America the Varied: Regional Design Preferences

One style doesn’t fit all regions, when it comes to selecting cabinets. While we think of big box stores dominating furniture and cabinetry retailing, these national retailing brands must cater to regional preferences.

This was driven home to me when I visited Schattdecor’s large decorative paper laminate plant in St. Louis. The German parent established a production operation in the U.S. expressly to serve local and regional design preferences in laminated panel: barn wood for the Northeast, weathered wood for the Southwest, reclaimed wood looks for urban loft dwellers, etc.

KraftMaid cabinets’ director of designer relations, Sarah Reep, reports on some city-by-city preferences in cabinetry wood tones, styles and species: most popular in Seattle is Lyndale Cherry, in styles that mimic the hometown coffee giant “Starbucks look,” Reep told the Wall St. Journal. Chicagoans look for Sedona Cherry fashioned in a Prairie School aesthetic; Denver lean toward Amhurst Hickory, with colors drawn from the local land and roughhewn textures. Portland, ME likes maple with glass doors and a “farm house feel;” and Atlanta likes Rutherford Maple with glass door panels and Federal mouldings.