Counter Movement

"Kitchens designed to celebrate cooking, rather than hide it away, are becoming real estate selling points."

- By James Tarmy

Covid has changed how we live and where we live, and it’s beginning to change how we design where we live.

“So many people stuck at home used their kitchen and realized they actually like to cook,” says Joe Nahem, co-founder of the interior design company Fox-Nahem. “They’d never done it before—they have a lot of help or eat takeout. But now we’re seeing the kitchen as a place to hang out.”

It turns out that once people actually start to cook, form and function can change dramatically. “We’ve done those kitchens where a panel goes down so you see literally nothing—even the toaster is hidden,” Nahem says, referring to what the media has lately been calling the invisible kitchen. “But the minute you take it out and put it on the counter, it throws the whole kitchen off.”