We all aware that North America has deep roots with woodworking. With our past abundance of low cost wood and forestry, natural woods have been the driving force for KB Retailers in North America.
Since the 90s, most of the larger Kitchen & Bath manufacturers have had a large wood line up with only white thermofoil being their only laminate line. The reason most of these manufacturers were early adopters of white thermofoil was that it was superior to paint in many aspects. Firstly it was more uniform, easier to control the colors, more scratch resistant and less likely to show dirt. With the governmental agencies regulating the spraying of paint and releasing VOCs it also became much easier to use these thermofoil doors. But, for the most part, woodgrains were not added to most of the large producers line. Why? Profits….. Consumers simply were not willing to pay as much for the thermofoil woodgrains and who can blame them?
The market, however, has been changing dramatically. As I write this we are still in the midst of a deep recession that has been in for several years and the KB Retailer are also facing competition from importers of KD, RTA Cabinets. These lower cost wooden cabinets are being sold in flooring shops, distribution warehouses, by remodelers and so on. But what is most interesting is that the American consumer is slowly becoming more open to Euro style Cabinetry. There are multiple cultural reasons for this. The reasons i will list are:
1. POP CULTURE: Companies such as IKEA and APPLE are influencing pop culture.
2. AFFORDABILITY: Consumers are becoming tired of paying $30K for a Kitchen
3. PRODUCT LINE CREATION: KB Dealers can offer proprietary offerings more easily by working with American cabinet producers.
4. DESIGN TREND CHANGES: Design trends work in polar opposites.
POP CULTURE: Companies such as APPLE are influencing pop culture in very subtle ways. When you watch the commercials featuring MAC vs PC what you might believe is that MAC is advertising that there computer is superior to a PC however its not that simple. What APPLE is actually saying through their advertisements is that PCs are old, yesterday and for your geeky uncle and not for the modern world. Although is arguable, I would imply that such changes in society can also simultaneously change the tastes of that society. Through large scale social changes such as the preference of cars or computers it has been proven throughout marketing history to influence trends as a whole. I may write another article about this subject. The second part of the equation is IKEA. If you are in this industry you may have already spotted the IKEA Kitchen affect. Although its not destabilizing to the Kitchen industry, IKEA has and will continue to influence Euro style cabinetry in North America as they grow in this market.
AFFORDABILITY: The next reason that KB Retailers will continue to add 3D Laminate Cabinet Line collections is that they are more affordable. Throughout the 90s and early 00s we noticed that Kitchens became super expensive. If you think about spending $30K on cabinets and countertops retail it certainly makes one wonder. If you look at Entertainment Centers, end tables, dining tables, sofas and other furniture its clear that on average these items cost less than the average Kitchen Cabinet or countertop per weight, per square foot or however you might calculate. I don’t want to say that these Kitchens are not worth the money because this article is written for KB Retailers…. Rent is high, advertising and lets not forget that Kitchens require design and are essentially installed rather than set in a room. With 3D Laminate Kitchens, however, it enables a more cost affective Kitchen while enabling the KB Retailer to maintain adequate profit margins.
PRODUCT LINE CREATION: If we compare an American made 3D Laminate Kitchen to an imported Wooden Kitchen I would suggest that its more possible to create a proprietary line with the 3D Laminate. With the Wooden Kitchen Cabinets they seem to be more easily copied. We’ve all seen chocolate glazed maple cabinets and if you’ve been to one showroom you may feel that you’ve been to them all. With the print and emboss affect of 3D Laminates its very possible to create interesting Kitchens that are not seen at the showroom next door.
DESIGN TREND CHANGES: The next subject is a very popular one for me. I often speak about this theory. I do plan to write a book about this subject some day…. Its about style predictions in color and design. Its my theory that one can predict the future trends of color, fashion, music or design (loosely) by taking the antithesis of today’s current trend. So my theory is that since faceframed, wooden and antiqued or glazed cabinets have been en vogue that the exact opposite will now come into affect. How do I come up with that assumption? OK…. lets look at the music industry….
Lets start with my one of my favorite generations of music and that is the 70s and work all the way through to today.
1970s ROCK: American Classic Rock: Think Led Zepplin; macho
1970s POP: Disco. Started as antithesis of Rock and some speculate that it killed Classic Rock.
1980s ROCK: Glamour Rock “Hairbands”. Think Motley Crue. Antithesis of macho hence they wore makeup.
1980s POP: British Invasion: Also Antithesis of “American Rock” because completely imported. Think Duran Duran
1990s GRUNGE: Think Nirvana. What is the opposite of “Glamour”? Grunge of course.
2000s RAP: What is the opposite of “Grunge” Bling and Excess of course.
2010s Yet to identify but by 2015 I predict we’ll have seen music go the Antithesis of Excess or Bling. We can already see the “Green Movement”
So if you look at the past 30 years its clear that we have close to a 10 year run of music followed by an underground sound that gives birth to the exact Antithesis of that music genre.
All of this is to say that before Glazed Face Framed Wooden Cabinets were the biggest trend and next we should expect more clean, straight lined woodgrains to become the norm. Actually we can already start seeing that change.
SUMMARY: In future articles I would like to expand some of these points out more but the purpose of this article is to say that “YES, 3D Laminate Kitchens should be considered by KB Retailers.” If you are a KB Retailer and would like to call or email me to discuss I would be glad to do so.
