Monthly Archives: December 2012

The Diamond in the Rough System for Gaining Influence | Chappaqua Real Estate

Content is still king, but influential relationships are queen. And we all know that women rule the world, so maybe we should start paying more attention to these queens.
Bloggers should publish less and promote more.
If you enjoy staying awake until 4am writing each night, and frantically trying to publish according to your over-zealous schedule, then continue doing what you’re doing. My guess is that you’re not paying enough attention to the queens though, and we all know how important it is to cherish, respect, and support the women in our lives.
That said, there are a lot of queens in the world, and everybody seems to be trying to get attention from the same ones. So you send emails to industry influencers and tweet at top bloggers. One day you get a response back and feel like you’ve made it to their inner circle.
Then you hear crickets … followed by tumbleweed rolling by. (Which is odd because you don’t live in the Wild West or in a cowboy movie. But I digress.)
The Diamond in the Rough System of relationship-building
In every industry there are a select few who are in the spotlight. They receive hundreds of emails, tweets, Facebook messages and so on every day. Likely they don’t answer their own mail and there isn’t much you can offer them in terms of support.
The Diamond in the Rough System is a way to get the influencers to want to approach you. It can be applied to any large social medium but I’m going to stick to Twitter for this article.
Twitter is a sea of shameless self-promotion. Much of it goes unnoticed. The feed is so cluttered and people are more interested in pumping their own information out than absorbing that of others. Add to that the unfortunate fact that what you’re saying isn’t unique—there are probably people with bigger followings already saying it—and you’re facing an uphill battle.
The Diamond in the Rough System will teach you how to find the Queens behind the scenes and court them.
First, understand that there are a number of influential people in every industry:
The influencers are the ones in control of the big brands. They may or may not be smarter than you, but they have hustled to get to where they are, and built an empire and great network around themselves.
The large magazines are usually faceless organizations with multiple walls and levels of bureaucracy getting in the way. This makes it difficult to get in touch with anyone.
The bloggers are gaining more steam in some industries. In the tech industries, for example, it could be argued they control the information; in plumbing they are relatively non-existent.
The senior editors are the top-level editors at magazines and industry publications. These people are over-worked and usually under-paid or under-appreciated.
The beat reporters and supporting editors are easy to access and have a lot of influence as to what goes into major publications. They are the diamonds in the rough.
Right about now you’re thinking I’m crazy. Because, if you’re like most people attempting to gain influence, you have tried to follow the conventional path and emailed various editors desperately trying to get his or her attention—and never gotten a response.
Get creative and get unconventional
Email is conventional. People have learned to ignore it. You must evolve your practices to get noticed.
Twitter is a way to build a relationship with the queens and create a friendship. Most of these reporters have modest, if any, followings on Twitter. So while they get 100+ emails a day, they might only get two @ mentions on Twitter. Which do you think they would be more likely to respond to?
How to find the diamonds in the rough
Follow the head editors and scan the lists of the people they follow. Look for accounts that say something like, “NY Times editor focusing on social media and marketing.” Follow everybody that seems to cover your niche.
Identify the top bloggers in your niche and follow the same steps are above.
Identify the top influencers in your niche and follow the same steps as above.
Search newspapers websites and find the editors that cover the subjects your niche pertains to. A Google search is usually all you need to find their Twitter account if they have one.
Every magazine lists the various editors and writers on the first couple pages. Identify the top magazines in your niche and write down the names of everybody on this page that fits your specifications. Do a Google search and try to find their Twitter account and follow them.
Pay attention to networks of influence. It’s not uncommon for a number of influencers to tweet back and forth with the same person that you have never heard of. That person is likely an important member behind the scenes.
The community of people at the top of your industry is close-knit. There are the influencers that you know and a supporting crew that acts behind the scenes that you don’t. These supporting crewmembers are your diamonds. Find them and make them feel important. Support them and build relationships with them.
How to court your queens
Now that you’ve found these people, respond intelligently to their tweets. If they promote a blog post or article with a link, take the time to read the entire article and respond with a piece of feedback or a question. If they say something about their personal life or hobby, send back a joke or tidbit of information.
As an aside I’ll add that you should not respond to every tweet. This comes off as needy. Respond only if you have something intelligent to say and not more than once or twice every couple of days.
Don’t ask for anything in return. Your bio on Twitter says who you are, and includes a link to your work. They will check you out. And you only publish your best work right?
You should have a headshot as your profile picture in Twitter, not your company logo. People like talking to and doing business with people, not faceless organizations.

via problogger.net

Mount Kisco Real Estate | Is insulation upgrade a good investment?

