Planning your dream kitchen, would you like ceramic tile on the floor, light wood cabinets, an angled breakfast nook and a cook-top island with gas burners?
All these options were favored in a survey of kitchen, bed and bath preferences done for the trade magazine Builder and the National Association of Home Builders.Market researcher George Fulton and his staff talked with 3,300 middle- to upper-middle-class people shopping for a new house, most of them already homeowners (average space 2,005 square feet, average market value, $168,000).
The home builders association said kitchens in new houses average 200 square feet compared with just 120 square feet in the 1960s. Baths have become more numerous in the past 25 years - the average new house today has 21/2 baths and the master bath is one-third larger. In the 1960s the average new house had just one full bath and a powder room.
Here's what the home shoppers said they'd like in a new kitchen:
- While 32 percent want a traditional-looking kitchen, 23 percent prefer a state-of-the-art gourmet look. But 45 percent want something in between.
- The flooring of choice is ceramic tile, with 82 percent saying they'd pay more for it than for resilient vinyl or wood. Almost half the home shoppers said they'd pay $1,500 for a ceramic tile counter, compared with $600 for a laminate top.
- Thirty-one percent want a warm, woody kitchen, while 27 percent prefer an all-white room. But 42 percent want something in between. The favorite cabinet color is light wood, and both bar seating and a cooktop range are highly popular.
- Asked to pick among four models, most shoppers looking at large houses - 2,500 to 3,000 square feet - chose a kitchen with an angled breakfast nook and snack bar that featured a cooktop range in the middle of the work area. The kitchen shared a double-sided fireplace with the family room. Older buyers preferred a model that had a wide-open plan between kitchen and family room, a space that provides good flow for entertaining.
In general, Builder magazine said, the shoppers like open space but "don't want vast, undifferentiated spaces. Old-fashioned defined nooks and sitting areas are universally admired."
For instance, the most popular bedroom-master bath suite for larger houses featured separate and defined spaces for sleeping, sitting, master bath and closets.
Walk-in closets are extremely popular, especially if the bedroom also has another closet that allows couples to separate their clothes.To get both closets, shoppers are willing to forgo a makeup table and a linen closet. And despite the steam in bathrooms, 31 percent of the shoppers said they want the walk-in closet to open up to the master bath.
The survey, done to help builders offer the kinds of homes that attract buyers, also found there are definite niche markets for features that don't attract a wide following.
The magazine said that only 6 percent of shoppers want a dumbwaiter costing $2,500 or more in a new house, but for that small group, the idea had great appeal. "A builder who put one in a model said it attracted more attention than any other feature he offered," Fulton said.