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Our Midnight Black Kitchen Armoire is #68 of Qualified Remodeler's Choice 100 Products 2008. Every year, Qualified Remodeler (QR) magazine’s editors compile the hottest products of the year. Tabulating the products that QR readers most requested on a monthly basis generates the list. It is the second Armoire Kitchen to make the list and again it was the First kitchen product mentioned. The next kitchen product was #99, Everbrew's under cabinet Automatic Coffee System. This link leads to the list of 100 products.
We have a few already built Workstations that have been Showroom or Display pieces available at steeply discounted prices. Click Here for more information.
Our complete Kitchen Armoire won Honorable Mention (second place) for the cabinetry category of the Womans Day Specials Kitchen and Baths 2008 Awards. The armoire impressed the judges fo the 5th Annual KB Awards 2008 competition that honored the most Imaginative Products of the year. To read the entire article, click here. YesterTec's Press Room is open to members of the media and all visitors to discover stories and publishable images about this great alternative kitchen design concept. Below are some of the titles of the articles:
Fall 2005… Need a custom furniture maker, wood carver, door maker or complete millwork shop? Check out our new link to www.CustomMade.com. This site lists all types of woodworking craftsman that live near you! Many of them are specialists (like YesterTec) who work nationwide as well. So if you need something made of wood, chances are you can find an expert craftsman to do the job for you on this easy to use website. Fall 2005… Tired of those huge stainless steel commercial-style ranges? YesterTec introduces the Range Armoire, the most recent addition to our ever-expanding line. This is the only YT piece that can conceal a full-sized cooktop. Now an entire hi-tech cooking workstation can be placed in a Period Style kitchen without compromising the ‘old’ look of the room. The top bi-fold doors conceal a huge countertop, a 4-burner cooktop and an over-the-range microwave/hood. A 30” wall oven is concealed below with its own set of flipper doors. Both sets of doors feature YesterTec’s exclusive, U.L. Listed technology that allow the appliances to operate only when the doors are open. August 2005…. YesterTec makes the Top Ten! YesterTec is #10 on Qualified Remodeler’s Choice: Top 100 Products 2005 list. Summer 2005… YesterTec kitchens are featured in Traditional Style Kitchens, A Schiffer Book Traditional Style Kitchens, Modern Designs Inspired by the Past, by Melissa Cardona features thought provoking kitchen photographs and their corresponding stories that were submitted by manufacturers and designers for inclusion in the book. Two kitchens featuring YesterTec workstations made the cut in this idea filled volume. To purchase a copy, you can visit www.schifferbooks.com At K/BIS, YesterTec’s Kitchen Armoire, UK68B-CSR-MH was on display and was filmed by HGTV for the special Kitchens & Baths 2004. YesterTec was one of only 14 companies selected by the HGTV producers to be filmed for the special. Woman’s Day Specials Kitchens & Baths Magazine’s First Annual KB Awards for the Best New Products of 2004 also recognized YesterTec’s Working/Bar Pantry as the WINNER of the cabinetry category! The judges evaluated the winners for technical innovation as well as aesthetic appeal. The winners were published in the Winter 2004 edition of Woman’s Day Specials Kitchens & Baths Magazine. The award was presented at the NKBA opening night reception during the 2004 K/BIS weekend (the national Kitchen/Bath Industry Show) in Chicago. YesterTec’s Working/Bar Pantry received one of Home Magazine’s 6th Annual American Kitchen & Bath Awards for the 14 Best New Products of 2004. The editors of Home scoured the market to find the most efficient, functional and stylish products to present to their readers. All the winners were published in the April 2004 edition of Home Magazine. The award was presented at a private reception during the 2004 K/BIS weekend (the national Kitchen/Bath Industry Show) in Chicago. The Working/Bar Pantry is one of our very popular WP48 Working Pantries that has a built-in sink and a wine storage rack. April 2001 We're Still The One! YesterTec's Kitchen Workstation Furniture was again showcased in The Woman's Day Special Interest Publications Exhibit in the National Kitchen and Bath Association's Design Idea Center at K/BIS 2001 in Orlando! Our workstations were center stage at the Kitchen and Bath Industry's largest show in a very creative exhibit! This was an encore presentation as we were featured in the same exhibit at K/BIS 99. This proves that the industry views workstation design as an enduring, versatile and cutting edge concept. This year's exhibit featured 14 of our workstations. Our Unit Kitchen Armoire, DO40 Entertainment Center, 2 Work tables, a Refrigerator/ Pantry with flanking