Wednesday, September 30, 2015
5 Favorites: Wooden Bread Bins
There are times when I'll set out on a half-hour-long pilgrimage for a single loaf of my favorite bread (no errand in New York is ever easy). The investment of time and money (it's an artisanal loaf) is so much that every bit should be savored. I wrap the unsliced portion in a linen towel but recently I've noticed the crust goes soft so I've been taking note of appealing bread bins. It turns out, a bin with a wood component allows for just the right amount of breathability; here are five I've noticed lately.
Above: Cape Town's Pedersen + Lennard wood and powder-coated-steel Breadbin has a recipe stand when flipped open; $54 directly from Pedersen + Lennard.
Above: From one of our most trusted cultivators of utility goods, Iris Hantverk, comes the Large Birch Bread Box. The simple, slatted box is £60 ($90) at Tea and Kate in the UK, who will gladly ship abroad.
Above: From Berghoff in Belgium, the Cubo Deluxe Bread Box has a rubber wood bottom, a stainless steel cover, and can store two loaves of bread; $110 at Berghoff.
Above: The John Lewis Round Bread Bin is perfect for that sort of rounded country loaf. It's made in beech and is £35 ($53 USD) at John Lewis.
Above: The Plain Wood Bread Bin is made of sustainable birch ply and according to the designers, it can hold several loaves, even misshapen ones. Pair it with a slatted wood Breadboard to better allow the bread to breathe in the bin. The bin is £85 ($128) at Ella's Kitchen Company.
For more kitchen accoutrements, see our posts:
- 16 Favorite Accessories from the English Kitchen
- 10 Favorites: Colorful Accessories for the Kitchen Sink
- 10 Favorites from the French Scullery
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Domestic Science: How to Load a Dishwasher
There’s an Arthur C. Clark quote that gets used way too often, about how the best technology is indistinguishable from magic. I will not quote the quote because it’s quoted all the time in Silicon Valley, where I work. But you get the idea: Great technology fills us with unbridled, slack-jawed, how’d-they-do-that awe.
That’s pretty much how I feel about my dishwasher.
The Miele is the best piece of technology in my home. It is as fast, silent and discreet as a ninja assassin, if ninjas killed dishes. Also, I love how it’s so endlessly adjustable, detachable, customizable and economic in its lines and power consumption. Oh, and the Miele’s top rack for silverware? Jesus wept.
My wife and teenage daughter, however, don’t see the Miele as great technology. They think it really is magic.
How else is one to explain the quasi-mystical way they load the thing? They think the normal rules of physics go out the window when the dishwasher door is open: water can suddenly penetrate glazed dishes and glassware as if these solid objects were riddled with inter-galactic wormholes. Anything can be put anywhere in the Magic Dishwasher! Martini glasses can be jammed in the silverware tray, god help us. And, why not pile up plates on bowls, glasses on pots and pots on roasting pans, all of it on each other, like so many clowns in the circus… The dishes will come out, sparkling clean. Like, magic!
Why do my wife and teenage daughter, who are so much smarter, more logical and math-y than me, think they can put a large cooking pot on top of three filthy bowls that recently held stew? Why doesn’t my wife get that the stew bowls will be just as grotty at the end of the wash cycle as they were when I finally pried them from her freeloading friends’ hands, after they “dropped by on a lark” at dinnertime?
When I woke up this morning, I did not set out to mansplain the rudiments of dishwasher loading, to them or anyone else. But, on behalf of husbands and fathers everywhere—to whom dishwasher duty inevitably falls—it’s time to tell the loved ones with whom we cohabitate that the dishwasher is not a Hogswarts Sorting Hat. It is a beautifully engineered machine that works only as well as the people tending it.
So here are some simple rules. Go ahead and print them out. Or tell your husband to.
1. Keep your apples with your apples and your oranges with your oranges. All other rules about Dishwasker Stacking stem from this simple concept. It starts in the drying rack, where all your forks go with all the other forks—right down to salad forks going with salad forks and dinner forks spooning against dinner forks. Put all your spoons in a separate area and the knives in their own ghetto, too. This will not only allow for proper spacing, it’ll make it easier to put cleaned items away later. Similar sized bowls are clustered on the ground floor, as are dinner plates and salad plates.
