Merillat Masterpiece Fairlane in Maple Burnished Praline
If your family is like most, your kitchen is more than just another room. These days, life happens in the kitchen. The kitchen is the hub of your home, the center of all the day’s activities. And even if you have a showcase dining room, you may actually eat most meals in the kitchen.
With your family’s busy schedule, things tend to overlap. Cooking, homework, bill paying, small talk…it’s all going on across the kitchen counter or at the kitchen table. The eat-in kitchen is the new normal, and when renovating your space you need to design accordingly to make it as family friendly as possible.
To begin, put some thought into how you want your kitchen to function – your lifestyle will dictate the design. Ask yourself what will help make your space operate efficiently and comfortably. Consider all of the ways in which you currently use your kitchen, where your children or other family members hang out, and then develop your solutions around these factors.
Posted by: Susan Cross, Merillat Communications and Public Relations Manager on 07/20/2010 | Permalinks | Trackbacks
Merillat's Satellite Media Tour with Curtis Stone
You may have seen renowned chef Curtis Stone on your favorite morning TV news show earlier this month talking about the functional innovation of Merillat cabinetry. The interviews took place at a studio in Los Angeles and were broadcast through satellite to news morning shows across the country in top markets like LA, Sacramento, Denver and San Antonio.
I was in the studio during the interviews and it was quite exciting! We began the day at 3 a.m. PST (yes that is 3 a.m.!) with the first set of interviews airing in the east coast and we finished up at about 8 a.m. That’s after completing 25 TV and radio interviews that reached 8.9 million viewers! Be sure to check out our video summary of all interviews.
Posted by: Susan Cross, Merillat Communications and Public Relations Manager on 07/16/2010 | Permalinks | Trackbacks
Do you have a waffle maker you can’t find? Do you reach for a spoon and come up with a whisk? Bottom line, is your dysfunctional kitchen in need of a makeover? Well, here’s your chance! We are so excited to announce that Merillat and Today’s Homeowner with Danny Lipford are partnering once again for another Today’s Dream Kitchen Contest.
You can enter online at DannyLipford.com now until July 25, 2010, and have the opportunity to win a complete kitchen makeover including countertops, flooring, appliances and, of course, Merillat cabinets.
The contest theme is focused on, you guessed it, function. Because we know with just a few Merillat storage accessories and some savvy design tips, a well-organized kitchen is easy to achieve. So be sure to enter a photo of your non-functional kitchen and tell us why you deserve a new kitchen full of Merillat’s functional accessories.
The grand prize winner will be chosen based on a number of criteria including appropriateness to theme and creativity, and will be announced at the end of August.
And even if you aren’t the grand prize winner, stay tuned because we’ll keep you posted on the remodeling so you can learn how to make your own kitchen more functional. Plus, the newly remodeled kitchen will be featured on a special episode of Today’s Homeowner.
So what are you waiting for? Enter for a chance to win your dream Merillat kitchen at DannyLipford.com!
As the hub of the home, the emphasis on design style in today’s kitchen is greater than ever before. With so much of our time spent in the kitchen, it’s only natural that we’ve begun to gravitate toward cabinetry that looks like furniture, and appliances that are integrated into their surroundings or make a bold design statement of their own.
For those who can afford them, high-style, high-end appliances lend a wonderful aesthetic all their own to the kitchen. From professional six-burner gas stoves to glass-front refrigerators with architectural curves to retro-modern appliances in an array of crazy colors, there are a lot of great options from which to choose.
Posted by: Susan Dountas, Brand & Communications Manager on 07/02/2010 | Permalinks | Trackbacks
Merillat's New Television Commercial with Curtis Stone
We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our new national marketing campaign: The Dream Kitchen for the Real World. Why are we so excited? Because, we’re determined to let homeowners know, “Merillat has the tools to help make prepping, cooking, entertaining and living in your kitchen easier!”
Through a variety of advertising and public relations efforts, this campaign shows homeowners firsthand how Merillat kitchens are highly functional, and jam-packed with a variety of smart storage solutions. Overall, Merillat can help turn your kitchen dream into a reality.
Posted by: Susan Prater, Director of Marketing Services on 07/01/2010 | Permalinks | Trackbacks
The New Merillat.com
I hope you’re enjoying Merillat’s new Web site! With a fresh look and innovative functionality, you’ll find it easier than ever to plan your dream kitchen. New features allow you to gather info on your own or be guided through an intuitive process to help you hone in on your design, layout and product preferences before visiting a showroom.
