It’s hard to go into a kitchen store and really examine all its products and see how they work without getting the hard sell to buy something. So just imagine walking into a living magazine of sorts, where you can explore kitchens of every imaginable style and test appliances without the slightest pressure to buy anything.

There is such a place. The Fretz Corp. is the Mid-Atlantic distributer of high-end kitchen appliances. It sells only to kitchen dealers, but its vast showroom in Columbia, MD, is open to the public. “It’s a good place to come get ideas,” says Jaime Brown, one of Fretz’s “Dream Kitchen” consultants.

The showroom displays kitchens from highly traditional to ultra contemporary, and if you are interested in products such as Sub-Zero refrigerators and Wolf ranges, Franke hardware or Best by Broan ventilation, you can see those brands’ entire lines, rather than the two or three models a kitchen dealer will probably have. “Here they can see all the different sizes, all the different design applications,” Brown says. “You can come and really get hands-on with the product. It’s a place to see them and see them in actual settings.”

When I was younger, I couldn’t quite understand why my mother kept buying new sets of china. I think she’s up to at least six sets by now, not counting her more casual place settings. But alas, I seem to have caught the bug. You know that feeling you get on the first warm day of springtime, when you just relax your shoulders, exhale, and think, “Ahhh…”? That’s the feeling I get when I see truly gorgeous china, and it came right back when I saw Haviland’s new porcelain collections.

With the Beijing Olympics fast approaching, I couldn’t help but fall in love with the Eventails line:

And who wouldn’t want to have a summer soirée with Jardin Français?

Just look at the intricate detailing of the edges on these pieces, which are meant to resemble the symmetrical gardens at Versailles:

Jardin Francais is perfect to mix and match with Haviland’s crisp new white collections –

Complice Blanc

and Ranson Blanc,

But keeping it all white would be just as exquisite.

And finally, the new Saâri collection brings to mind a gorgeous Indian sari, to bring me on the summer travels I wish I were taking.

So, would you pay almost $600 for a stock pot?

I had to wonder when I noticed this new line of cookware by British architect John Pawson.

After some clicking around, I quickly realized the cachet behind his name. He is credited with bringing the minimalist look into public consciousness. His architectural commissions include Calvin Klein’s flagship store in New York,  a monastery in the Czech Republic,  and the renovation of a London car dealership into a retail temple for B&B Italia, among many other celebrated works, including homes, museum galleries, restaurants, and stage sets. He literally wrote the book on minimalism, called Minimum. 

The new line for Belgian cookware manufacturer Demeyere is Pawson’s latest homewares design, introduced on the occasion of Demeyere’s 100th anniversary in May.

This is what Pawson has to say about it on his Web site:
“A museum director once said of my work, ‘Everything starts with the kitchen.’ What he meant was that houses are the heart of the work and kitchens are the heart of the houses. My collaboration with Demeyere started with the idea of providing these most important of contemporary living spaces with a set of core equipment which would combine functional sophistication with the highest design values.”

We got a press release the other day about a new dual-fuel range from Bertazzoni, the Italian oven manufacturer that recently began selling its products in the United States. I was instantly reminded of an event they held in the Ferrari (yes, the car) showroom at the new Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas last year during the Kitchen/Bath Industry Show. We’re talking serious oven envy.

It didn’t look odd to see a bunch of ovens displayed among $200,000 sports cars. Turns out that the vivid colors on the Bertazzoni ranges are painted onto them in the Ferrari factory, so they all share the same shiny candy coating.

Bertazzoni was just one of the many ovens I have fallen in love with.

What do you do with an oddly angled tiny kitchen in a high-rise, anchored by a bulky refrigerator eating up valuable space? You get really creative, as Custom Crafters recently did for an apartment in DC’s Penn Quarter.

“The idea was to modernize it and make the finishes much more appealing and get the appliances under the counter to get them out of the way,” says Brian McGarry, who shared pictures of the final product with us.

Here, you see nothing but a swath of natural cherry cabinets, uninterrupted by appliances save for the range and microwave oven. There’s not even a refrigerator in sight. That’s because almost everything is cleverly disguised.

Amidst reporting all the fun at Boffi’s first anniversary party in Georgetown last week, I didn’t spend enough time on the reintroduction of the Minikitchen, which Paolo Boffi traveled from Italy to present at Thursday’s event.

First designed in 1963, the mobile kitchen packs cooking, storage, and refrigeration into one square-meter unit with a single power source. Originally designed with teak, the new version is molded from Corian, which works great outdoors.

“A lot of people have it in flats and condos, and roll it right out on the terrace,” says Adnan Hamidi, the store manager at Boffi Studio DC. “It’s being able to literally roll your kitchen right outside.”

It almost goes without saying that the Minikitchen is ideal for, well, mini kitchens. But if you need more of a reason to splurge, here’s how you can justify it from an art-collector/design angle, according to the Boffi literature:

“More than just a kitchen, a concept. A kitchen abstract that includes pure functionalism … The natural geometry of the piece, its appearance having the vaguely enigmatic feel of heavy machinery, alongside a natural aesthetic as an intelligent device that would be found in the ideal home, a domestic hub upon which one can rely on to provide both the practical needs of daily life and the desire for beauty in the home.”

Alno, the German kitchen manufacturer, recently introduced its new lines for 2008, and they are really cool, whether your taste leans toward pop-art contemporary or country chic. You don’t see these looks too often when you walk into a kitchen design shop.

The “Alno Sign” group from the Lifestyle Collection puts kitchen life in the fast lane, with Speed Racer colors on sleek, lacquer-finish cabinets. You can wake up to pistachio, ruby red, papaya, blackberry or lime – on your cabinets as well as in your fruit bowl.

Meanwhile, its “Alno Finn” group from the Country Collection gives a sophisticated sensibility to the country look – a peaceful place to rest the eyes.