RoofRay: What’s your [roof's] solar potential?

I had to funnel this into the idea bank. There’s a wall in our kitchen that is perfect for a whole field of Angela Adams’ Manfred series relief tiles. Floor to soffit. With indirect lighting up and wall wash lighting down. That way we can mount our utensil rails on it, and hang them to drip dry. The wall is about 11′ wide and 9′ to the soffit. I could even see it in the nested triangle corice pattern. Matte white. The tone could change with the lighting quality to warm or cool the tone.

I’d seen Angela Adams’ design work, mainly in carpets, and I really like the informal organic geometry of her style. I also feel kind of a kindrid spirit connection, having spent most of my youth outside, immersed in nature. It wasn’t on an island off the coast of Maine, but nature happens everywhere, if you slow down long enough and look.

Idea funneled. Now I don’t have to keep reminding myself.

We’re insanely excited and proud to announce our sponsorship of Triangle Modernist Houses’ home tour on October 4! This installment of the tour features Dwell’s NextHouse located in Hillsborough. Designed by Empyrean, the official open house was back in June of 2007, so if you missed it, here’s another chance.

This is a special TMH tour, being a new construction, touring space is limited. All previous TMH home tours have sold out, this one is expected to as well. Watch the TMH site for ticket details, and look for us at the tour!

[where: 27278]

For some reason I thought I already posted on NeoMetro sinks, but I must’ve dreamed it. Dwell featured Neometro in an ad several issues back. They have simple forms, under deck sink mounts, and a variety of finishes and colors available. I could be wrong, but I don’t think the resin component is very eco-friendly, but the stainless steel is. Their green statement here. The lighted kit that can be included in the order makes the fixture a soft glow – almost like a nightlight.

Most of their product lines can be used in both commercial and residential projects. I would mix in materials like wood and warm spectrum tile or paint to tame the cold sterile potential.

A head’s up: They are on the expensive side at up to $2,000 for a single sink depending on the options & finishes. Still, the cool look may be worth it to some.

I’ve been reading up on wood for use as a countertop. Interestingly, up until the ’60′s, wood was still a staple as a kitchen countertop. But then along came plastic, i.e. plastic laminate. The Formicas and Nevamars took hold, and the false notion that wood was an unsafe food prep surface spread.

Funny how milions of wood cutting boards continued to be sold, isn’t it? And what happens on most cutting boards? Food prep! So the humble wood countertop faded away. Until now.

Apologies for our absence. The pictured pup (Otto, at 8 weeks, 11 pounds) was neutered this week & is recovering nicely. Which means he’s back to hanging out with us in the kitchen. He is now 44 pounds, 6 months. We’ll be back in a bit…

For starters, the obvious:

• cooking, baking, steaming, sauteeing, marinading, mixing, frying, etc.
• doing the dishes
• putting away groceries
• figuring out what to eat
• socializing

Hold the phone – let’s look at that last one: socializing. Pretty broad. It could also be any number of things having nothing to do with food. Like reviewing a business plan. Or talking about the latest work drama. Or brainstorming ways to knit a tighter community. Or figuring out how to make money from timeshare cemetery plots. Or sorting beads.

Intersections of Food and Activity X

So there’s the non-food related things that happen in the kitchen. Then there’s all those combinations of food and something else. How about book club, or wine tasting? Maybe a recipe club? And now that wireless internet connectivity is pretty pervasive, there’s surfing, emailing, maybe even a video phone call to the sweetie in the Netherlands. It could also be planning meals for the week so the dreaded re-run conversation doesn’t happen: (“What do you want for dinner?”, “I don’t care. What do you want?”)

Parties always end up in the kitchen.

Why? It’s intimate, but not uncomfortably confined. It’s closer to the beer. It’s closer to the food. There are places to sit if you feel like it, stand if you don’t. There’s a place to put your drink and plate. And a few intangible reasons that I can’t articulate at the moment. Like, it relaxes people to be somewhere that work happens, but isn’t happening right then. It’s informal somehow. Or something.

Does your kitchen lend itself comfortably to what happens in it?

[thanks to Nashville's matthewmichaelphoto.com for the front page photo!]

This place just north of Raleigh is a cook’s paradise of all kinds of obscure specialties like

• chardonnay infused vinegar,
• maple butter (locally made!),
• olives,
• varieties of chutney
• pastas and beans
• chocolates and cheeses

They also have a nice selection of German made utensils and cookware from Rosle. There’s also kitchen accessories like silicon pads & trivets, and bamboo cutting boards with rubber feet (no slipping!).

I couldn’t resist the Two-in-One salt & pepper shakers from WMF, and I would love to have a few of those rail systems from Rosle to hang kitchen goodies on.

Beverage wise, they have a wide variety of beers that rival the selection at Peace Street Market in downtown Raleigh. Not to be left out, they also have wines, wine decanters and glasses, and wine carriers.

The Tipsy Gourmet is located just off of US 1 in Wake Forest. Their website’s not quite ready for prime time, but will be at www.tipsygourmet.com.

[where: 27587]

Congratulations to Simple Forms Design in Portugal on their RedDot design Award for 2008 in product design! They have a line of cork products with beautiful form from sustainable material.

The soft shape and warm colors contrast nicely with the harder materials of the fixtures and countertops. Really elegant. I’m guessing these sinks would need to be sealed just as a regular wood or bamboo sink would – I’ll have to research that. In the meantime, I’ll just drool over the, well, simple form designs.