well here's a show i've been wanting to do for quite a long time it's all about kitchens at the fifty percent of the work i do these days it may even hold a dime designs happens to be kitchens or bathrooms kitchens and bathrooms seem to sell houses they seem to be constantly changing and growing and it's very important to keep up to date on what's happening when it comes to kitchen design in particular i'm very fortunate to have in studio today somebody who knows all about kitchens and all about food his name is john leahy he's a cia graduate cone areas to today of america not the other place and has over thirty years restaurant and food experience good to see a good afternoon yes thank you for having me rich our topic today has happens to be something that i get all the time and that is kitchens i was just taping my radio show and at the end of the segment the my guest said to make the m a second i want to show you something i thought she was going to show me a picture of her kid she said hoping to show you my new kitchen how should i finish it which i do i think people have a curiosity about kitchens don't you oh yes definitely do people often ask you questions about kitchens because you have a food background oh yes they asked me you know about appliance  placement things like that the practicality kitchen well for that reason i wanted to do this show this episode of kitchens i'm going to take it from my end of the spectrum and that is i'm a designer so i take it from the aesthetic elements of kitchens but what i'd really like to know or have our audience now is from a practical perspective what are the best surfaces what works best practically and i want to go through some of those with you and get your genuine ideas because you are such a great cook what works and probably what maybe doesn't work so well we're going to go as if we're building the from the ground up into space or perhaps just assuming that i'm having a new house where i'm starting from the beginning and i want to start with flooring there's lots of options when it comes to kitchen floors that are very practical and these days people are opting to carry their first floor if it's a two storey facade kerry would throughout the kitchen space which wasn't the case twenty years ago typically in those cases most the kitchen areas like the bathrooms were some sort of a tile or stone surface but it's come to be that we're seeing a lot of wood through kitchens now statically i often recommend that it's more low profile if you have a wood kitchen that's going through the rest of the house that would go in through it makes the space looks bigger what do you think of wood floors as a practical solution for kitchen spaces what floor is a good choice and i mean today the hardwood floors are you know stained and then coated with a polyurethane you're there protected right just as if it was a tile floor as long as you're not too hard on them you know dropping heavy pots and things like back is that can scratch or dent the floor simple sure right but but otherwise i think a wood floor is a good choice for you when you were working in the restaurant part of your career what would hard on your feet or the surface that might be better the reason i ask let me let me do is that i have to do it i have a woman right now who wants me to put a cork floor in the house is beautiful existing hardwood floors she wants me to take the wood out of the kitchen and put it in cork which i'm not really think it's a good idea have you worked on that surface before a cork well in a commercial establishment most of the kitchen  and most of them are a ceramic tile in a quarry tile that's done because it's easy to clean and it also we get long time usage out of it sure they wouldn't do a cork floor a wood floor in a commercial established sure so what we do we also do is we put down rubberized mats so that the cooks and the chefs are all standing on a rubberized bat so it gets easier on their feet and on their on their legs wonderful so in your case in your own home do you have a what is your kitchen surface is it would in my kitchen it's wood right now but i have had tile floors if i were if you were to start over and you were building a new house what would your flooring surface be if it was an open floor plan and connected to other rooms i probably would want to keep the floor the same so it probably would be all hardwood sure but if it was if my it was an older home in my kitchen with separate that i may consider a tile floor interesting interesting so let's so let's say our preferred surface at this point is floor at the flooring is wood especially if you have it throughout the house it makes the floor the floors the same can consistent it makes it look more open and i think it's probably a good choice but let's go to my next topic and that is countertops now countertops have changed in the past twenty years so much when i started in this industry john most people didn't have credit only the rich people had granite right then it slowly evolved that oh my god you don't have granite and then granite wasn't really so much in style more you know other surfaces came in to be so most kitchens and i go in to do it today or  we're doing a redo we're building a kitchen people ask me for quartz specifically very much like the properties of granite but it doesn't require the maintenance of granite me require so i'm seeing that most often i've always worked in granite  in the early days i guess i had some laminate good looking laminate cabinets countertops that i was working with for you as somebody who has a food background what is the easiest surface to to cook or prepare food on well for myself i prefer either granite or quartz ok i have seen people use stainless steel which is what we do use in a commercial kitchen so if you are to go into one of these biggest abolitionists or hotels they use the metal is that right cleanliness or what was the reason it's for cleanliness and durability ok but for a home i would probably go granite or the quartz product you know