2. The juice cups, which we use for all beverages, go on the TOP RIGHT. That’s because they are short, and you can fold down that clever secondary shelf, where you can stack 6 demitasses side by side.
3. The big dinner plates go on the main level, either in the center (American style) or on the right center side (a la mode). I am OK with either so long as you out one plate in each rack slot; do not stuff two into one slot because NO WATER WILL GET THROUGH.
4. Sorry for yelling.
5. The sandwich plates go on the same level as the dinner plates, but in the rack space in the front that runs perpendicular to the dinner plate racks. Please, please, please: Do not waste the big rack space on little items like salad plates.
6. Do not put your favorite outsized serving plate that you got at a yard sale in the main rack. It is too high and will prevent the dishwasher’s arm thing-y from rotating, and water will just drip from it, forlornly and nothing will get clean. I mean, honestly, you could run it like that from now until Trump gets elected pope and NOTHING WILL GET CLEAN.
7. Sorry for yelling.
8. Yes it is a dishwasher, and yes, there is a drought in the west, but some things, such as filthy stew bowls, need a quick rinsing before being dishwashed. I don’t care what the salesman told you.
9. Heavy-duty stuff, such as Thanksgiving Day roasting pans, and my precious bone-handled knives need to be cleaned by hand.
10. Ignore the different Mode settings; they are not for you.
11. That said, if you put a fully shuffled deck of cards in the silverware rack and run the machine in Express Mode, the cards will reshuffle themselves by suit, in ascending numeric order. No clue how this works, but it blows my mind every time.
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10 Easy Pieces: Modular Kitchen Workstations
When it comes to rental appliances, we're partial to the European style of installing your own kitchen gear; investing in a good oven and refrigerator and taking it with you from one rental to the next. By that logic why not bring your own sink, cooktop, and counters with you too? Here are 10 recent finds in the area of modular kitchen workstations.
Above: Danish company Vipp makes an Island Module and can be assembles with various front cabinets, a sink, and gas burners into the worktop; $34,300 at Vipp.
Above: The March Work Table is built of white oak and steel and can be customized with leather accessory boxes, a wine rack, or ash basket. The work table is $15,180 with accompanying components starting at $900.
Above: German industrial designer Dirk Biotto's ChopChop is a well thought out storage kitchen worktop. Contact Dirk Biotto for more information.
Above: Boffi's Mini Kitchen Cart has a built-in mini refrigerator, storage compartments, and sockets for electical cords. Contact Boffi for retailer information.
Above: The Barnstaple Oak Kitchen Dresser is a mix of lacquer and oiled wood with three drawers and a cubby system for small items; £1,200 ($1,818 USD) at Habitat.
Above: A kitchen island from Alpes Inox features a five-burner gas cooktop, a sink, and drawers. Read more about it and more modular kitchen pieces at Race-Car-Style Appliances for Compact Kitchens.
Above: Katrin Arens, a German in Italy, designed a wooden kitchen workbench. Contact Katrin Arens directly for more information.
Above: Danish company CPH Square's Travel Kitchen in a range of colors and customizable styles. The workstation is on wheels but has all the necessary hookups. For pricing and information contact CPH Square.
Above: The In-Vitto 120 Stainless Steel Kitchen by Metalco in Italy is a powder-coated kitchen trolley with a stainless steel sink and double burner cooktop. For pricing and shipping information, contact Metalco.
Above: From German kitchen design house Bulthaup, the b2 Workbench, a modular kitchen island with the option of including a cooktop, one of three widths of sinks, and a worktop. For more information visit Bulthaup.
Above: Designed by Michelle Villa for Lgtek Outdoor, the Steel and Wood Outdoor Kitchen is best for in-between, indoor/outdoor spaces or kitchens that open onto patios. For more information visit Archiproducts.