We know the Web is often the place where homeowners search for information and inspiration. We want to help homeowners combine inspiration with smarter kitchen design decisions that fit their lifestyles so they get the kitchen of their dreams.
Inspiration for the changes to the site came from our Merillat customers themselves in a usability study conducted by Merillat. Through this research, we learned that our consumers wanted changes that would improve the overall selection process and user experience. Today’s Merillat.com site combines the best of these ideas with additional industry research and includes:
Merillat Classic Somerton Hill in Cherry Amaretto with Java Glaze
You may have experienced a paradox in your kitchen: you have lots of cabinets, but when you bring something new home you don’t have anywhere to put it. No one wants to admit what’s staring them in the face whenever they open their kitchen cabinets – clutter. It can slow you down and keep you from finding what you need. Some of us use our cabinets as a hiding place, shoving random items in without thinking about how we’ll find them again or what they may be blocking.
Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to get back on track. Here are a few simple strategies to help you declutter, reorganize, and reclaim your kitchen.
Posted by: Mary Jo Mosiniak, Senior Product Manager, Merillat brand on 06/09/2010 | Permalinks | Trackbacks
Here at Merillat, we take an immense amount of pride in our customers and value their opinions. With that said, a major aspect of our product development process includes asking our customers what they need and want in order to make their kitchens not only more beautiful, but smarter and more functional. We identify these needs through a series of Voice of the Customer studies and we are proud to say that many of our innovations have sparked from their feedback and ideas.
Even in today’s economy, we continue to offer homeowners, builders, dealers and designers new and innovative products, such as our revolutionary water resistant sink base, CoreGuard™ as well as 100,000 new product offerings.
We do this by following a series of steps through our Six Sigma efficiency process. This process allows us to develop new products and innovations in a structured and progressive way, which ensures that the products we are developing meet the standards that our customers and homeowners expect from Merillat.
Our philosophy of customer loyalty and constant improvement challenges us to continuously look for ways to create and develop innovative – and in some cases revolutionary – products that our customers need and want; all in an effort to give them more product options and make their kitchens more functional for their lifestyles.
We would love to hear your feedback and thoughts on what products you feel would be helpful to have in your kitchen!
In a small kitchen we know how hard it can be to keep things organized and flowing smoothly. It seems like stuff piles up everywhere, from the week’s worth of mail on the counter to your kids’ after-school clutter. Combine this with existing storage and work flow issues and things can get out of hand quickly. Take heart; you don’t have to put up with daily clutter and limited storage space. When planning a redesign, a few simple considerations can help make your kitchen a “clutter-free” zone and feel larger than it actually is.
Layout Options
The first thing to do when redesigning a small kitchen is to choose a layout that fits your space requirements and needs. Here are some options to consider:
L-Shaped Kitchen – This is the most popular design, appropriate for any size kitchen. The L-shaped kitchen is made up of two walls (or legs) and gives you the possibility of having a center island depending on your available space. In general, this design will have 2 or 3 appliances on one wall with the refrigerator typically at one end, the range or cooktop at the other end with the sink located in the middle. This shape of kitchen generally provides good traffic flow.
Posted by: Susan Cross, Merillat Communications and Public Relations Manager on 05/26/2010 | Permalinks | Trackbacks
- As a Diamond level sponsor of the NAHB, Merillat is helping to support women in the building industry-
From left: Wendy Albee, Christine Fortenberry, Kimmi Houston (accepting for Meegan Holman), and Melanie Spurgeon accept their Professional Women in Building “Women of the Future” grants.
This January, during the International Builders’ Show, I had the honor of meeting four extraordinary women during the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Professional Women in Building Awards Luncheon. Not only did I get the chance to learn about each of these women, but because Merillat is a Diamond sponsor of the NAHB, I got to present them with “Women of the Future” grants.
As a Diamond sponsor of the NAHB, one of Merillat’s proudest contributions is helping to further the education of women in all aspects of the building industry, including business owners, marketing experts, interior designers and mortgage brokers. And with a “Women of the Future” grant, recipients can go on to further their careers by obtaining certifications or continuing their education. This is especially important as women are increasingly becoming major players in an industry that has historically been dominated by men.
The 2010 grant winners are no exception to the drive needed to succeed in a business that has seen some hard times recently. The following are just a fraction of their stories:
