My Top Picks from LivingKitchen 2013

So last week I posted my top picks from imm cologne and this week I would really like to share my top picks from LivingKitchen. Having premièred in 2011, the international kitchen event in Cologne opened for the second time last month and once again exceeded all expectations as key national and international players of the kitchen sector gathered in Germany’s fourth largest city.

And they weren’t disappointed as over 185 well-known national and international suppliers from 22 countries presented their latest ideas and innovations to the trade fair. From kitchen furniture and built-in appliances to sinks, fixtures, worktops, lighting and accessories, it was all on display at LivingKitchen. Over the seven intense days of the fair, 142,000 visitors traipsed 42,000 m² in search of the latest kitchen trends and innovations. And as I am lucky enough to count myself amongst those visitors, I want to share with you some of the great things that I came across whilst I was there.

One of the most impressive things that really caught my eye was this clever kitchen concept by Warendorf called Hidden Kitchen. This innovative design is seven meters long and has a central run of five metres, which, at the touch of a button, opens up to reveal the working space with storage areas, shelving, extractor fan and integrated lighting. I love the thought that you can close this kitchen up completely when not in use and it becomes part of the living space. The beautiful surface finish also helps to make this kitchen a real statement wall when closed. The natural rust finish is created by spraying a special mixture of iron particles on to the cabinetry by hand in the same way as a lacquer coating would be applied.   

Another design that caught my eye was by German company Lechner. Square Pink is a decorative glass surface that was presented on a kitchen island. The checked pattern adds a fun, fresh and playful element to the kitchen and I thought it was a great way to give a personal touch to the heart of your home and one of the most exciting ways to bring colour into the kitchen that I have seen recently.

I think one of the real highlights of LivingKitchen for me though was the Siemens stand. There was so much to see there and some of the technology was so advanced it was almost like walking into the set of a Sci-Fi movie. In fact, if you remember back in October I wrote a post about how I imagined the home of the future, and I mentioned smart appliances that you can control with your smart phone. Well thanks to Siemens this will be a reality within two years. But I don’t want to give too much away as I intend to dedicate a whole post to this in the coming weeks. So for now I’m going to leave you wondering what Sarah Sarna and Tina Ramchandani are learning about the Connectivity range by Siemens.

I love going to trade shows and learning something completely new and that is what happened when I stopped by the V-Zug stand. Now as we all know there is a lot of hype at the moment about steam cooking, but Swiss appliance manufacturer V-Zug is taking this a step further. Again, you may remember that I have had first-hand experience with V-Zug’s amazing range of appliances as I spent a week in Zug at the company’s HQ while I was editing a V-Zug cook book. I was totally blown away by what these state-of-the-art machines are capable of so it was nice to see the stand at LivingKitchen and find out how things have progressed since I was out in Switzerland. So have you ever heard of Vacuisine? No? Don’t worry, neither had I, but apparently it means vacuum cooking and it is now possible to do at home thanks to the high precision V-Zug Steam Cookers. But again, I don’t want to go into this in too much detail as I’m hoping to do a whole post on this too.

So what do you think? Any of these capture your attention? And if you were at LivingKitchen I would love to know what your top pick was? So leave me a comment, send me a tweet or hit me up on the Design Sheppard Facebook page