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We often talk about the importance of energy upgrades for your home. But if you’re thinking about an upgrade this winter, such as adding more insulation to your attic, you may be wondering exactly how to calculate whether that’s a wise financial investment.
There are a variety of formulas available for making this calculation, such as the one from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
It’s not a terribly difficult formula to use, and I’ve modified it here to make it a little more understandable.
You’ll need to do a little research to track down some basic information to fill in the blanks, all of which you can get off the Internet or with a couple of phone calls. Then it’s just a couple of minutes with a tablet and a calculator.
Incidentally, this formula also works for upgrades to wall insulation (you can click here to read more on that).
The formula and definitions
The DOE’s formula is as follows: (Ci x R1 x R2 x E) ÷ (Ce x [R2 – R1] x HDD x 24)
OK now, don’t let your eyes glaze over, or have terrifying flashbacks to high school algebra class. Here’s what all those variables stand for:
Ci: This is the cost of the insulation you’re considering, in dollars per square foot. If you’re doing the work yourself, it’s the cost of the materials, supplies and any rental equipment you need. If you’re having the work done, it’s the estimated cost from the contractor.
R1: This is the R-value of the insulation you currently have in the attic.
R2: This is the R-value you want to upgrade to.
E: Efficiency rating of your heating system. How well your heating system heats your home plays a major role in how much you’re going to save with an insulation upgrade; the less efficient your heating system is, the more energy dollars the additional insulation will save you each year. You may know the specific energy efficiency rating of your particular heating system, or you may be able to get it from your utility company or HVAC contractor. If not, the DOE offers the following general suggestions: oil and propane furnaces, 0.6 to 0.88; natural gas furnaces, 0.7 to 0.95; electric, 1.0; heat pump 2.1 to 2.5.
Ce: This is what you’re paying for the energy you use, converted to dollars per British thermal unit (Btu). To arrive at this number, you’ll need to divide the actual price you pay for the fuel you use (electricity, gas, etc.) by the Btu content of that fuel. You can find the price you’re paying on your utility bill or by calling your utility company.
The Btu content of various fuels is as follows:
No. 2 fuel oil = 140,000 Btu/gallon
Electricity = 3,413 Btu/kilowatt-hour
Propane = 91,600 Btu/gallon
Natural gas = 103,000 Btu/cubic feet or 100,000 Btu/therm
HDD: This stands for heating degree days, which is a standard method for determining how cold a specific geographic location is, and how much demand there will be for heating. It’s determined by the statistical average of the number of degrees that a day’s temperature falls below 65 degrees Fahrenheit, which is considered the temperature at which a building needs to be heated. The higher the number of heating degree days in an area, the more demand there is for heat, so the greater the savings will be from an insulation upgrade. You can get your area’s HDD number from your utility company or off the Internet.
24: Hours in a day, used in this formula to convert HDD from days to hours.
An example
OK, hopefully you’re still with me. Now let’s pull all that together into a typical example. Let’s say you have a 1,500-square-foot home with R-11 insulation in the attic. You have electric heat, and you’re currently paying 9 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity (learn more details at Insulation4US site). You’re thinking of upgrading to R-38, and a contractor has given you an estimate of $1,200 to do the work. A quick check on the Web has shown you that your area has approximately 7,500 heating degree days.
Here’s how all that would plug into the formula:
Ci: 0.80. (Cost of insulation is 80 cents per square foot, based on a $1,200 estimate divided by 1,500 square feet).
R1: 11. (Existing attic insulation is R-11).
R2: 38. (Proposed upgrade is R-38).
E: 1.0. (Electric heat has an efficiency rating of 1.0).
Ce: 0.000026. (Electricity in your area costs $0.09 per kilowatt-hour, divided by 3,413 Btu/kwh).
HDD: 7500 (The number of heating degree days in your geographical location).
Now, take the formula in plug in the numbers, then do the math:
(Ci x R1 x R2 x E) ÷ (Ce x [R2 – R1] x HDD x 24)
(.80 x 11 x 38 x 1) ÷ (0.000026 x [38 – 11] x 7500 x 24)
334.4 ÷ (0.000026 x 27 x 7500 x 24)
334.4 ÷ 126.36 = 2.64 years
So, based on this formula and all the variables, you can expect the insulation upgrade to pay for itself in a little over 2 1/2 years.