pantries, a three piece Sink unit ensemble and a DO40-OM concealing ovens will be showcased for the first time! The theme featured some of our units that show how standard appliances can integrate with our workstations without being concealed. Balance and proportion does the trick. A C32 series desk, dry bar and bathroom vanity completed the exhibit. We introduced one of our new colors, Washington Cherry, a rich brown tone, as well as some customized grid doors and custom stencil work that will make our flipper doors that conceal appliances look totally unique from anything that has ever been seen. We are encouraging our designers to take advantage of our metal panel and grid door designs to customize the patterns and colors for their clients. The 10 page Woman's Day S.I.P. Kitchens and Baths article featuring the exhibit is in the Summer 2001 issue, available in August 2001. HGTV filmed our exhibit and typically includes it in their review of K/BIS every year. February 2000, Movable Kitchens Mike Teipen of Kitchens by Teipen, our newest dealer in Indianapolis, just displayed a range and a sink unit at the Indianapolis Home Show. He said people were amazed not only with the appliance concealing capabilities of the YesterTec pieces, but they were quite impressed with the storage capacity and overall beauty and quality of the pieces as well! Mike is taking the YesterTec pieces from his showroom to the Indianapolis Life Insurance Company's Fairbanks Mansion 2000 Decorator's Show Home in Indianapolis later this Spring. There he will create an innovative full kitchen display during the Indy 500 race week. UPDATE, July, 2000: Mike's display at the Fairbanks Mansion won the second place design award! Now you can see it in the Products section of our website! UPDATE, 2004: This same kitchen came back to Mike's showroom where it was then purchased and moved to a Louisville, KY home. Try doing all this with cabinets! February 2000, YesterTec goes to Hollywood! That's right, The Christopher Lowell Show featured a YesterTec Range on a segment that is entitled Design for Small Spaces. David Beer, YesterTec's President, and Christopher explained how the furniture concept for kitchens can be used in rooms that need to be multi-functional due to lack of space. (Christopher explained it better than this, he truly is an absolute genius! The Design Journal, a national trade publication that circulates to 60,000 interior designers, gave our Working Pantry (WP48) that was demonstrated at K/BIS its "Best in Show" award. The award is "given to those products exhibiting superior design based on form, function and style." New for 2000, Work Tables (WT) Units Our new Work Tables have legs! Either our Shaker Style with tapered legs or our English Style with finely turned legs will add a new dimension to our line of workstations. The legs and (in some cases) open shelving give the piece a lighter look than most of our other workstations and allow for more personalization within the piece. There are 18 different sizes, three different types and two different heights. They are always finished on all four sides so that they can be used as island or wall pieces, and they can move to a different location should the need arise. As wall units, they can provide a wonderful worktop area as well as the necessary visual break when placed between two larger workstations on the same wall. They can accommodate a sink or cooktop, and the deepest units can accommodate mid height seating. Look for them in our new catalog! Infill Units There is a whole new page of INFILL UNITS (X) in our catalog now. Infill units are 22" deep by various width pieces that are designed to butt directly against other larger YT units. They are designed as background filler pieces that provide additional counter space and low storage space. These minor pieces maintain the vertical orientaion of the kitchen by complementing the proportions of the adjacent major pieces of furniture. The detailing is much simpler than our other units, further enhancing their role as background pieces. Infill uits come in Low Boy, High Boy, and Desk units. Our new Integrated Sink Units (S-INT) models will accommodate 3 European manufacturer's fully integrated dishwashers. Though these dishwashers are much more expensive thatn the domestic models, they do the job of entirely concealing the appliance, which is in keeping with our concept of Real furniture. Our Range and Sink top pieces (TP and PS Units) are availible in 8'-0" heights. This height works well in rooms with high ceilings. Or, the units (defined as TP_-Tall) can provide a new type of focal point for a group of smaller units. Unique Furniture Makes Classic Kitchens There are those who want their gleaming new kitchen appliances shown off to great advantage. Then there are those who might want their kitchens to resemble an 18th century keeping room, with burnished wood surfaces that glow in the firelight. Enter YesterTec Design Co., which claims to be the first