said that people are going for the quartz now because of the maintenance but  i haven't found that granite really was a lot of maintenance i mean once a year you rub down a little bit of you know of a seal around and i don't think it's a big deal do you know i don't think so and i never had an issue with it you know i never had a problem with the chipping or scratch around thing like that it's always been pretty durable i think the reason people are going more towards a quart surface is that the look of quarts of quartz is that are coming out are simpler they're mostly whites in grays they have much simpler tones and there are a way to the chief the look of like a mara ball without actually doing the marble right you really would want more of all in a kitchen per se because it's porous and it stains although i think marble would probably be a great service if you were baking yes if you are if you're a baker then you may want to do one of your countertops in marble because your marbles is easy to work on if you're rolling out doze or you know pie crust and things like that sure you know people look for the cool flat surface of the marble for baking dark stain expensive butcher block and i consistently say don't do it don't do it don't do it you know i read a lot about using the surface that would surfaces on a counter and they say there's microbial factors that go i went to the wood it's actually healthy and better for you and the thoughts on the well i don't really would reckon i don't wouldn't recommend it would countertop i think if you had to deal with the scratching you know when people cutting on it  actually i would imagine that you would probably make cuts right and then if you got it if you got it cut into the wood then you'd have to have it sanded down because it would be almost done saboteur in a way right right so i wouldn't recommend it but a lot of people you know may do it if they have a separate counter or they're looking for something decorative but sceptically it's the arlin space that they want to do different as long as then they're not big cooks sure you know if you have to be apple about burning it right by cutting it's ravishing it renting it  a lot of issues with butcher block remember the days of korea and that surface that everybody was switching to because it was in a great there was a house that is used to really burn and it comes they had to be prepared right here so we talked a little bit about the flooring surface we've talked a little about counter sops let's talk about backsplashes backsplashes people that can't afford to change their kitchen a backsplash is a way of creating a very different and unique look for your home now these days anything could be used as a back splash we're starting to see would use as backsplashes so many new materials so many things out there that are available today and i mean there's just so many things out there corrugated metal glass is back in style again in a different way an from a practical standpoint for somebody that does a lot of cooking what's probably the best surface that you would recommend for maybe a backsplash or somewhere that the that the cooks often well even your back splash you want to be able to clean clean sure and i think sometimes the i've seen people get backsplashes and they're very detailed and complicated and then you have to worry about staining the grouch and we're you know being able to wipe it down  to be very in a wider even inconsistent ground and what's come to be now is that people want their grantland as close as possible it's looks as much as it's practicality so probably these days the most common backsplash people are doing is they're doing the classic subway tile but what has changed is instead of doing it in this rebuy six eyes they're doing the long hated so we're seeing a three by twelve or three or four by ten we're also seeing them getting a little bit taller now but definitely  surface right what do you think is statically when the grout is a color i personally hate color grout i think color should match whatever tile it is what you're i agree with you i don't i don't particularly care for you know dark router color grout but it's you definitely have to seal it because if you don't seal it you will stain and then it will not be able to get clean but you know from a practical standpoint that's why i brought it up i recently did a kitchen and we did actually we did the floor by ten all the way up and i went all the way up with a beautiful hood and the homeowner assisted i use a darkened metal grate grout which i didn't like because then you see the gravitas statement but from a practical standpoint is a darker grout not going to show as much the following i'm saying because it's a darker route but you know i know that some dimes people are looking for a a different look something very trendy sure and they'll put in you know white tile with black grout because it's that whole industrial try that it kind of lends itself to that so if we were going to backsplash if we weren't going to use tile people these days are starting to use wood whether it would when you think about that well i just think that's very difficult to clean i don't see how that that would work i've i've u sed wayne's coating and backsplash painted and sealed and that probably will hold up right right that holds up well or yeah i've seen the ten again sealed shut you have to make sure that it's able to be washed because magazines i always say stick with the conservative backsplash then buy whatever you like and put it in front of it whether it be a really gorgeous tray that's sort of a distressed wood or metal put that in front of it on the stand keep your back new and but keep it classic because then you can do a lot with that right i want to go to appliances which i would imagine you have unbelievable opinions on and i want to start by talking about something that was something that was a in my life and then when i'm in the house that i'm in now the existing kitchen had the cooktop in the on the which i thought i cannot