Check out columnist Katherine Salant’s recent piece, “Kitchens Where Every Last Detail Is Weighed and Measured”, in the April 10 edition of the Washington Post.

She eloquently explains how Johnny’s unconventional approach differs from traditional American kitchen design:

Grey’s unconventional kitchens are a radical departure from conventional American ones. They feature jazzy colors, original artwork, playful, custom cabinetry best described as “sculptural” and work areas that are carefully tailored to a client’s measurements.

She continues:

American kitchen designers tend to box up everything behind closed cabinet doors, but Grey prefers open storage adjacent to the place where an item is used. He maintains this is more convenient, eliminates unnecessary movement and makes the space feel lived in. He puts plate racks above the dishwasher, open racks below a cooktop for large pots and hooks above it for cooking utensils or smaller pots.

Read the full article here. Also check out her September 20, 2008 Washington Post piece on our Dexter kitchen at the Showtime Showcase House in New York last autumn.

We’ve just received excellent coverage in The Washington Post in Bonnie Benwick’s article, Tips for a Heavenly Jumble: Fewer Built-ins, More Mixed Pieces. She writes about how Johnny’s unfitted kitchen concept can be a smart option for kitchen renovation in tough economic times. She shares several of Johnny’s do’s and don’ts if you have the opportunity to alter the physical makeup of your kitchen. For storage, a mix-and-match style of separate pieces can create a more relaxed room. Similarly, smaller, dedicated work areas are often preferable to large work surfaces as too much footage creates unnecessarily long distances and low-key confusion. Johnny also recommends changes such as varying surface heights. Read the full article for the rest of Johnny’s tips.

Why does a room look relaxing and yet feel awkward to sit in?  Which makes us happier - a minimalist sleek space or a small room with the cosy clutter and signs of homeliness?  Annalisa Barbieri wrote a thoughtful analysis, “Windows of the Mind,” in the Guardian Weekend about one of my core interests, the psychology of the home.  She talked to John Zeisel and I when she was writing it and about our personal research into how neuroscience can take us beyond Fung Shui.

John is on the board of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture which was set up to get architects and designers to work together on exploring what the links are between the brain and home design.  Our design studios in UK and USA apply neuroscience analysis to kitchens and interior design for all our clients. It’s well described by Annalisa in the article.

At one point Annalisa says I work with local authorities on social housing. I wish I did. What I think she meant was that I would like to, especially as I ran a conference last year entitled, Housing from Heaven. It was an attempt to bring together the different strands of the housing world – architects, interior designers, thinkers and housebuilders crossing their respective boundaries to think creatively about making housing mean home, rather than accommodation (with money, regulations, dull thinking and minimalist space). I spoke at the conference about how our studios multiple approach of combined psychology, brain research and study of humane ergonomics could be applied to social housing, particularly for the interior. Small houses are often in more need of good design than their larger cousins because space is at a premium and the feeling of being cramped makes people less able to be relaxed or ‘literally at home’. Although our studios work for well off  individuals we like the idea of contributing to the lives of ordinary people. Design thinking should filter down to the real economy.