company in the country dedicated solely to the production of kitchen workstation furniture. Each workstation is actually a custom-built piece of fine furniture that safely houses sinks, microwaves, stoves, dishwashers or refrigerators. "I always felt that 'furniture' was an appropriate concept for American kitchens because it allows you to personalize them, to mix styles and to carry the design themes to rooms beyond the kitchen," says David Beer, creator of the YesterTec concept. "The designs are timeless, and that means that the appliances will never 'date' your kitchen or interfere with the clarity of the design." Beer's designs allow home owners to blend multi-purpose rooms, such as the family room/kitchen commonly found in so many new homes. "Since all the pieces are independent, you can do a little more with the room design," he says. "And because there are spaces between the pieces, you can take your wall color or whatever motif you're using and continue it around the entire room. It acts as the glue to hold your whole concept together and prevents the space from looking too much like a laboratory." Prototypes of the YesterTec designs are available for viewing in the showroom (called The Kitchen Works) which is located in Upper Saucon Township. A Lehigh Valley native, Beer moved his family back to the area after running an architectural business on Amelia Island for 13 years. Beer says he tried to create classic designs that would be as appropriate in an old farm house as they would be in a SoHo loft. The pieces also allow for options sought by consumers: convenience, plenty of storage, generous counter and work space, ample safety features, and flexibility in creating a kitchen that suits the needs of any family. Beer even designed one unit (an Armoire Mini-kitchen)that is only 71 inches wide, but could easily house a two-burner range, a convection/microwave oven, sink and small refrigerator. This piece, he says, pointing to what looks like a large armoire, would be ideal in a cramped apartment, a senior citizen's center or any living space where a minimal kitchen is needed. Each of the pieces (with heating functions) is approved by Underwriters Laboratories, making YesterTec the only company in the country whose kitchen workstations meet the stringent UL safety standards. "The approval process took about three years," Beer says. "It took a little tweaking to get it right, but we wanted to make sure these would pass code anywhere in the United States and Canada. Other people may have done this before and gotten their local inspector to sign off on it We're thinking beyond that." Yestertec contracted with (a local custom cabinet factory) to be the sole producer of the workstations. Beer is also launching a public relations campaign to attract some attention for his designs in mass market shelter publications, trade magazines and newsletters. "This sort of approach has never been an option before and we want people to see exactly how many options they have and how easily they can all hang together," he says. Is the average consumer ready to abandon their continuous-counter-built-in-cupboard look for individual pieces of furniture? "You have to want this look. It's definitely not for everyone. But we're not thinking along the lines of this being a trend, either. We have six different finishes right here in our showroom, and somehow they all blend together. We're thinking in terms of timeless designs that could work in any kind of home for a long, long time." A Kitchen as Comfortable as the Family Room We hear all the time: the kitchen is the heart of the home: it's where families congregate and trumpet the news of the day and where kids dump the contents of their book bags on the table top. It's where friends sip good coffee in the quiet of the morning and where a cat or dog sprawls lazily across the cool floor. Without our even knowing it, the kitchen nurtures us. So it should be the place we feel most relaxed, the most at home, in our home. But according to David Beer, architect/furniture designer based in Upper Saucon, Pa., many kitchens are designed to look sterile, in a static L-shape design, impeding our opportunity to personalize the room we occupy most. As an architect with 20 years in the business, he saw a need for more comfortable kitchens that reflect the character of other rooms in the home. Particularly the family room, since that's the room the kitchen most often adjoins. To meet the void he saw, Beer created the YesterTec Design Company, which anufactures kitchen workstations. These are units designed to safely hold, and hide working appliances: sinks, refrigerators, microwaves, ovens, cooktops and dishwashers - and serve as classical furniture with timeless appeal. The workstations leave space in the kitchen for other elements that can bring character to the room. Elements like art collections, desks, fireplaces, extra windows, columns, or even a dog's bed. "The kitchen is where people live but it (tends to) look