More show! KBIS Pt 2: Appilances and Cabinets

This has been a showy few weeks.

A few Fridays ago, we reported from the floor of KBIS, the Kitchen and Bath Show in Vegas. As we head into this week’s more local show (the North Atlanta Home Show, come see visit us at our booth!)…I thought we’d jump back into a show mindset with a look back at some of the most interesting, clever appliances we saw at KBIS.

Let’s start with the Wolf.  The Wolf convection oven was so neat. It circulates air in interesting new ways, making your cooking time and temperature much lower all around.  (The interior of it looks like the workings of a very sleek spaceship. See below.)

The Wolf built in coffeemaker (seen below) was also pretty great. Can you imagine this in your kitchen? You could become your own barista!

We also wanted to show you some extremely cool cabinetry options we saw at KBIS. While visiting the Kohler booth, we fell in love with these touchless cabinets from Robern. With a gentle nudge (you can even use your knee if your hands are wet!) these gorgeous cabinets silently ease open and shut. Pretty, too, aren't they?

And finally, this is certainly not a case of the last being least. In fact, our friends at Viking are the best! Not just because they gave us an excellent private tour of their booth but because they won the People's Choice Awards and the KBIS show. They took 1st…2nd…AND 3rd place.

Here was the 1st place winner, the Viking Professional French-Door Double Oven, pictured below. And we totally understand why. What a cool concept, being able to open your oven door horizontally, not vertically. With one hand no less!

The 2nd place winner was Viking Professional 7 Series Range, which

impressed us with its ability to bring restaurant-caliber cooking to home kitchens. We particularly liked the removable griddle and soft LED lighting. This is what the 7 Series looks like:

And finally, the 3rd place went to the  Viking Professional Cooktops, which were also extremely impressive. You could easily cook 5 courses for your next dinner party on this cooktop – and look like a pro doing it.

And in the interest of making sure we are keeping the human factor of these shows in mind, here is a shot of 3 of our favorite home improvement humans. Pictured left to right: Tim Odom, a kitchen and bath designer with Kitchen and Bath Artisans, Jacki Phillips with Grohe and our own wonderful David Leonard. (Who, again, you can stop by and meet this weekend at the North Atlanta Home show!)

This is just a small taste of what we saw – and who we met – at the KBIS show.

And what we witnessed really got us excited for 2014. We can't wait to see what Atlanta homeowners do this year with their kitchens, baths and homes. Please let us know if any of these impressive new appliances have inspired you to invest in your home and do a little renovating yourself!