Buyer's choice: what are custom home buyers asking for in kitchens and baths right now? We put that question to custom builders in different markets around the country. Here's what they said is hot, and sometimes what's not, with their custom home buyers

Custom Home, April, 2005 by Leslie Ensor

Lucy Katz

Vice President of Customer

Service and Client Development

Katz Builders, Austin, Texas

"The kitchen is no longer just in the kitchen," declares Lucy Katz. "You now have kitchen facilities throughout the house." Cabanas, master suites, guest suites, and basement bars are being outfitted with kitchenettes. Today microwave ovens, undercounter refrigerators, sinks, and dishwashers, especially drawer units, can go anywhere. "We once put 12 dishwashers in one house," Katz says.

Katz Builders' clients generally favor the Old World look for their kitchens, with distressed finishes on cabinets and marble or granite counters with thick, decorative edges. Now clients are requesting interesting ceiling treatments as an adjunct to that look. In addition to building kitchens with beamed and corbelled ceilings, Katz Builders recently built a home with a brick-veneered barrel vault in the kitchen.

The trend in master baths, says Katz, is toward more efficiency. Master baths encompass the master closet in Katz's market. "People get dressed in the bathroom, so they want the closet there," she explains. The closet off the bath is outfitted like a dressing room, with a place to sit, built-in dressers, and a packing station. To keep the dressing area tidy, the builder includes hidden outlets in drawers so that electric appliances are easy to use and to stow away.

As a certified aging-in-place specialist, Katz is always looking for ways to design accessibility into a client's house. Raising a dishwasher so no one has to stoop to unload it and lowering a microwave so it is within easy reach of children and anyone in a wheelchair are unobtrusive moves that make a kitchen more functional and safe for everyone.

Of course, accessibility is an important design consideration for baths as well as kitchens. Katz encourages all her clients to opt for a no-threshold shower with a sloped floor for drainage, and grab bars, which are available in a wide range of colors. "It's not about aging," she says, "but about safety."--L.E.

Dave Heigl, CKD

Director of CabinetWerks Design

Vice President, Orren Pickell Builders

Bannockburn, Ill.

"Organic, earthy, and reclaimed," is how Dave Heigl describes one strong design trend he's seeing in the Chicagoland custom home market. He says many clients want their kitchens and baths to feel antique--used, warm, and with the patina of age. They achieve that look with recycled wood floors and ceiling beams and with distressed cabinetry finished with a glaze of white that softens the deeper color beneath.

Pickell's clients want to feel the warmth as much as see it, so the builder makes sure they stay cozy through the long Midwest winter. Heigl says that towel warmers and in-floor hydronic heat are pretty standard in Pickell master baths, and that he often installs warming drawers, which are usually associated with the kitchen, in the master bath to warm towels. Clients also like a TV installed behind the mirror so they can see what's happening on Wall Street first thing in the morning. Those mirrors are framed in wood or tile these days. "We never glue a big mirror to the wall anymore," he adds.

Showers are getting bigger in Pickell homes, but Heigl says they are seeing fewer tubs, except for claw-foot soaking tubs. Clients don't really use the tub, he says, "but they look cool."

Still, antique and warm isn't the only style story in this market. Heigl's also seeing an emerging counter trend toward the "Contemporary, engineered look," sometimes softened with an Old World element, like reclaimed ceiling beams. He recently attended a trade show in Germany, where products (including a stainless range hood with a TV monitor in it) were highly engineered to achieve a tight, clean fit in the kitchen. "The Contemporary look is definitely coming this way," he predicts.--L.E.

Debbie Comito

Client Coordinator, Nichols & Comito

Colorado Springs, Colo.

The hearth room--a kitchen that includes a sitting area big enough for a sofa and a few armchairs--is an important trend in Nichols & Comito's Colorado market, says Debbie Comito. While everyone ends up in the kitchen at most gatherings, they're actually comfortable in this type of kitchen, which may be why nearly all the builder's clients want a beverage cooler there. (Often, Comito says, they ask for beverage coolers in the bar and the master suite as well.)

Such central kitchens require the full decorative treatment, with elaborate tilework backsplashes combined with granite countertops. "The natural look is what everyone is looking for," Comito asserts, so more and more the granite is honed. The company has even done a few concrete countertops. It has also begun using 9-inch-wide heart pine flooring that is distressed and rubbed with tung oil for a rich, natural finish. Shiny chrome faucetry is out in this market, replaced with pewter or oil-rubbed bronze because they suit the dominant Old World look and resist water spotting. "The only time we use chrome is in contemporary kitchens," she says.