When you walk into a kitchen, chances are the appliances are the first things you notice, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Imagine a kitchen where the appliances blend in with the rest of the cabinetry. According to Andrea Balfour, Certified Kitchen Designer and co-owner of Anderson Balfour Kitchen Designs Inc., these camouflaged appliances are ideal for open concept home where the kitchen is in plain view of the dining area.

“The big trend now is to open the kitchen into a dining space,” admits Balfour. “Some clients want the feature to be beautiful cabinetry, not the appliances, so we hide them. We install integrated refrigerators that may look like a pantry or armoire, or dishwashers hidden behind cabinetry so you’re not interrupting the visual flow in the room you’ve created.”

These hidden appliances are a trendy design element in any home, but they are becoming especially popular in condominiums and lofts.

“Integrated appliances are usually in two foot or three foot increments so that you’re saving space and getting more storage and counter tops,” explains Balfour.

Another important trend in appliances is being led by a green initiative. Anderson Balfour Kitchen Design only works with Energy Star appliances, so clients benefit from environmentally friendly appliances and reduced energy bills. For example, a refrigerator is one of the only appliances in the home that runs 24/7, so energy efficiency and performance is just as important as its aesthetics.

“We recommend and specify energy efficient Liebherr refrigeration, and this brand also has a patented technology called Biofresh. BioFresh drawers maintain the perfect blend of temperature and humidity to prolong the life of fresh produce, meats and cheeses three times 3x longer than conventional refrigeration drawers.” For cooking appliances, Balfour has noticed a popularity increase in induction cooking.

“There is a new trend to induction cooking,” says Balfour. “We use both AEG and Porter & Charles cooktops with ceran surfaces, a type of glass that is very easy to keep clean. Induction cooking is when the cooktop reacts with the cookware to produce magnetic energy. The stainless steel pot becomes the element. Induction is better than gas because you’re not losing 60 per cent of the energy produced for heat and it’s very easy to calibrate.” Temperature control with induction cooking is so precise, that it gives you the best control for low simmers for sauces and brings large pots of water to a boil in under one minute.

For more information on integrated and energy efficient appliances, visit www.andersonbalfour.com.