With every new year comes a new opportunity to remodel your kitchen to match your style and finally replace those twenty-something old kitchen appliances. It can be challenging to decide which appliances best fit your cooking needs and fit into your dream design. We are here to help with insight into the newest and most noteworthy major kitchen appliance trends in 2020.
A New Way of Cooking
For one, Steam Ovens are trending upward. A favorite method of cooking overseas, steam ovens in the US had largely been the domain of restaurant kitchens in the form of free-standing combi-ovens as tall as your refrigerator and costing tens of thousands of dollars. Superheated steam ovens are remarkable. You may not realize it at first, but it is very rare to find a whole new cooking method in an appliance. More commonly, you find reboots: countertop grills, versatile pressure cookers, multi-function blenders. Painting a new, blue non-stick surface, or adding a rotisserie bar to a countertop toaster oven is not revolutionary.
Some built-in steam ovens have made their way to the home appliance arena, but only Sharp has the new, SuperSteam+TM that doesn’t just use steam, it is the only oven that uses purely super-heated steam up to 485°F. That is hot enough to brown food, like crispy bacon and crunchy cookies.
The Sharp Superheated Steam Countertop Oven has special settings for pizza and toast. It also has a large 12″x12″ cooking area for family-sized sheet pan meals. The holidays are when both ovens really shine. Without microwaves, you can use half-size, aluminum catering trays that go straight from the oven to the buffet. You can let the turkey cook in the big oven, while your superheated steam oven does the rest.
We introduced them as complimentary products to your regular oven, but anyone that owns one of them will tell you the same thing: The superheated steam oven quickly becomes the primary oven. I use my Superheated Steam Countertop Oven every night, and my large oven stays clean and ready for special occasions!
Say Goodbye to Noticeable Knobs
Touch-Controls are trending in modern kitchens. Knobs, switches and buttons are fading in exchange for controls that are sleek, responsive and easier to clean. Sharp’s patented Microwave DrawerTM ovens feature hidden panels with responsive, touch-glass controls that simply wipe clean.
Our built in Convection Wall Ovens and Induction Cooktops eliminate knobs completely in favor of similar, touch-glass controls. Going one step further, the latest Sharp Microwave DrawerTM trend is “Easy Wave Oven.” So, you don’t even need to touch the oven to open the drawer! Simply wave up-and-down near the motion sensor and Microwave DrawerTM will glide open. And the SMD2480CS Sharp Microwave DrawerTM stays closed when you walk by, so children and pets won’t accidentally open it.
Stainless Steel Appliances
While vibrant color and retro-design appliances find their way into design magazines and showroom floors, both retro and color are commitments most people aren’t willing to make. What are you going to do when that limited-run “minty-aqua” counter-top microwave with TV knobs your purchased 10 years ago breaks?
Stainless Steel is king. That isn’t changing any time soon. Although color has had great success in countertop appliances, it is very restrictive in large, kitchen appliances. Grey had a moment. It may not have been exciting, but your entire look wouldn’t fall apart because your upgrade and replacement paths could be either stainless steel or black stainless. The same would probably be true with the new, white appliances with stainless steel handles and trims… you could still retreat to the safety of stainless steel.
Black stainless still has seen a steady rise in popularity for its elegant contrast, bold statement and growing catalog. Naturally, Stainless steel never goes out of style. As your family’s needs change, your appliances will, too.
When you want to get the microwave off the counter-top and get a Microwave DrawerTM oven, Sharp has modern, elegant designs to match your stainless, black stainless and European black glass kitchen. Sticking with the classics means stress-free upgrades and replacements.
Sharp’s new, full kitchen appliance lineup embraces stainless steel appliances with edge-to-edge black glass. Everything is built to match, and designed to stand out.
Off the Counter, Into the Cabinet
Finally, under-the-counter is seeing an upward trend. The Sharp(R) Microwave DrawerTM oven is an obvious choice, but designers are constantly re-imagining the kitchen. Both the Sharp built-in wall oven and the SuperSteam+TM IoT built-in oven can be installed under the counter – even beneath our induction cooktops.
Our new, innovative dishwasher is another option that can be installed in a center island for whenever you need an extra hand. If you are moving appliances around, you can choose our two-drawer, custom panel pedestal that holds a Microwave DrawerTM and slides right into a dishwasher cut-out for a quick installation without extra carpentry.