wait to get rid of that i talk all my clients into having the cooktop in the island i just think it's unbelievable you were not facing a window or a wall you're connecting with your guests what you thought about having a cooktop or an actual whole range in your island space if you have well i preferred also another guys in why is most islands today you have three or four stools on the side your guest come over everyone sitting in the kitchen i know with me they like to come in the kitchen and watch me cook sure so it's more it's more pleasant for me to cook and have conversation with people around the island the last thing i want is you know people coming over and having them wash you know watch me wash pots and pans or not be a part of the whole mc right you're not attending your own priorities so i prefer the sink off to the side  so the cleaning and everything is kind of kept separate and more of the entertainment part the cooking the serving and everything is on the on the island part ok so when it comes to ranges or cooktops  i always say bigger is better if you can make it work in scale so if i could get a thirty six that's range i want to do that if i have a bigger cook surface what is the quintessential ideal cooking surface for space is it is it wall of and convection electric because the electric is a little bit more consistent she sure and it does a little better for baking sure but cook top gas and you know have a downdraft fan available or a fan over the cook top and you know that the ideal kitchen for me wow you know i do hear that consistently from other people i will tell you this when it comes to ventilation when you have  a center aisle and it has a cooktop in it and your ventilation there is not the ability to have a hood there and sometimes there is the ability to put there but if there isn't and you do that the downdraft that pops up often people tell me that it isn't such a great solution because what happens is the ideal setup you know microwaves are becoming a bigger and bigger issue now when i design a kitchen because people don't want to see appliances anymore so people are finding interesting and unusual ways to incorporate a microwave into the kitchen without basically see one of the things that i've done before is the actual drawer in the island that sort of pops up that you can use as a microwave the thing that was working for a while but people never grasped was having one of the ovens have a seen people have them above a refrigerator or on a shelf or something left out and i just wanted to be a very dangerous so in the past it was very common for people to have their stove and then above the stove as part of the ventilation so to speak they would have the microwave above it hot liquids above your head not a good idea and i think that i would do another thing that i wanted to discuss with you today in studio was what you think about pot fillers that sort of arm that would come out of the back of a stove to add water i also think not good well you don't and you don't know and it was a dog and it really depends on the person you are designing the kitchen for i don't have a problem picking up a pot with five gallons of water in it and taking it over to the stove right but if somebody you know has a problem with the lifting stuff like that it may want to have a pot filler you know i have no problem with it the problem with it but you know i it does have its application sure let's talk a little bit about other appliances and specifically refrigeration because refrigeration has sort of probably changed more recently i think with all the seminars i tend then any other of the kitchen appliances because people are doing selective refrigeration now because i think people in general they're much more into food than they were oh yes definitely so the most recent show i went to the show in refrigerated columns that people don't have the sort of one central sprite they go to for cold or frozen food they're columns in certain parts of the kitchen when you think about that i think that's a great idea i mean and yeah you have to really before you design a kitchen you have to sit down and really think hard about what your needs are i agree you know if you have children you may want refrigerated drawers if you are a big cook and you don't shop that frequently you may want to do the columns we have a larger refrigerator or a larger freezer so if you know it really depends on you know the type of cooking you doing how often you cook entertaining things like that and then you know and then make sure that you have enough refrigerated space sure because the less thing you want to do the lesson you want do is get somebody sick and the biggest thing you have to worry about cooking is food temperature sure keeping track of the food temperature one of the reasons i think people are going more towards the columns or isolated refrigeration is just for convenience and i always say the kitchen is one room where it has to be functional first and then beautiful i think it's important i think you can do both but you have to have you know good decisions so to me having the the refrigerator freezer drawers when they have children to reflect they don't have to go into the big refrigerator maybe just for beverages or yogurt or something like that i think that's a great idea and they're done in a way now that you can really sort of integrate them with their cabinets and you don't really see right personal choice if you like to see a stainless steel beautiful refrigerator or you like to see it covered with cabinets in the air so it just disappears i personal choice well i'm kind of in the middle with that because i think it really depends on the overall design of the kitchen i'm looking for more commercial looking kitchen that i may have the stainless steel but i have seen some nicely done built in refrigerators with the matching cabinets and as long as it looks good i do like that it's what i see when you see a refrigerator with these panels on it and then so many through the years different