Year 2014 is soon behind and it’s time to recall what we have seen in a world of design and materials. One of the most important signposts has been the Milan Mobile and EuroCucina exhibition in April, gathering nearly 360 000 visitors in 22 exhibition halls. This event always creates the framework for the coming two years, illustrating the coming design trends and guidelines. Also this year the exhibition was a great success; huge amount of novelties as for products, shapes, materials and colors.
The shapes have now become slightly rounder from the previous exhibition trends. This can already be seen in the Stala product range, e.g. the soft shapes in the Neo and Combo CS-sinks. Sheet metal had been used a lot in many different ways; in tables, shelves and even in handbags! There were many different surface finishing in the sheet metal products, from painted steel to aluminum and polished stainless steel. Also different steel wire products were shown especially in the furniture section.
Cabinet doors still seemed to be mostly without handles, and now also some household appliances had their own versions without handles. The front panels of dishwashers and ovens were completely smooth and flat, a fact that raises doubts of the practicality.
The trend of growing plants and herbs showed in many different “set-ups”, but I think this trend is only starting to find its place in kitchen. The question, however, is how to easily integrate the growing of plants into kitchen or elsewhere in the apartment.
A noteworthy thing was a rich usage of stainless steel. It had been widely used in kitchen worktops and other pieces of furniture. This trend has already been seen in the Milan exhibition earlier, but especially this year stainless steel could be seen in almost every stand. It had replaced many worktop materials, which were shown as novelties in the previous exhibition, e.g. soft surface linoleum.
Stainless steel worktops had also been successfully combined with other worktop materials, like solid wood. This brings a gorgeous, variable image to the kitchen. Steel had mainly been used around the sinks and stoves and other worktop materials created more home-like atmosphere. Based on the impressions I got, I believe that the usage of stainless steel in kitchens will increase the coming year.
Stala’s current worktop range meets this material trend well. Stainless steel has many superior features; almost age-old durability, 100% recyclability, easy to clean and hygienic – and not forgetting the modern look. In our point of view the products of daily usage must meet the challenges of the everyday life, both in kitchen, utility room and garden.
Stala products are known for safety and high quality especially in Finland but also elsewhere in Europe. When products are well-functioning and practical, the design can be considered to be good – a fact that eases your everyday life. Stala wants to offer products that feel enjoyable after every instance of use.
Jari Peltonen
Category Manager, Stala Oy