(I guess this is Cafe Society because it’s about a craft, woodworking)
I saw this in the paper, and it seems like if people are paying big money for this I’d like to make them. But I’m not sure anybody would go for that price.
“This all-in-one mini-kitchen designed for a vacation house on the Jersey shore”.
It’s a trick china cupboard where when you pull back the folding doors there’s a kitchen inside. Has a stove burner, mini sink, mini fridge, and microwave.
I was impressed until I came to the price tag. Too rich for my blood.
Then I thought “Well, if people actually pay that much, I can get one put together by the local custom kitchen cabinet maker for a fraction.” Sell one and I pay my mortgage for a year.
Actually, I’d probably never do it, but just for daydreaming’s sake, would you think this is a viable product?
It’s beautiful, but that price, nah… the main thing to my mind, as a cook, is, NOT enough counter space, very congested. And, I need some sort of oven, not just a microwave. I would never have the sort of cash to lay out for that, but some folks have money to burn. I think, though, that most people want more space to enjoy cooking in.
Who are they marketing this to? It’s a lot of money for what’s essentially a gimmick item. Most people who are going to spend thirteen thousand dollars on a kitchen are going to want a full-size one spread out over a room or two. And people living in tiny apartments who are looking to save space probably don’t have thirteen thousand dollars to throw around.
While it looks like a piece of furniture that can be moved, in reality it isn’t. Think about it. The water and waste lines to the mini sink are going to have to attach to the back of the unit, and they are not something you can move to the other side of the room. Also at 13K there would not be much of a price advantage over say 6 feet of cabinets, a sink and mini fridge.
For these reasons I doubt there would be much of a market.
What there might be a market for is a slightly smaller version of this sans sink, and hot plate as a wine locker / dry bar that can be built in different ways to the customer order. I have seen these in stores for anywhere from about $1300- to $5,000. That was for a stock non-customizable unit. If you offered a unit that could be built to the customers exact likes, it would be worth more.
:dubious: Haven’t priced kitchens anytime in the last 30 years I see. A room or two for 13K? Maybe if you are using cardboard boxes for cabinets.
I spent 15K in a small kitchen 13 years ago, using cheap Home Despot cabinets, Formica counter tops, and a laminate floor.
People living in a small apartment will expect their landlord to supply the kitchen. The market here is for the landlord, not a tenant.
I can see a couple uses for this. I wouldn’t be surprised to see something like this in a higher-end business hotel or resort property. Marriott’s SpringHill Suites frequently has kitchenettes that aren’t as nice as that. Space is usually at a premium in these rooms, especially if they retrofit the kitchenette into an existing property.
How about putting these in as a second kitchen? You know, in the mother-in-law suite renovated in the room over the garage. Or in the basement or in the Florida Room (aka enclosed patio). You wouldn’t expect to cook a full gourmet meal in any of those places, but with 2 burners and a microwave/convection oven, you can do a lot. I suggest the micro/convection because the pictured oven looks like a micro/convection I saw in a business hotel. I wonder if they hid a fridge somewhere in all those doors and drawers? That’d be so cool, no pun intended.
My thought as well. I’m not sure about their stated aim of “a vacation house on the Jersey shore” unless they are talking about a rental apartment, but there is a definite niche for something like this.
I’ve heard them referred to as Pullman Kitchens. We had similar in my last two office buildings; a mini kitchen for limited food storage and cooking. If a unit like this turns a small apartment or basement into a rentable unit, then it will eventually pay for itself. And I can imagine something like this in a rental suite geared toward business clientele, where the kitchen could be closed up when meetings are in session.
While I think that that a much less expensive unit would functionally do as well, some owners may decide that the added cost would be worth it to preserve some similar character to the apartment.
The proximity of a stovetop burner so close to combustible wood is of concern to me, though. I would think that the local building department might have something to say about that.
Minikitchens are a fairly standard thing in student apartments and similar here. This page (in Norwegian, I’m afraid) shows a few examples of standard products. All cost about US$1000. Put some panels on the doors to make them look a bit nicer, add a side cabinet and a couple upper cabinets to match, and mount a small microwave somewhere, and you can get the same functionality and something that looks okay for way way way under $13K. If it just won’t match your Jersey Shore Vacation Home no matter what you do, you could even hide it in a largish closet - we stayed in a hotel suite once that did just that. The minikitchen itself, with a microwave and open shelves above for dishes etc., fit neatly inside what appeared to be a coat closet until you opened the doors.
There’s a market for anything people are willing to pay for, but unless that thing slices, dices and washes the dishes, you’d be nuts to pay that sort of money for it.
That minimalist bit isn’t going to appeal to a doper who wants a kitchen, however mini. It’s pitched at stylish dopes who wants a “Surprise!” armoire. I laughed aloud when I saw the decorative “bowl” filling a valuable shelf. It may be the same family of items or even the same manufacturer, but I find this slightly larger unit vastly more appealing in presentation.
If you want my opinion: “if you build it, they will come” . You may not sell many units, but, even at a discount off that list price, do you really need to?
Heck, I’ve got a two-room kitchen that I’m going to renovate in the coming year, and yet I’m halfway set to build one of those bad boys myself for the master bedroom suite, though I have no specific use for it (I love to cook, and want all the cooking space/ingredients I can fit). Maybe it’s just the memory of a few years when I was an invalid, and going downstairs was a painful expedition.
The market for these things woud be people who live in very small but expensive apartments in urban cities. Probably mostly in Manhattan. They make enough money to afford higher end things yet real estate is so expensive that they can only afford an efficiency-style place. You see apartments like that all the time on “Small Space, Big Style” on HGTV. Your buyer probably doesn’t do much cooking (mostly eats out) and wants to maximize the floor space of their tiny apartment.