For more modular kitchen ideas see our posts:
- Good Küchen: 9 German Kitchen Systems
- Bella Cucina: 8 Italian Kitchen Systems
- 10 Easy Pieces: Instant Kitchen Islands
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Tuesday, September 29, 2015
À la Carte Kitchen Components, Tiny Apartment Edition
Hipster Tokyo real estate company R-Real Estate specializes in "old but attractive, edgy spaces." After consulting in the design of countless remodels, the team founded R-Toolbox, an offshoot business designed to make the move-in process easy by supplying urban dwellers with exactly what might they need, whether that's a hand-forged brass bracket or an entire stainless steel kitchen. Run by a team of eight, including an architect, designer, and craftsman, R-Toolbox offers DIY workshops on shelf-building and other basics in its just-opened Shibuya-ku showroom, and will send over a work crew on request.
"In the mainstream market in Japan, home design solutions tend to be very packaged and homogeneous. But recently there's a desire for original spaces and craftsmanship," says company spokesperson Atsumi. "That's why we provide the 'toolbox' for people to edit their own spaces." Here's a small sampling from their arsenal. American real estate firms, we hope you're taking notes.
Sinks
Above: The Minimalist Stainless Steel Sink and Cooktop—"well suited to the rental property"—can be ordered in a range of lengths.
Above: The skinny, stainless steel Mini Kitchen "omits extra things" and is recommended for offices and studio apartments.
Storage
Above: R-Toolbox's Larch Plywood Hanging Cupboard has sliding doors available in six colors and is fitted on the inside with a center shelf. It comes in three sizes, starting at ¥32,000 ($265.78).
Hardware
Above: The Square Bar cabinet pull, ¥4,968 ($41.26), comes with or without a base plate.
Above: Made by a small factory in Osaka for R-Toolbox, Shelf Brackets are available in two sizes in brass, iron, and three types of stainless steel. These large brass brackets are ¥3,300 ($27.41).
Above: The same Osaka team produces these hand-forged Greedy Towel Racks in two thicknesses and a range of metals; length made to order.
Flooring
Above: The R-Toolbox offerings extend to wood flooring and tiles. We especially like the salvaged American Gym Flooring with its original colored lines "woven randomly for a fun look."
Complete Kitchens
Above: A Minimalist Stainless Steel Kitchen. The kitchen is produced by a small metalworks factory. "Our team designed it," says Atsumi, "and to minimize price, this product is just folded and brushed stainless plates."
Above: So far, R-Toolbox sells its designs in Japan only, but international shipments are available for certain products, and the company hopes to extend its reach.
Above: A more elaborate Stainless Steel Frame Kitchen is also available to order, details are customizable. Go to R-Toolbox to see more, including a Black Frame Kitchen.
For Japanese lighting that we have our eyes on, take a look at Flame by Kenichi Kandatsu, in our post A Japanese Lighting Company Embraces the Dark Side.
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Required Reading: Tile Makes the Room: Good Design from Heath Ceramics
When industrial designer Catherine Bailey and product designer Robin Petravic took over the reins at Heath Ceramics in 2003, the company was most noted for its iconic dinnerware. Since then, the Sausalito-based company has helped put tile firmly on the map, taking what was once considered mostly a functional tool and helping it become a major element in interior design today. We sat down and discussed the merits of tile.
Photography copyright by Mariko Reed.
Above: Catherine Bailey, Robin Petravic, and their dog, Oliver, in the Heath Ceramics factory in Sausalito.
Remodelista: When you bought Heath in 2003 what was your general perception of tile?
Catherine Bailey: I was already interested in tiles before Heath. When I lived in Portland [Oregon], I would go to Pratt & Larson and there was a room full of tables with tiles and I’d mill around and buy tile with no place to put it, just thinking someday I’d like to do something with it.
Robin Petravic: Prior to Heath I never really thought about tile too much. It was this functional thing then [when we bought Heath], and I wondered why people weren’t doing anything more with tile.
Above: A wall of Heath's copper green tiles at Farmshop Restaurant in Marin, designed by Commune Design.
RM: When did your perception of tile change?