via inman.com

Stucco doesn’t have to scream slapdash and cheap | North Salem NY Real Estate

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The late Malvina Reynolds best expressed the modern image of stucco when she sang about “little boxes made of ticky-tacky.”
In the years since World War II, the mention of stucco has usually prompted snickers, its image cheapened by dreary G.I. housing and monotonous design made infamous by tracts such as Levittown, N.Y., and Daly City, Calif. — the real-life inspiration for Reynolds’ lyrics.
But stucco’s history is long and dignified. The ancient Greeks applied it over rough stone to get a smooth surface that could be decorated, and the Romans mixed it with marble chips to obtain a brilliant interior finish. The magnificent frescoes of the Renaissance were painted onto a form of wet stucco. It’s still the finish of choice in Mediterranean lands.
Stucco is still unmatched for beauty and versatility. It’s far more durable and fireproof than wood. It can be formed in limitless ways, and the final or “skim” coat can be colored to almost any shade, and will never fade, peel or need repainting.
America’s golden age of stucco began with the California bungalows of the 1920s. These squat little homes, which were eventually built from coast to coast, quickly demonstrated the material’s economy and design potential.
Contractors found that, unlike siding and shingles, stucco went up quickly and would conform to any shape. Better yet, stucco could make a humble house look substantial: By applying it over a hollow wooden framework, for example, a porch column could be given Herculean proportions.
The Mediterranean-style homes of the 1930s also put stucco to good use for mock adobe walls and arches. Its ability to form compound curves made it perfect for the bulging shapes this style demanded.
After World War II, the pressing need to house tens of thousands of returning GIs made home styles turn strictly utilitarian. Stucco was used because it was cheap, but little attempt was made at creativity. The dreary legacy of postwar tract housing gave stucco its undeserved reputation as a slapdash, built-on-the-cheap material.
The inspired stucco design of the bungalow era isn’t lost, however. It’s just dormant. Here are some ways to capitalize on stucco:
1. Take advantage of its plasticity, or ability to be modeled into any shape. Stucco can easily form arches, vaults and even compound curves. All that’s required is a rough wooden framework that approximates the final shape. Turrets, serpentine walls and bulging forms are just a few of the possibilities.
2. Use stucco to suggest mass and solidity. Handle it like masonry, not like exterior wallpaper. Make design features such as columns stout enough to look structural, using the same proportions that stone might require. The bungalow builders excelled at making inexpensive wood-framed homes look very massive, and using stucco three-dimensionally was the key to this trick.
3. Use stucco’s many available textures. If you’re adding onto a home with an unusual stucco texture, find a contractor who’s willing to match it. If you’re building a new house, take a drive through some prewar stucco neighborhoods. You’ll find a huge variety of textures, each the “signature” of its creator. You’ll also find a lot of great design ideas.

