen Design.

The term ‘sustainable design’ is one that tends to evoke mixed reactions – a good idea in theory, and certainly one that clients would love to pursue, but it comes with a certain expectation of a painful uptick in price to account for green-certified appliances and sustainably sourced materials. Increasingly, however, as sustainability becomes more than just a trendy buzzword, the reality of creating sustainable designs has less to do with convincing clients to spring for pricey specialty design elements and more to do with how the client ultimately lives in and uses their space. According to designers interviewed by Kitchen & Bath Design News, sustainability has moved away from simply specifying green products and has instead become a practice that designers themselves must commit to, a business model as much as a design philosophy.