Small is big in design

The hottest European influences were out front and center at the recent Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in Las Vegas, which means more small-sized products brought to the U.S. marketplace. Current bathroom trends in Europe are all about opening up very small areas, and there were hundreds of products on display that would help lend full function to what is the smallest room in most households.

Europeans hang vanities and toilets off the wall in order to save space. Of course, the typical home there is much older and more substantial. Walls are made of plaster and sometimes stone or brick so that people can hang substantial units on the wall.

Here, we typically must pre-plan wood blocking behind the drywall in order to provide the correct support to anchor the item. However, this extra effort affords more flexible and functional options.

Other clever features are medicine cabinets that move out toward you, like a spice rack in the kitchen, in order to be more efficient. Some cabinet doors don't swing open. Instead, they glide down in order to avoid the typical clearances required by a traditional door.

One unusual little sink is called "Light" and is a mere 10 inches wide by 15 3/4 inches deep. Wall cabinets with cubbies are only 9 7/8 inches wide by 11 13/16 inches deep by 59 inches tall. The company also has a two-drawer 17-inch low cabinet on rollers that resembles a cedar chest on wheels.

Another European trend is for stand-alone tubs that include plumbing housed in attached towers. All of the connections are boxed into a good-looking unit from which the faucet projects. The idea of concealment has spread to toilets: One unit looks like a fine wood bench. The toilet is accessed by either lifting or sliding a section to reveal the functional toilet seat.

Wood is a very popular finish for tubs, vessellike sinks and vanities. Vibrant shades are often introduced on the inside of drawers as a way to enjoy color without worries over the transient popularity of an apple green or a pomegranate red hue. The Spanish and Italians are more open to much more vivid use of colors, while the French and English are more subdued in their preferences.

Trends in the United States follow the French and English cousins more closely. All European designs rely on state-of-the-art hardware that allows for telescoping pullouts, flip-up and -down doors, storage baskets and sliding bins.

Europeans are open to properly designed details that allow for much more function. They seem more willing to pay for these parts of the puzzle that complete the picture. For example, narrow chrome racks attached to the back side of a cabinet door provide one way to get a little more efficiency out of a vanity.

People everywhere look for a certain amount of luxury in their bathrooms, which may include soaking tubs, a towel warmer or multiple shower heads. Other attractive upgrades are fireplaces near the tub and heating elements under the floor.

Wood-panel walls, lots of specialty tiles and natural stone are still popular. More than 95 million Americans frequent spas and want to bring a little of the spa influence home to enjoy on a daily basis.