As kitchens have evolved into the most popular room in the home, consumers are increasingly looking for high-end appliances, additional pantry space, island work stations, wine storage areas and recycling centers. The number of bathrooms in homes is also increasing with radiant floors, multi-head showers, dual-sink vanities and towel-warming products emerging as the most popular features. These findings are from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Home Design Trends Survey focused specifically on kitchen and bath trends in the fourth quarter of 2006.

The scores were computed as the percentage of respondents who reported increasing popularity minus those who reported decreasing popularity of each item or feature. Popular kitchen products and features included: upper-end appliances, island work areas, drinking water filtration systems and duplicate appliances. For the bathroom, radiant heated floors, multi-head showers, accessibility/universal design, doorless showers, hand showers, towel warming drawers/racks and whirlpool baths topped the list.

The AIA Home Design Trend Survey is conducted quarterly with a panel of 500 architecture firms that concentrate their practice in the residential sector.

For the full report, visit: http://www.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek07/0223/0223b_res.cfm.