CB: A lot of tile was happening in the eighties with everything in a grid and that got stuck in people’s heads. We saw the shaped tiles that we make at Heath with such wonderful depth and texture—while they were different, those shaped tiles felt right and represented tile as a very clear design element. Focusing on that was a way to open people’s mind to the possibilities of tile and that became more interesting to us.
RP: This was an amazing installation at the Maritime hotel in New York, the Matsuri restaurant [now closed] with green Heath oval tiles that covered a massive wall that spanned the space from end to end. It was part of the architecture.
CB: Also the Pasadena Norton Simon Museum built in 1973, which used Heath tiles with a really unique lava-like glaze. No other material would be as wonderful, and it’s aged so well. From far away it’s great, but when close up it’s an amazing glaze and you can really see it’s a handmade material.
Above: Three-dimensional diamond and bow tie Heath tiles define the kitchen in classic midcentury style in this Southern California home designed by Maurice McKenzie and Stacey Chapman Paton.
RM: What should people know about tile?
CB: You have to realize it’s not wallpaper. You’re putting it in for life or at least 20 years so you should think of it differently. It should meld in with the architecture of the space, it’s not a covering. You should really consider if you are doing something too showy or too of-the-moment. It’s not a fashion statement. It should become part of the building. In the book we have tried to show examples of older tiled buildings that have aged. Good quality tile will age well and can patina nicely.
RM: How do you think the tile industry has changed over the past decade?
RP: There’s been a shift in tile. The only choice used to be Home Depot or depressing tile show rooms that were really undesigned and uninspiring and overwhelming. Now there is so much access to inspiration of what you can do with tile such as on websites like Remodelista.
Above: Yellow tile around a farmhouse sink in the upstate New York home of Alan Wanzenberg.
RM: How has the use of tile changed in recent years?
RP: Tile used to be used to make an environment antiseptic. Everything would be covered in a bathroom and all the corners would be rounded in bullnose and it would look a little soul-less. In the book we show a lot of ways to use tile. For example, New York architect Alan Wanzenberg uses wood trim around the tile in his laundry room. Using bullnose there would have ruined it.
Above: The tile in this shower designed by San Francisco–based John Maniscalco Architecture uses pattern to define the space.
RM: The importance of grout?
CB: Grout is a serious decision and there is a much broader way to look at it. It’s a major part of the design, whereas it’s still often treated as the afterthought of the installation. If you do it wrong it’s hard to fix it.
RP: Think about the spacing of the tile. Do you want it to be about the shape of the tile and the texture of the tile? What do you want to accentuate? Do you want the grout to recede or stand out in the background? When you have such a range of color and glazes, you don’t want too many elements.
CB: It’s important to think of lifestyle, too. For our lifestyle we could never think of using a light colored grout on floors as we have these giant slobbery dogs, so we went with the darkest grout we could find.
RM: Unlike paint you can’t really test grout and tile, right?
CB: On some big jobs we might suggest a client make a board with grout and tile and they’ll test it in the space. That’s a bit much on a residential job, but you can take the actual grout powder and wet it a little—grout gets slightly darker when applied—and put it right on an extra tile. You can hold it up and see them together.
Above: A fully tiled wall in the salvaged kitchen of the Roddick's London home by Maria Speake of Retrouvius.
RM: Observations on how European and American tile differs?
RP: We’ve basically noticed that with American houses, the approach is often to gut it all and do everything new—make it all straight, pristine, and clean. In Europe we saw that people worked with the inconsistencies of the building. The Roddick house in London [featured in the book] has so much character. The walls aren’t straight and there’s character in the way the tile layers with the old wood cabinetry in the kitchen. In current American design there seems to be less interest to work with elements that are old, and sometimes that can mean some of the soul and character of a building is lost.
RM: Thoughts on the future of tile?
