What are custom home buyers asking for in kitchens and baths right now? We put that question to custom builders in different markets around the country. Here's what they said is hot, and sometimes what's not, with their custom home buyers.

Lucy Katz Vice President of Customer Service and Client Development
Katz Builders, Austin, Texas “The kitchen is no longer just in the kitchen,” declares Lucy Katz. “You now have kitchen facilities throughout the house.” Cabanas, master suites, guest suites, and basement bars are being outfitted with kitchenettes. Today microwave ovens, undercounter refrigerators, sinks, and dishwashers, especially drawer units, can go anywhere. “We once put 12 dishwashers in one house,” Katz says.

Katz Builders' clients generally favor the Old World look for their kitchens, with distressed finishes on cabinets and marble or granite counters with thick, decorative edges.

Now clients are requesting interesting ceiling treatments as an adjunct to that look. In addition to building kitchens with beamed and corbelled ceilings, Katz Builders recently built a home with a brick-veneered barrel vault in the kitchen.

The trend in master baths, says Katz, is toward more efficiency. Master baths encompass the master closet in Katz's market. “People get dressed in the bathroom, so they want the closet there,” she explains. The closet off the bath is outfitted like a dressing room, with a place to sit, built-in dressers, and a packing station. To keep the dressing area tidy, the builder includes hidden outlets in drawers so that electric appliances are easy to use and to stow away.

As a certified aging-in-place specialist, Katz is always looking for ways to design accessibility into a client's house. Raising a dishwasher so no one has to stoop to unload it and lowering a microwave so it is within easy reach of children and anyone in a wheelchair are unobtrusive moves that make a kitchen more functional and safe for everyone.

Of course, accessibility is an important design consideration for baths as well as kitchens. Katz encourages all her clients to opt for a no-threshold shower with a sloped floor for drainage, and grab bars, which are available in a wide range of colors. “It's not about aging,” she says, “but about safety.”