LAS VEGAS — If you're planning to build or remodel a kitchen, you'll be right on top of the trends if you choose white cabinets. No, wait, make that dark brown.
Attendees at separate events at the recent International Builders' Show here were assured by design professionals who follow such things that each hue is the way consumer tastes are heading. So, believe whichever one pleases you.
This enormous trade show is always sort of a design trends free-for-all, with forecasts handed out almost hourly. But unlike at previous shows when the housing economy was gasping for air and nobody was building anything, this year's crop of trends might signify something. We're just not sure what.
And about the economy, the multitude of economists in attendance generally gave the housing market a thumbs-up, though with a fair amount of mumbling about what could go wrong. Specifically, they're most worried about faltering consumer confidence and the effects of debt-ceiling fisticuffs in Washington.
The consensus is for a slow upward arc in home sales during the next few years. And although it was reported at the gathering that some builders on the West Coast are raising prices in order to slow sales because they can't keep up with demand, never once did I hear the word "boom" applied to housing's future.
So, back to the fluffy stuff that sells houses — fewer kitchen cabinets (yes, that's what they said), more sensible bathrooms and comfy doggy digs — as enumerated by the trend spotters:
Practical floor plans. If the 1990s and early 2000s were all about (often wretched) excess in homebuilding, a new sobriety is settling in that focuses on an almost ruthless emphasis on maximizing utility in every square inch.
And so I heard for the umpteenth time that the formal dining room and living room are being ditched by consumers, and maybe now I'm going to believe it.
The idea is that buyers want to take the square footage devoted to formal spaces and apply it to distinctly casual areas. Specifically, there's a call for an open area that encompasses kitchen, family room and a single dining area, according to Steve Moore, a principal at BSB Design in Des Moines, Iowa. His firm designs houses for many of the nation's big homebuilders.
Pet areas. Moore was one of at least three speakers who told the builders that if they fail to factor family pets into the design scheme, they're missing the hot button that could sell the house. Moore told them that 39 percent of American households have dogs. "And (consumers) spent $51 billion on them in 2011," he said.
All of that spending translates to "stuff," and the stuff all needs someplace to go. He and others recommended creating a designated pet area somewhere in the house where the crates, brushes, bowls, leashes, giant bags of kibble and such can go.
One popular choice is the "family foyer" that's morphing from being just a laundry room next to the garage into also being a drop zone for backpacks, cellphones, and life's daily paraphernalia. Put the pet stuff there, he said, but wherever it is, make sure there's a door to the outside so that muddy paws don't have to slog through the kitchen twice a day.
And it's not all about dogs: Moore said some households are asking for built-in cat beds positioned at the spot where the afternoon sunbeams will warm the napping kitty.
Open spaces. In another "goodbye, dining room" moment, architect Dominick Tringali of Auburn Hills, Mich., also mentioned a demand for wide-open spaces combining the three activity areas.
So, forget the table for two in the kitchen with all meals happening there; he's planning breakfast "nooks" that may seat 10 to 12 for entertaining. Not only is he eliminating the dining room and the dinosaur living room, he's cutting out hallways in order to steal space for this big "nook."
And with his clients demanding elaborate pantries, they're cutting back on kitchen cabinets, which also saves them a few bucks, he said.
"People don't care as much these days about the cabinets themselves but about having space in the kitchen," he said.
"Take some of that money and spend it on the architecture — arches, fireplaces, etc."
Tringali said he's definitely seeing tastes in cabinet finishes shifting to dark colors.
Design trends. Meanwhile, after sifting through literally hundreds of floor plans and photos of homes built in 2012, the judges of the annual Best in American Living Awards for the top residential designs, which were announced at the show, said consumers are favoring white cabinets, for sure.
"White is everything," said Karen Kassik, a designer in Anchorage, Alaska and Best in American Living Awards judge, who suggested that in addition to ubiquitous white cabinets, white Carrara marble may finally be gaining on our long-running fondness for granite.
We'll just let them fight that color thing out.
But the judges also observed that master bathrooms, which, during the McMansion era, were expansive glitter palaces with chandeliers and crystal sconces, are looking smaller and more practical now, repeating that efficiency theme.
The judges also sounded one of two obituaries for the bookcase that I heard at the builders show. Sad but true, they said: more e-books, fewer real books and less need for bookcases.
And in the houses that still ask for bookshelves, another designer said, they're not for tomes, but for collections of objects. Next year, I'll find out what color they are.
Twitter @maryumberger
