We never liked stainless steel so much. With the bright shine of high nickel stainless steel, Alpes Inox kitchen elements are the most beautiful, high end, small kitchen solution we've seen. Are small and high end mutually exclusive? Not in NYC (sorry for the pics, we had to scan them all).
Alpes Inox is an Italian company with one distributor in NYC: DOM showroom on Crosby street. They specialize in these all stainless kitchen modules that are free standing and allow you to build exactly what you want. They feel vintage, almost as if they were just taken out a 1950's film or off a boat.
The high nickel stainless means that the shine is brighter and whiter and will never dull or grey. The freestanding design means that you don't have "install" these pieces other than hooking them up to gas, water and electricity. Each piece has it's own feet and looks lovely on its own.
How expensive is this stuff? A complete small kitchen will run you between 15k, which doesn't seem bad except that it doesn't include any upper cabinetry or shelving. Each piece has great shelving below, but none above. If you had a small country escape hatch or apartment and wanted beautiful spartan kitchen, this would be amazing. Please send us pics.
Stainless is great is you have kitchen crew that is going to wipe the whole kitchen down every night. Otherwise, its just a really expensive fingerprint/smudge/grease trap.
view Dave's profile
The modular system definately has it's advantages.
While this company is high end it seems to be modeling itself after Bulthaup's classic and award winning System 20. If this company is less expensive than Bulthaup then it could be a practical way of achieving the same look. But if the price points are similar I would check out Bulthaup because it offers details that can't be duplicated.
When I read articles like the one in the NY Times recently about renters putting their own money into spaces this type of system makes a lot of sense. It's an investment that can go with you when you move or can be sold when you move in its entirety or piece by piece.
view art's profile
When I looked into Bulthaup the rep told me most Germans do just that - they take their kitchens with them when they move. Seems weird to me but if you invest that much into your kitchen you probably will want to take it with you. I can't imagine the buyers would be too happy tho.
view lizinsac's profile
Is it just me, or do these units look awfully low to you too. I like them, but can't envision myself bending over them to prep for dinner. Maybe it's just the proportion of width to height that make them appear to be lower than standard counter height.
view Joe Bruha's profile
Why is the stove/oven on casters? That doesn't seem to make sense since it has to hook up to gas and/or electricity.
view ridge.'s profile
Ahhh...the whole system is on casters so that it is mobile...kinda the point of the whole thread....
view hdtex's profile
Well, it's fun to think about how a landlord would take to your removing the appliances already in place, putting these in, then leaving an empty kitchen when you left! Sure, you could have the originals re-installed, but unless you had a really long lease, what a big pain.
view Aulaire's profile
HAH! Yeah it is totally true about Germans..... When Is tarted looking at apartments here (Frankfurt) it took me weeks to get over the fact that none of them had kitchens.
Hillarious.
Kristian
view kristian's profile
hdtex, no it's not the point of the whole thread. These pieces are simply "mobile" because they're not built in. (And they're NOT all on casters, incidentally... look again.)
I wasn't making a snide observation, I was actually asking that question. Why would you ever need to move your stove around and how is it possible, anyway, unless you had a really really long gas line.
view ridge.'s profile
It really does not make sense to have the water point and cooking elements on casters as they are never moved once they are hooked up to the gas and water lines. In a restaurant, stoves are often on casters but they have a flexible quick-release gas line. This allows the unit to be pulled away from the wall for easy cleaning. Most appliances with casters can also be equipped with feet instead.
So I'm sure the casters here are just for show. My experience with many of the Italian kitchen concepts is that they have a tendency to be a little too conceptual. In this case though it's such a small detail. Who knows, maybe the showroom likes to keep them on casters just to show how easy it would be to move them around (stressing the flexibility of the entire system).
view art's profile
I use custom kitchens from www.bhHomeExpo.com. This guys with price from Queens have a good expirients.
view bignycom2's profile