via inman.com

Is it really a money problem? | Waccabuc Real Estate

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Book Review
Title: “Pocket Your Dollars: 5 Attitude Changes That Will Help You Pay Down Debt, Avoid Financial Stress & Keep More of What You Make”
Author: Carrie Rocha
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers, 2013; 224 pages; $13.99
One of my favorite books of 2012 — maybe of all time — was Trevor Blake’s “Three Simple Steps,” but not because it offered a bizarrely revolutionary trick for living the good life (though it did have a number of insights to that end, including systems for implementing them).
Rather, the power of “Three Simple Steps” lies in its simplicity: the plain spoken nature, the small number of steps, and the poignantly powerful life stories Blake tells as proof points combined to create a book I have already bought multiple times, and which has been effective at driving big-time life changes in everyone I’ve given it to.
To be published on New Year’s Day, Carrie Rocha’s “Pocket Your Dollars: 5 Attitude Changes That Will Help You Pay Down Debt, Avoid Financial Stress & Keep More of What You Make” harnesses the same power (the power of simplicity) to deconstruct what seems like a perennially complicated and troubling topic — personal finance — and boil it down into some root attitudinal changes with the potential to remodel everything about your money matters.
Like Blake, Rocha also starts with a personal story: the story of her family’s own debt, poor money management habits and a lifestyle built around living paycheck to paycheck — until she and her husband Marco made a decision in 2006 to get out of debt and stay out of it for the rest of their lives.
Thirty months later, in 2009, Rocha wrote the last check to pay off the couple’s non-mortgage debt and began formulating the fundamental attitude shifts she credits for their financial freedom into “Pocket Your Dollars.”
“Pocket Your Dollars” takes a stripped-back, three-step approach to helping readers get a handle on their own out-of-control financial situations. Rocha guides readers through each of these steps in a plain-spoken style that many will find encouraging, inspirational and helpful at minimizing the overwhelm that often paralyzes people before they even take the first step at tackling money messes:
1. Correct five broken money attitudes that are commonly held by financially troubled folks. Positing that if fundamentally flawed mindset and attitude corrections are made, many of the more complex behavioral changes will automatically follow, Rocha calls out a handful of attitudes and beliefs about money that underlie many of the money behaviors that get people in trouble and in debt.
From wistfully wondering what life would be like “if I had more money,” to wishfully thinking “it won’t happen to me,” these beliefs are identified and debunked in the first step of Rocha’s book on how to pocket your dollars rather than wonder where they went.
2. Build some attitude-shifting skills. Attitude problems don’t fix themselves and, Rocha points out, aren’t always that easy to correct even once you know they are at the root of your money woes.
The next step of “Pocket Your Dollars” is devoted to teaching readers precisely how they can create big-time belief system shifts, including mini-tutorials on mindset management skills like controlling your self-talk and standing up to pressure, among other things.
3. Get a core set of money management basics under your belt. Once readers have used Rocha’s toolbox to do some “do-it-yourself” work on their financial beliefs, they’re in position to actively start fixing and flourishing their money matters, which requires implementing a short list of financial management basics. Rocha walks even the totally uninitiated reader through the minimum musts for creating a spending plan, getting out of debt, and accounting for one’s money on a regular basis.
If you have a massive portfolio, multiple homes, kids in college and a few years until retirement, you’ll probably want some additional, more sophisticated financial advice than what you’ll find in “Pocket Your Dollars.”
But if you also have massive debt, the inspirational and attitudinal material will serve you just as well, as it will its most likely audience: young(-ish) adults who find themselves in lots of debt, with few or no skills for managing their money and with a desperate desire to course-correct so they can live the lives they envision free from debt.

via inman.com

3 Things in Social Media You May Have Missed Over the Holidays | Cross River Real Estate

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This time between Christmas and New Years is always a challenging one. No matter how much you plan to work (or not work), there are always a lot of distractions; family in town, kids home from school, others working (or not working), and more. Like many of you, I am working and taking advantage of this somewhat quiet time before the start of 2013 and catching up on what I may have missed last week in social media.
There were three very significant announcements made in social media over the last week or so, that you want to make sure you know about!
1. Archive your tweets. For the first time ever, Twitter has announced on its blog that you can now archive all of your tweets. Previously, it was tough to see even a few days of tweets because they would simply “drop off” the Twitter radar and not be available to view. We know tweets have been catalogued by the Library of Congress for some time, but the ability to go in and download all of your previous tweets is a big step.
As a real estate agent, this is just one more step in the ability to archive conversations that you may have with clients and potential clients through Twitter. For many in compliance industries, like our friends in the financial services, mortgage and insurance industries, this is invaluable and will open the door to many more in those industries being able to utilize social media.
To download your tweets, according to the Twitter blog, “Go to Settings and scroll down to the bottom to check for the option to request your Twitter archive. If you do see it, go ahead and click the button. You’ll receive an email with instructions on how to access your archive when it’s ready for you to download.”
2. Capture and share videos instantly to YouTube. YouTube announced on its blog the new YouTube Capture app (available for iOS only for now.) This app allows users to point and shoot a video and then save and share it immediately to YouTube. This app is a huge improvement over the previous ability to send a video to YouTube – which always seemed clunky and take quite a long time to upload.
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In addition, the app allows you to do color correction, improve stabilization, trim your video and add music tracks. For agents who have been a little shy of doing video, this could be an interesting option – especially since it takes the cumbersome upload process out of the equation.
3. Facebook launched its ‘Nearby’ feature. Facebook announced a new feature available for iOS and Android devices called Nearby. Now, people can search via their app friends who have liked a location and who recommends it. You can also share locations that you like with your friends.
Personally, I think this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of Facebook’s integration of local search into its app. For real estate professionals, this could be a huge opportunity down the line. Think of all the community, dining and neighborhood info you share with clients you are working with – imagine if that was tied to a listing on Facebook? It will be interesting to see the next iteration of this feature, but for now I recommend getting familiar with it – it’s certainly a big step for Facebook.
What else did we miss this week? Let me know in the comments below and what you think about these three big announcements.
I’d also like to personally thank all of you who read my posts here on Inman Next week in and week out. This is 339th post for Inman (can you believe it?!) Your support, comments, likes and shares do not go unnoticed! Wishing all of you a very happy and prosperous New Year! See you in January!