types of under counter lighting right anything that you see today that you like with people now they have l e d's which are terrific i don't yeah like i like under counter lighting i like everything in the kitchen to be that when i'm preparing food i can have it up very bright and i can see what i'm doing but then when company starts arriving i can dim light down and have it you know kind of make it look very  you know john i think one of the reasons i'm seeing people put so much money and time into their kitchens is because people are living less formally right and when i see a lot of people doing is tearing down the wall between their kitchen and their dining room and making one more casual open space and being with the person that's cooking so i think lighting is important not only for practical reasons but also for beauty right now what i notice which is a very big change is that over people center islands are tables pendants are becoming older rage that is the pits and every work that you put a pend pendants right happening when you think about that yes i mean i believe in this should be task lighting pendant lighting that's nice over an island and having the exist right but again something that's durable and something that can be cleaned can island where you have a cook top or you know you have you have to worry about grease and dust and things like that see have to make sure that you're able to maintain dependence you know because a lot of the new pendants now they expose the edison bulb that sort of a look now to be more industrial and a lot of times the shades that because you're exposing the bulb the shades of cells or glass with the right colored glass or to seeing a lot of more glass in the kitchen and again there's an issue there with right and it's as well would you say overall in the kitchens that you're seeing people doing today do you think that the kitchens are two foot fashion focused or do you think that they're getting better with doing more practical surfaces well i think as people becoming better cooks home cook could i stop the why is that people are getting more sophisticated with cooking i see people that are not trained chefs becoming much more at least interested in cooking themselves and not going out as much was that well i think we as a society we've gotten very involved in home improvement show jourdan shows but then it's also transferred into cooking show those cooking network food network i think if i'm adding has an supermarkets now it's gotten we have more food options than we've ever had before and people are have access to that they can just sit and go to the store see something that's  available take out their phones look up a recipe buy the ingredients go home they can watch a video on how it's prepared and so it's and it's more approachable i guess because there's there's the technology has given us opportunities people aren't afraid of cooking anymore they're  bracing it exactly my last question to you and we're three minutes left it's what about technology in the kitchen if you were to design a kitchen of the future what do you think would be a great way to connect with people with recipes or ideas in a kitchen is it is it a board that we're going to put on the refrigerator or is it something that drops down any sort of like grand idea as if you could design your perfect perfect kitchen where we integrate beauty and technology that you would you would do well i know myself i mean i  i live with my i pad and and while i'm a trained chef and have experience cooking once in a while i like to have a recipe available just to kind of keep her what i'm doing and i really do enjoy having that technology where i'm able to pull something up or i sometimes i'll forget an ingredient and i'll be able to look something up and i like having access to technology i things not being artful so i think those things can come together and what's nice about what's going on right now even though we're in a period of design that's very industrial all that warmth of wood is coming in at the same time and balancing it and you don't have those john is that as much as the white chick or cabinet to a been doing for about ten twelve years now consistently will always be in style i see people already starting to go to the next thing which is more of a weathered wood looking cabinet mix with all the metals and technology right because it is sort of the warm balance so i  i think we're going to see things continue to shift and i think because of technology we can't be old fashion too much we can go backwards but i think it's going to be sort of an eclectic mix don't you oh yes definitely see that a lot now so i would say for you guys out there that are watching our program if you're thinking about doing a kitchen renovation a couple things that that i would do is get somebody like john somebody that's a professional that really knows what they're doing practically in a kitchen and get their ideas first they're wonderful places that you can go to on the internet house h o u z z the site that i go to often pinterest start your start your scrapbook if you will in your kitchen it's a it's going to be a big investments and when to make sure you want to do it right you want to talk to a professional first and most important thing before you spend a dime on your kitchen have a kitchen plan done you buy a house you say we're five years out from having a kitchen don't start putting a new kitchen and live in your existing space as it is take notes of what's working and what's not working for you and then have a professional come in and say this is what your kitchen should look like do a kitchen plan that you think oh yes definitely a kitchen plan will make all the difference in the world you could be living with that kitchen probably for a very long time you also have to think about resale value we've contact you go to w w w dot hundred chamber radio and listen to our program as well so i thank you for tuning into our new program lots of wonderful things to have thank you and have a terrific