Posted on: March 17, 2008

His Side of the Story

From the cabinets to the vanities, and all the gadgets in between, men are opinionated about their home renovations – ands they’ve found their voice

By Paul Rogers
CTW Features

Sure, David Karlson talked with his male clients before he actually began building their new kitchens. But that was usually to review costs. When it came to selecting the stove, cabinets, fixtures and other design aspects, the owner of Karlson Kitchens, Evanston, Ill., was either given a lot of latitude to do it himself or worked closely with the woman of the house.

That system of design may soon be as obsolete in the kitchen as a butter churn. Nowadays, it’s just as likely to be the man who demands the stainless-steel Sub-Zero refrigerator, 40-inch maple cabinets or precise shade of brown mustard for the walls. Ask builders and kitchen designers and they’ll provide a shopping list of reasons for the growing number of men participating in the kitchen planning process. For Karlson, it has to do with the shift in family structure and who’s doing the cooking.

“This generation of families is a little different from when we grew up, when dad would come home and sit at the table and expect dinner to be served. That’s not the case anymore. Husbands come home and are part of the cooking process,” he says.

Dinner and all the preparation that goes into it have become the main daily family social event, particularly where both parents work. Dads are many times cooking as much or more than moms.

After having dipped their whisks in a béarnaise sauce or two (and cleaned and put away the sauté pan afterward), men have also developed definite ideas on how a kitchen should be organized, what is a necessity and what may not be essential but sure makes it more enjoyable. They have not only grown more self-sufficient, but more confident in their likes and dislikes – and that has spread to the bath.

“Men have gotten way more involved all through the house. Men aren’t just saying, ‘We’ll do whatever my wife wants anymore,’” says Gwen Simpkins, president of Delaporte Design and Development, Auburndale, Mass., and an editor at HomePortfolio.com, a Web site that helps people locate home design products and retailers. “They have strong opinions and are knowledgeable about options. They’re way more invested in the process than they used to be.”

While it may be surprising to hear that men are becoming more involved in kitchen and bath design, it’s less surprising to hear the kinds of choices men are making. With appliances, colors and the general look and feel of the rooms, men prefer something that’s, well, more masculine: big, heavy, solid looking stuff.

That’s one reason commercial ranges from companies like Wolf Appliance Co. and Viking Range Corp. have made such inroads into homes and why more traditional consumer appliance manufacturers are trending toward the hefty, stainless steel look.

Men are attracted to commercial appliances first because of the perceived value, says Richard Ruvin, president of Weissmann Ruvin Design Partnership, Milwaukee. But more significantly, “they like the indestructible nature of those items. Men like the scale of everything to be a little bit more bold, less dainty.”

Designers say commercial ranges play into another predominantly masculine trait: the desire to multi-task.

“Commercial ranges are the focal point of the kitchen – big and aggressive in the room – and they have a lot of burners to move stuff around and cook a lot of different things at one time,” says Rick Shaver, owner-partner, Shaver/Melahn Studios, New York.

Multi-tasking carries over to the bathroom, where the experts say function dictates style. When Karlson designed a set of his-and-hers bathrooms for a husband and wife, the man’s was much smaller and featured only a shower (no lavish bath like hers.) But it did have a television with a speaker wired into the shower, because he wanted to hear the early news and stock reports while he was getting ready for work in the morning.

“When it comes to bathrooms, men and women seem to be very different,” says Shaver. “Men are totally functional – they want a shower and rarely care about the tub. Women look at it as a spa; men want to shave and shower and get out.”

And that shower needs to deliver on demand.

“Men cannot have enough water in the shower. There needs to be plenty of pressure,” says Ruvin who has installed larger three-quarter inch lines for some male clients that recirculate through the house’s infrastructure to deliver hot water instantly. “I spend more time talking about the shower with men than anything. Women want finishes, men basically want a carwash. They want it hot and they want it now.”

Functionality doesn’t stop there, designers say. Men are tired of hunching over the bathroom sink – they want vanities customized to their own height. Greensboro, N.C.-based FORMS+Fixtures specifically designs its vanities a minimum of 35 inches high (compared to the standard 33 inches). With granite tops and burled walnut and cherry veneers, they satisfy a male aesthetic as well.

“Men want the drama of the darker more intense finishes, which really does differ overall from what an average female may want,” says Alexander Adducci, commercial sales director with German kitchen design firm Bulthaup, which counts chef Emeril Lagasse and Brad Pitt among its high-profile male clientele.

Adducci sees high interest among his male clients in three of Bulthaup’s cabinet finishes: a jet black, matte finish linoleum (“it essentially looks like black rubber,” he says) with an aluminum edge; aluminum, which is reminiscent of stainless steel, but with a softer, “very inviting” feel; and larch, a firm-grain wood that seems raised to the touch.

The larch may be honey-colored, but conforms to another male preference: wood. Men really like tried and true materials – wood, stone, metal – where women tend to be more willing to experiment with paint, texture and color, says Shaver.

But no kitchen or bath can be complete with that most stereotypical male asset: toys.

“Guys are really gadget happy. They love all kinds of gimmicks and gadgets and things that pull out and electronic devices,” says Shaver. “If the faucet pulls out and sprays and has two or three different sprays to it, they like that sort of thing.”

One other thing designers agree on is that male involvement in the kitchen- and bath-planning process is no gimmick. It’s the start of a long-term trend that will do nothing but grow.

Says Adducci, “The kitchen in the past was not a men’s place, that’s no longer the case. Men are becoming more comfortable in their own skin, they’re earning more, they’re wanting the finer things, and they’re willing to show it.”

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