via next.inman.com

Couple Feels Taxed Out of Homeownership | South Salem Real Estate

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In the “Money Mic” series, LearnVest hands over the podium to someone with a strong opinion on a financial topic. Today, one woman shares what it’s like to be disproportionately taxed based on her income — and how it’s holding her back.
If someone had told me as a kid in Louisiana that my husband and I would have a combined income of $250,000 a year in our late 20s, I would have been pie-eyed. It sounds like a crazy amount of money. But after taking into account taxes, debt and living expenses in New York City, we’re actually finding it difficult to meet our financial goals.
Why our taxes are nearly unmanageable
Last year, we paid $100,000 in taxes, which is almost exactly 40 percent of what we make. Even though we also paid $22,000 in student loan payments (we have about $145,000 in combined loans for my husband’s law school and my grad school), we don’t qualify for deductions — if you make more than $150,000 filing jointly, you can’t deduct student loan interest.
We also don’t get a deduction for home ownership — because we can’t afford to buy one. We’ve been saving for three years, and after another three years of diligent budgeting, we hope to have about $100,000, which would be enough for a 20 percent down payment on a home in a New York suburb with decent schools — the average “starter” home in these areas is about $500,000 — plus an extra $20,000 for closing costs and incidentals.
We’re in a weird place: We don’t have enough money to invest in a house or the stock market, which would get us tax exemptions. So we pay the full 40 percent of our salary in city*, state and federal taxes. People who are much wealthier can take advantage of tax loopholes, capital gains preferential tax rates and a larger mortgage deduction, so they end up paying only about 20 percent in taxes. For instance, in 2011, Barack Obama paid 20.5 percent in taxes. Mitt Romney paid 14 percent in taxes.
We find it ironic that we’d have to make more … in order to pay less.
If we’re being honest, it’s not only taxes that are killing us. Living in Manhattan is expensive — up to three times the cost of living in other cities — but I work for a private equities firm, and my husband is in securities litigation. This city is the industry hub for both of our careers.
We’ve discussed moving, but it’s unlikely that we would both be able to get jobs elsewhere. We rent a 1-bedroom apartment near our offices in a neighborhood where they go for $3,000 a month. We could move to a slightly cheaper outer borough, but we’re both called into our offices at odd hours, and we also work long days. So we pay for the convenience of living near work.
How things could get harder for us
We budget constantly. As an accountant, I’m always reviewing our spending and trying to find ways to cut back. We take the subway. We don’t buy name-brand clothes, and we don’t buy anything unless it’s on sale. We take only one fun trip a year and the most we’ve ever spent on that is $1,600.
My husband isn’t even putting money in his 401(k), so we can save more for a house. (I contribute to mine, but we have diverted all of our emergency fund to our house savings.) It’s something we argue about, but these are the choices we have to make.
Don’t get me wrong — our lives are good. We work very hard, and enjoy what we do, but I’m tired of people saying that we’re not paying our fair share. How much more are we supposed to pay?
Why the tax code needs to change
We both come from middle-class families and were taught that if you go to school and work hard, you can live the “American Dream”: own a house, have a family. It’s really all we want. We don’t live — or long for — an extravagant lifestyle.
Look, I know it’s relative. I realize there are families raising three kids on $50,000 that are just trying to put food on the table. My husband and I are very thankful for what we have. And we don’t begrudge paying taxes. We even understand why people think we’re rich. Compared to many people, we are.
We just can’t figure out how we’re supposed to make the “American Dream” work for us while giving away half of our income in taxes.
The tax code needs to change, and if it were up to me, I’d like to see the following:
Adding a cost-of-living factor. The tax code should have a “factor” that takes into account location-specific costs, like average home price, the price of an equivalent bag of groceries, the average price of a car and the average cost of gas in a region. Once taxes are calculated, the factor would be applied to achieve greater geographic tax parity.
Phasing out deductions and loopholes. If we lowered tax rates across the board, and cut the deductions and loopholes in the system (there are plenty of them to pick from!), we would put everyone on a more level playing field. I know it’s a touchy subject, but capital gains rates probably also need to be increased from the current 15 percent — even if it’s just a bump to 20 percent.
Broadening the tax base. Right now, deductions and loopholes mean that many people don’t pay certain federal taxes. If we eliminated them as described above, more people would pay taxes that they owe. By no means do I think that families in dire circumstances should be asked to dole out money to the government. But if more families could help chip in a small portion of their earnings, it would work toward generating more revenue — and a little bit, spread across a large number of people, could go a long way.
Lowering the tax rates. I’d be fine paying in the 30 percent range. And if my husband and I did make it to a point where we were making above $500,000, reasonable tax increases (35-39 percent) for this income would be acceptable.
There’s something really wrong with a system that considers us “rich” and not paying our fair share at 40 percent — but billionaires are only paying 20 percent or less.
Something is obviously broken.
We just hope it gets fixed soon.
*New York City is one of the few cities in the United States with city taxes.

