Foreign travel is great for sparking a designer’s creative juices; however, mixing business with pleasure can be the ultimate reward. In that vein, I have made a point of attending kitchen and bath industry trade shows on a regular basis in North America and Europe. This year, I was selected by the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA) Global Connect team, along with 20 other certified members, to attend German Haus Fair. Global Connect is a program developed by the NKBA to forge relationships between foreign manufacturers of kitchen and bath products and its association members. German Haus Fair is a unique, seven-day trade convention that takes place in September in northern Germany, showcasing German designed and manufactured kitchen and bath products.

Two working professionals with very active children needed a bathroom that would keep up with their busy lifestyle and help them unwind at the end of the day. Lack of storage, dated finishes, a failing shower and, window added to their dissatisfaction. The view of the toilet while soaking in the tub was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

McCabe By Design LLC was the builder responsible for all aspects of the project, with Molly McCabe as the designer.

The master bath water closet walls needed to be permanently removed to provide full access to the toilet and grab bars. The bathtub and curbed tiny shower were removed in favor of a spacious, roll-in shower with a transfer pole, grab bar shampoo shelves, hand-held shower head, and thermostatic valves. An awkward “linen” closet was removed to make room for accessible pull-out storage and two nearly identical vanities (at the homeowner’s request), with one vanity being a roll-up. Lighted LED mirrors provide full illumination for grooming.

Italian kitchen appliance manufacturer Irinox is blazing trails in the food and beverage preservation segment of the appliance world. The company was founded in 1989 to serve the professional food service and confectionary industries with blast chillers. Its blast chillers not only physically preserve foods (think no freezer burn), but are capable of maintaining the organoleptic properties (appearance, flavor, aroma and texture) of food, as well as vitamins and minerals.

Wine sales around the world are on the rise, with more people enjoying wine in the comfort of their own homes rather than in restaurants or bars. Drinking wine can be a thoroughly delightful experience and a worthwhile expenditure, provided you treat it with respect. For best results, understand the fundamentals of when to consume wine, how to store it and how to preserve it at home.

Whether you are a budding enthusiast or an avid wine imbiber, consider following some standard guidelines regarding the timing of your wine consumption to ensure you reap the greatest enjoyment. First, the year printed on the bottle’s label defines the year the wine grapes were harvested, or “vintage.” If no year is printed on the bottle, it means the wine was made with grapes harvested in different years.

The kitchen is a cornerstone in any home. It’s where we cook dinner and where we gather with friends and family. Everyone wants a beautiful kitchen, but remember, this is a functional space as well. Choose finishes and materials that will stay on trend for years to come.

Goal: Do you have specific objectives for your project, such as improving the sound quantity of the room (sound abatement) or products that have low or no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to minimize the off-gassing of toxic substances that are wreaking havoc on your indoor air quality? It’s easy to search for materials on the internet that are designed for sound abatement, as well as those that maintain health and wellness in your interior home environment.

Sitting on the sofa in a bathrobe and staring blankly at a laptop screen despite a growing to-do list was not a one-off occurrence for those trapped within their own four walls. In fact, during that time period, social media was overrun by people sharing their greatest accomplishments – binge watching entire seasons of the latest Netfix shows in one sitting. For those not ‘in the know’ regarding mental health discourse, the word burnout began making its way into casual conversation. Even now, in a world that has – for better or worse – begun to open back up, it’s not uncommon to hear a colleague remark, “I’m so burned out,” or “the burnout is getting to me.” In its ICD-11 compendium, the World Health Organization defines burnout as a syndrome caused by unsuccessful management of workplace stress, characterized by symptoms including “feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job, and reduced professional efficacy.”

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Ever had a yearning for a specific countertop or a chair? Or on the flip side, a visceral reaction to a certain color or light fixture? If so, you are not alone. Colors, textures and design elements can evoke strong feelings of desire or displeasure.

These reactions can be explained, in part, by neuroaesthetics, a new field of experimental science that combines neuroscience, psychology and aesthetics to understand how humans derive intense pleasure or displeasure from aesthetic experiences such as art and beauty. Neuroaesthetics contends that visual aesthetics, namely the capacity of assigning different degrees of beauty to certain forms, colors or movement, is a specifically human trait not possessed by other members of the animal kingdom.