The "Nest" Thermostat

This is a hot idea...or maybe it's a cool product, either way, I love it. 

About 14 years ago I installed my first programmable thermostat to help save on my heating and cooling bills. I have since replaced it with newer versions as they have become smarter and smarter. The problem has been that the thermostats are either hard to program or have few day-evening-night-weekend setting options, so they work on a fairly rigid schedule. This means I spend a lot of time overriding the settings that took me forever to program in the first place. To me, this looks to be the answer to all of this: a thermostat that learns how you live and works with you to maintain a comfortable temperature in your home, while saving energy. 

Also, from a design point of view, it is a very attractive device -- clean and sleek looking.  

Rather than have me go on about it, take a look at this video.

You can also visit the Nest site here Nest.com

Bamboozled

Sustainability, sustainability, sustainability -- if you're not using sustainable products, you are a hater of nature and no friend to the earth. Sounds a little harsh, doesn't it? Over the past few years the "green" movement has gained a lot of ground and I myself try to use "green" products whenever possible. Like many of you I want to enjoy my life, have nice things and leave the smallest possible fingerprint, but with all of the cry to be "green" why doesn't it seem to be happening?

I find it interesting that the NKBA (a national kitchen and bath designer group that I am a member of and from which I get my certification) released its list of kitchen and bath trends this year with such stunning conclusions as "traditional is the new contemporary," white is the most "in" color, and cherry still holds its place as the number one choice of wood for cabinetry. What seems to be missing from this list? Bamboo.

Have you looked at bamboo lately? It's sustainable, beautiful, and though the color choices are a bit limited (two), a great product to work with. I'll admit it's a little hard to find and a little more expensive because it hasn't grown into the market -- pun intended. It seems we tout "green" design but vote just the opposite with our wallets.

Personally I like bamboo - the floor in my master bedroom is bamboo; the furniture I designed and built for my master bedroom has bamboo elements. I recently had a client who used bamboo as a countertop material in a guest bathroom, to stunning effect. But it seems to be an incredibly hard sell, much like another sustainable product, cork.

My question to you: have you considered bamboo, cork or other sustainable products? Why or why not? Do you think using these products limits your design choices?

A Lot of Hot Jenn-Air

I don't want this post to sound like a marketing piece for Jenn-Air appliances, but after this weekend I am a much bigger fan of their product. Jenn-Air has always occupied a strange spot in my appliance selection process. Their appliances are good quality, people who own them are rabidly loyal, they are historically hard to install, and the price point is usually too high for one demographic and not high enough for another, caught between G.E. and Sub Zero.

I was invited to Atlanta by Jenn-Air for an all-expenses-paid designer meeting. I pictured a room full of designers being led like cattle through a showroom where slick salesmen, like Vince from ShamWow, hawked the latest and greatest appliances... I was totally wrong. What I was treated to was a very intimate event; there were only eight designers there, ranging from one who counted Ronald Reagan as a client to a relatively new one-person design company, and everything in between. Our accommodations were first class, dinner at Au Pied de Cochon was merveilleusement délicieux, the conversation was lively and I began to wonder if Jenn-Air's new marketing strategy was to wine and dine me into specifying their products... Again, I was mistaken.

The Jenn-Air company, much like Domino's Pizza, has come to a realization that their products have a bit of a stigma. We have all seen the Domino's commercial where they solicit the honest opinion of the customer (or ex-customer) and use the info to better not only their product but their reputation. On day two of our meeting, they solicited our honest opinions, had a CMKBD take us through their new and very interactive website, provided great product catalogs, showed us each of the new appliances in great detail in their totally tricked-out Insperience Studio, answered a myriad of questions, and then let us cook our own lunch on the appliances. That was brilliant.

I can tell you this -- their new products are aesthetically pleasing, the technology incorporated into each appliance is well thought out and in step with the iPhone generation and, once again, they have brought us a new innovation: the ductless downdraft cooktop (Jenn-Air invented the downdraft in the 1960s). It is good to see a company like Jenn-Air step up to the plate, admit their faults and then do something big about it, starting with their most basic sales force, the kitchen designer.

What is your perception of Jenn-Air?