via zillow.com

30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Unchanged | Katonah Real Estate

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Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages were unchanged this week, with the current rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace at 3.24 percent.
The 30-year fixed mortgage rate hovered between 3.2 and 3.25 percent for the majority of the week, rising to the current rate this morning.
“This past week rates remained flat, still buoyed by optimism that lawmakers might be able to reach a compromise on the fiscal cliff before year-end,” said Erin Lantz, director of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. “However, as we enter the last week of the year rates may reverse course back downward unless lawmakers are able to quickly agree on a plan”
Additionally, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate this morning was 2.59 percent, and for 5/1 ARMs the rate was 2.52 percent.

*The weekly rate chart illustrates the average 30-year fixed interest rate in six-hour intervals.
Given the U.S. public holiday of New Year’s on Tuesday, Jan. 1, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace weekly rates will be published on Wednesday, Jan. 2. For more information on mortgage rates, please visit: http://www.zillow.com/mortgage-rates/

via zillow.com

Can Stainless Be Dethroned as King of the Kitchen? | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate

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The kitchen in a Phoenix home for sale.
Not so long ago, a repairman could tell the age of an appliance by the color of its finish. If it was avocado or harvest gold, it had to be from the 1970s or early ’80s. Poppy red meant the appliance was made in the 1970s, and harvest wheat, coffee or almond meant your oven or fridge was new in the early 1980s.
Stainless appliances first burst onto the scene in the late 1980s, and they’ve had a remarkable run. But there are those in the industry who sense “stainless fatigue” among homeowners.
It should come as no surprise, then, that major manufacturers have their own ideas about the next hot appliance finishes:
Slate could be great
In September, GE introduced a new finish called “Slate” across its line of appliances.
The company’s news release about the launch details how its industrial designers spent countless hours conducting consumer research and reviewing design trends in the kitchen, home furnishings, home entertainment products, and automotive interiors and exteriors.
The result was Slate, a warm, gray metallic with a low-gloss finish that is a natural complement to the wide spectrum of wall colors, countertop materials and floor/cabinetry finishes found in today’s homes.
“As people transition their kitchen appliances over time, it was important to us to find a finish from a palette that is timeless and harmonious, yet distinctive,” said Lou Lenzi, whose team of designers created the new finish. “Slate is a universal, neutral finish that will suit consumers who want a premium finish that can complement or even replace stainless steel.”
Ice may be nice
Whirlpool Corp. introduced its “Ice Collection” of appliances in July, including a glossy white finish for dishwashers, microwave ovens, ranges and refrigerators.
“White is the new stainless,” the company’s news release said. The collection also includes a sleek Black Ice finish.
Patrick Schiavone, Whirlpool’s vice president of global consumer design, has said he “is over” stainless steel and set out to update the style and appearance of black and white appliances. The collection is defined by silver accents, elegant lines, sleek handles and streamlined controls.
Is black back?
When high-end cooking appliances manufacturer Wolf introduced its newest model in early 2012, its news release boldly proclaimed: “Black is the New Stainless Steel.”
The company’s Black Glass model comes adorned with a black glass tubular handle and cobalt blue interior. In addition to the oven, Wolf is also offering black glass trim kits for its warming drawers and convection and standard microwaves.
“Our commitment to design has always been on par with Wolf’s dedication to innovation and quality,” Michele Bedard, vice president of marketing for Sub-Zero and Wolf, said in a news release. “Introducing a new finish elevates the line and opens a whole new realm of design possibilities for designers and consumers alike.”
Can color triumph?
Viking Range Corp. offers 23 color alternatives to stainless steel in its high-end open-burner range; the company most recently expanded its palette of finishes to include Cinnamon, Dijon, Kettle Black and Wasabi.
All those choices, yet stainless steel reigns supreme.
“I’d say 80 percent of our sales are still stainless steel,” says Brent Bailey, design director at Viking Range. “I could add another 100 colors, and the percentage wouldn’t change much.”