CB: There’s a lot of technical, mass-produced stuff going on with tile that’s aesthetically interesting, pristine, and precise, and technology has given rise to a lot of cool stuff like print. Right now there’s a lot of engineering in imperfections to make it look like it’s handcrafted, but it’s fakery. It looks pretty good until you get close. That’s not as interesting to us. What we love and appreciate is the lack of control in the process of firing glazes and embracing that. It is expensive to make tile the way we do it at Heath—but with our approach, tile has more character, richness, and depth, which can do wonders for the larger design of a space. The world of inexpensive tile will continue to grow, but there’s also a renewed appreciation for the tile we make and how we make it.
Above: Barbara Bestor of Bestor Architecture juxtposes bright yellow tiles in a geometric pattern with a clean white interior in this Los Angeles bathroom.
RM: From your travels, what has been your most blow-away tile experience?
CB: Portugal in general is so exciting. Robin said it best when he wrote on Instagram, “The Portuguese use tile the way stucco is used in LA.” They love to tile every little crazy place on the exterior with patterns. It’s fun. Also the tile museum in Lisbon is super-thoughtful and inspiring, and we never tire of the Eastern building and Union Station in downtown LA. And Gaudi in Spain…there’s so much good stuff.
RM: What do you wish people would understand about tile?
CB: Tile is one of these elements of design that you can make yours. There are so many options from variations in colors, shapes, and finishes. It can be overwhelming, but you can really make it yours.
Above: Tile Makes the Room: Good Design from Heath Ceramics by Catherine Bailey and Robin Petravic, published by Ten Speed Press is available from Amazon for $22.
For more on the interiors featured in the book, see these posts:
- A Simple Bathroom from Bestor Architecture
- A Glamorous Barbican Flat from Retrouvius
- Read more about our previous Heath Ceramics features
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Laden Cafe: Food, Wine, and Design in Berlin
Proof that it pays to wander: This past June, on the last day of a quick trip to Berlin, I rounded a corner in the Mitte and made my favorite discovery of the week: Laden, a just opened (that morning) cafe and furniture showroom with a lush vegetable garden out back. A collaboration between the Lokal restaurant team and furniture makers Buchholz Berlin, Laden is a showroom for Buchholz's rustic tables, stools, cutting boards, and wooden bowls, as well as a cafe serving flatbreads, wine, and afternoon coffee.
Katja Buchholz, the architect and designer behind Buchholz Berlin (she's also worked in the Berlin office of David Chipperfield), had been on the hunt for a location to showcase her line of furniture and accessories made from "regionally available materials," as she says, when she discovered the space. "Our wood is sourced locally and we use bio-tanned leather from the Bavarian alps and recycled metal from a local metal worker." Pieces are available to buy right off the floor or to order; see the range at Buchholz Berlin.
Photography by Dirk Lange, unless otherwise noted.
Restaurant
Above: The cafe is located in a 1780-listed building; the design team unearthed original wall murals of the Ballhaus during the renovation.
Above (L to R): A simple counter where lunch is served; a rustic tabletop; photographs via Anne Li West.
Above: A table set for lunch.
Above: A vintage copper trough serves as a wine cooler.
Above: Double doors open directly onto the vegetable garden.
Above: The rustic outdoor dining table is surrounded by a suite of folding Piana chairs, designed by David Chipperfield for Alessi; $225 each at Design Within Reach. Photograph via AnneLiWest Berlin.
Above: Five raised garden beds made from domestic oak planks are planted with kohlrabi, kale, cabbage, chard, and fennel, which appear on the daily menu.
Above: Vegetable harvesting. Photograph via AnneLiWest Berlin.
Shop
Above: The Sauener Forestry Table starts at €2,590 ($2,902).
Above: The Tripod Stools are €90 ($101) each; buy three or more and you get a discount.
Above: Prices for the Ash Trays start at €59 ($66).
Above: The Cedar Board-a-Porter is €49 ($55).
Above: Prices for Beech Wood Bowls start at €9 ($10).
Laden, located at 20 Joachim Strasse, in the Mitte district of Berlin, and is open Tuesday through Saturday, noon until 8 p.m. For more ideas, see our Insider's Guide: 14 Don't-Miss Restaurants, Coffee Shops, and Cocktail Bars in Berlin.
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