Kitchen & Bath Design News is the industry's leading business, design and product resource for the kitchen and bath trade.
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42 | Kitchen & Bath Design News | June 2015 A great deal of change has hap- pened in the last 10 years, so much so that the phrase "the new normal" was coined. But what ex - actly is the new normal when it comes to design style? For the kitchen and bath indus- try, the look is a mix of clean, simple design with a nod to the past. It's incorporating a bold color or two to make a statement. It's less clutter, less fuss, less stuf – often a true "less is more" aesthetic. This idea speaks to the concept of transitional design. Transitional is somewhere between traditional and modern – a look that is as subjective as the people requesting it. Its increas- ing popularity is due, in part, to its cleaner look, but also to the fact that it works well in almost every style home. Describing today's transitional design, as opposed to its look when it frst burst onto the scene as a design style a decade ago, isn't easy. Transi- tional is still, well, transitioning. "Transitional has evolved so quick- ly in the last 10 years, it's almost to the point where anything goes," reports Christy Bowen, CKD, CBD, owner, Twelve Stones Designs in Austin, TX. "Anything you can't put a fnger on – if you can't place it as clearly modern, or clearly traditional or clearly old world – that's what transitional is." Bowen sees transitional being requested most by people in their mid- thirties to mid-ffties. "But everyone has their own take on it. It's much easier to defne rustic, traditional, old world or modern than it is to defne transitional," she stresses. THEN AND NOW While the transitional style was years – maybe even a few decades – in the making, its birth as a design buzz- word happened about a dozen years A decade after becoming a buzzword in the industry, the transitional style continues to change with the times, providing comfortable, uncluttered design in the kitchen. Transitional Kitchen Design By Anita Shaw