like a laboratory." said Beer. "This concept allows you to personalize the kitchen, to mix styles and extend design themes." He said the spaces between the units make it possible. "The spaces between the units are what allows people to bring the design of other rooms into the kitchen," he said. With the workstation concept, "You eliminate things like soffits and wing walls for built-in cabinets. These units are freestanding and very three dimensional. It turns the kitchen into a living space." And Beer said the units themselves become part of the design. "They actually become a focal point and some of them were designed as focal points," continued Beer. "We have different kinds of cornices that make them look more architectural. One has a pediment cornice that looks like a little roof. Another piece has columns that make it look like an architectural gateway." SAFETY APPROVED All the workstation enclosures that conceal appliances with heating functions are approved by Underwriter's Laboratory. According to Beer, this technology makes his company the only one with such approval for kitchen workstation enclosures. "That (approval) process took about three years," he said. "After months of experimentation, I realized that the way to really make this concept work was to hide the appliances completely," said Beer. He sought UL approval so the appliances would pass all safety codes in the U.S. and Canada. "Other companies may have done something similar to this an got local inspectors to sign off on it, but we are looking beyond that." The concept for safely concealing appliances seems simple: when a heating appliance is not being used, electricity does not power it. "We have an automatic lock that senses when the oven is on and even when cooling fans are on. Nobody can turn on an oven and have the doors close in front of it," said Beer. "When you are using an appliance, you open the doors and slide them back into a pocket...where they flip a switch which turns the power on to run appliances ," he said. HEIRLOOM QUALITY The workstation concept seems to blend the best of the past - furniture built to withstand time - with the best of today, modern technology. Each piece of furniture is designed and styled based on classical designs, bringing a characteristic 18th century style to the kitchen. Beer wanted the pieces to blend with furniture people already had so existing furniture would coordinate. The workstations are built from solid pine, cherry, maple and mahogony, and natural finishes such as marble, granite and slate, "These are heirloom pieces, they are built to last forever," said Beer. "The concepts came from the past, but they are not reproductions." Louvered doors gives one of t his designs a tropical look reminiscent of the south, while another has a grid design, similar to furniture styles of old Japan. Another of the designs evokes a nautical feel, with a door that looks like "an old hatch cover." The shape of the pieces hints a more relaxed feel in the kitchen. "Every corner of the piece is a place to lean against. At parties people tend to wind up in the kitchen. With these pieces you have many corners to lean on and you can enjoy the feel of the furniture," he said. Because the pieces are independent, styles can be mingled. "You don't have to worry about matching everything. For example, you can use granite where you really need it, around the cooktop or oven, and the sink could have a different countertop." YesterTec markets to retailers and others in the trade such as kitchen designers, architects, interior designers and builders. Individual customers can view the units in YesterTec's showroom on Spring Valley Road in Upper Saucon Township, but they need a designer if they decide to buy. He said the designer will measure and determine the client's needs and coordinate the job. Prices vary considerably, depending on sizes and options, but a client might expect to spend $15,000 to $25,000 on a three piece kitchen. He said this would include "nicely equipped pieces" to hold a sink with a dishwasher; range with a cooktop, microwave/hood and oven; and a refrigerator with a storage pantry on the side. You can also opt to purchase individual pieces. "You don't have to buy a whole kitchen. You may just want to enclose your refrigerator or if you have a country look, you may want to put in a double oven unit that looks like a pie safe." Most manufacturers appliances fit the workstations. "We can use many manufacturers appliances," he said. "That was a big consideration for us." Beer said the units would work in any home, particularly older homes and farmhouses, where the owners are trying to exude a classical style. But he said people who live in lofts in places like SoHo have also expressed interest. And because the units are moveable they would work in such dwellings. "These units can be moved just like furniture," he said. It seems they were designed for the long haul. |
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