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With Blomberg compact appliances, small is beautiful

Which is good news for many of us, these days, because downsizing is a major trend. The current fascination with Marie Kondo, tiny houses and exquisitely minimalist home design and decor is no coincidence! 

Many baby boomers are moving out of big family houses to keep things simple. Meanwhile, just as the older generation is in the process of bidding adieu – and good riddance! – to all that garden maintenance and snow shovelling, many more urban residents are looking at smaller apartments and condos. With city real estate markets being what they are, the prospect of dwindling square footage is not restricted to one generation.

Picking up on this, home decor sites and magazines provide lots of fodder for anyone considering downsizing. While skeptics – or, as they would like us to refer to them, “realists” – will scoff that those perfect minimalist apartments and cozy tiny houses can’t be functional, Blomberg’s range of compact appliances go a long way to proving them wrong.

Blomberg was the very first appliance manufacturer to offer a whole line of apartment and condo-friendly compact appliances, and they really have got space efficiency figured out.

So if the prospect of downsizing brings up concerns you’d like to quell … read on!

Downsizing bugaboo #1: We won’t have room for a dishwasher!

If you eat at home a lot and you hate to do dishes (we’re looking at you -- like, everyone we know!) even thinking of moving to a place with a smaller kitchen probably freaks you out because you can’t imagine going without a dishwasher. News flash: You don’t have to. Blomberg makes an 18” dishwasher that holds eight place settings. And you can get it in stainless steel or panel ready -- so it can blend into the rest of your kitchen seamlessly.

(BTW, we think the 18” model would be great for a smaller place -- where you may be less likely to hold dinner parties for more than 8 people, anyway. That said, Blomberg also sells a 24” model that can adjust to European cabinetry, this means it has a 6” toe kick. This is really popular with condo developers.)

Downsizing bugaboo #2: How are we going to fit a washer and dryer into this layout?

Most new condos do provide space for a washer and dryer. If you’re looking at designing the layout of your own space, Blomberg’s full range of compact washers and dryers offer every possible configuration. There’s also a two-in-one model for those who really want to save as much space as possible.  

But what if there’s no way to connect your dryer to a vent? Blomberg has taken care of that. Check out their DHP dryer!

Downsizing bugaboo #3: Will there be enough room to have guests over?

It’s ironic, in a way, but an approach to kitchen design that has already been popular in much larger homes for years translates quite well into spaces with a much smaller square footage.

Though we’re used to seeing them on a different scale, “great rooms” – that melding of kitchen, dining room and living room into one open concept space – also works quite well, of course, in smaller homes. 

The trick to pulling off this kind of multifunctional space in a small apartment is to create visual cohesiveness. Using the same colour and finishes and keeping storage and appliances flush with the walls does wonders, creating a pleasantly unified, calm feel – or the perfect backdrop for favourite art or keepsakes, if you’re more into visual pizazz than Zen minimalism.

Since fridges and stoves tend to be the most visually exposed home appliances, they play a big part in whether an open kitchen and living space has a cohesive look. For a fully streamlined, minimalist look, Blomberg’s panel ready 22” compact built-in fridges sit flush with 24” cabinets.  

Their freestanding fridges also lineup with 24” cabinets and come in a range of heights. Beyond providing a bit of useful extra space, that extra height on the taller models has the pleasing visual effect of drawing the eye upward – potentially a good look for a small kitchen.
Blomberg’s 24” cooktops, stoves and wall ovens are also visually pleasing – as well as highly energy efficient. Here, too, the range of options – including freestanding ranges and built-in cooktops – get the most practical use out of whatever kitchen layout you have to work with.

Wall ovens in particular, can be an advantage in a small kitchen. If you’re hanging out with friends in your kitchen, it’s good to know you’re not going to bump into anyone as you pull out a hot pan of cookies or hors d’oeuvres.  

After all, the only time you should be bumping into your guests is when you’re dancing the Bump… at your next kitchen party.

Check out Blomberg’s full line of compact appliances!
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