Boomer Kitchens

Hi, everyone.

My name is Todd Brunner and I'm a graduate student in Industrial Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. This semester I have a group project where we were given the task of designing "The Kitchen of the Future for the Baby Boomer generation" with General Electric (GE) as our fictional client. As this is a Directed Research class, a large part of our project involves gathering information from baby boomers themselves. My group has created a 50-item questionnaire that we are hoping to pass around to baby boomers we know personally, people we approach on the street and, hopefully, boomers we meet through the internet. I'm hoping that a few people that frequent this forum might agree to fill out the questionnaire. The information will be used only for this project and I and my teammates will be happy to post our final report on the internet for you all to see. If anyone is interested, please drop me an email at todd@nyc.rr.com and I'll send the questionnaire your way. I'd be happy to post it here as well, but I fear that may be against the rules of this message board. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide with this project.

Sincerely,
Todd Brunner
Pratt Institute
Brooklyn, New York

Ladies, I'm corresponding with Todd and plan to take his survey. If it's legit, I'll encourage you to do it.

Fortunately it has to do with one of my favorite topics. He hit the nail on the head. Designing kitchens or gardens. I'd be interested in either.

I'll keep you posted.

well too late...I wrote him and said he should put in vending machines...what?

Dotsie-let us know because I just designed and built the kitchenof my dreams although it did not include a cook, last year. I would be happy to respond to Todd if he is legit.

Lynn

My dream kitchen has only two appliances. A cook and a MAID!!!

smile

I agree with smilinize!!

They've invented self-cleaning ovens. What about a self-cleaning kitchen?? A self-cleaning house???? I'm waiting...I'm waiting...

A self cleaning house would be fantastic! No pun intended.

I can't even get mine clean enough to have a realtor come through to tell me what I can expect to get for it in a sale. Now that is no motivation!

Lynn

Ladies, he's legit. If you want to do the survey, e-mail him and he'll send it to you. OF course, if there are questions you don't want to answer, just leave them blank.

Just wanted to say thanks to Dotsie for her help and reassure all of you who decide to help that your names will not be used and the survey will never appear anywhere online or in print in its entirety. We may use selected quotes in our final report, but these will never be attributed to anyone by name.

Again, if you're interested in participating, please drop me a line at todd@nyc.rr.com. My teammates and I really appreciate the help.

-Todd

Hey Todd, are you guys doing anything with kitchen decor? I don't cook enough to worry about appliances. Also, I'm a firm believer in style over function. So...

My kitchen, breakfast area, and den are open and there is a bathroom off the den that I have included in the same decorating scheme.

The whole space is done in animal prints with monkeys as the main theme. I started with monkeys when animal prints were just coming out and absolutely no one had monkeys. I painted a mural in the breakfast area of a monkey swinging in palm trees. The palm fronds extend into the window which is covered by a piece of thick clear acrylic that hangs in the window. I glass painted fronds on it so it lets in light but you can't see through. I glass painted ferns, etc. on the same acrylic window treatment for the kitchen window.

The den has an old fashioned beige couch with black and leopard pillows and fur throws and a large leopard painting. Everyone keeps giving me monkey stuff so I have monkeys everywhere.

Now that I've finally got it all done, I'm thinking of changing it. Any ideas? I want something really unusual.

smile

[ February 18, 2004, 03:20 PM: Message edited by: smilinize ]

smilinize, it sounds gorgeous! My kind of decor, artistic and primal

What to do for an encore? There are 1000+ ideas out there; you just gotta choose one.

I'm sloooooooowly redoing my house, and the kitchen will probably be the last part of the project. Look for an update in 5 years or so

Todd my boy...let me get this straight. You want da Queen here to go get your survey, use her valuable time that she could be answering fan mail (both letters) and answer about 50 questions about a room that I can't even find in my house? A room that the fire marshall in my town has declared off limits to me. That bout sum it up?
Oh and if I DO take this survey, and use my good judgement and give Queenly wisdom...you ARE NOT going to quote me? zat it? hmmm....any chocolate in this?

okay...okay...geezzz...

I'm in...

Okay Miss M. I know your imagination is more fertile than that. What can I do? I'm not totally sick of monkeys yet and all my friends will be so unhappy if I eliminate them. I'm pretty sure I'm their only monkey outlet and they all seem to love buying them for me. Lord only knows what I'll do with all these little apes, but...

I kind of like Easter bunnies, but the kitchen might begin to look like a nursery. I've thouight of using purple and doing lilacs or grapes or maybe a whole bunch of fruits and maybe make it real frilly, but the den is so lived in. I've also considered the very sleek danish type modern chrome and black stuff. Decisions...

What to do, what to do? Come on boomer women give me some ideas..

And Todd where are you???? You're the kitchen expert here. Let's have some ideas. Great ones!
smile

[ February 18, 2004, 09:46 PM: Message edited by: smilinize ]

Hi, all. Sorry about the delayed replies, but I've been stuck at school (talking about kitchens, as a matter of fact). Much like jawjaw, I tend to avoid the kitchen as much as possible...or at least as much as I can in a tiny apartment where you have to walk through the kitchen to get to anything. Basically what I'm saying is: I'm no kitchen expert. That's what you guys are helping me become. I actually remodeled my whole kitchen back when I had a house in Wisconsin, but that was mostly knocking down walls and adding windows so it wasn't so dark and isolated.

Anyway, thanks again for the help and if anyone else would be willing to fill out the survey (which I hear some people think is a bit on the long side ) please let me know and I'll send it your way. You can reach me at todd@nyc.rr.com.

I actually have to give a little presentation this morning on my research so far, so I'm off to Pratt...

Todd

you know...I just have to laugh at this because BOOMERS don't do kitchens! I mean, am I right? hahaha...well, except to get their coffee or tea...teehee...or chocolate.

I sent Todd a completed survey last night, then I went back to the one I had saved, and filled it out the way I WANTED TO in reality! It was sooo much fun and a great stress reliever! hahaha...what a hoot. Hey...Todd may have given me material for my next article....hey Todd! thanks kiddo!

smilinize, how about anthropomorphosizing the monkeys instead of being so literal? You know, Monkeys at the 50s diner; Monkeys at the beach; Monkeys go to Mardi Gras; Monkeys visit alien planet. The possibilities are endless. You can even recreate scenes from Planet of the Apes.

Hey Good idea Meredith. Maybe I could do a whole boomer monkey theme. Monkeys with beehive hair and beatles music. Hmmm. I knew you had it in you Miss M.!! Way creative.
smile

too bad I threw away all them little velvet bows

Oh yeah, velvet bows and bumble bees in our beehive hair. What a bunch of funny looking folks we must have been. No monkey can compete.

smile

Every generation has its Really Stupid Fashion Statements. These are just the tip of the iceberg..

Monkeys exploring Antarctica? You could dress them in little fur parkas and spray your house with Christmas snow.