Beautiful brushed brass and bold, yet simple lines elevate this luxury kitchen appliance brand set to make a statement in style.
More than ever, kitchens are becoming the hub of the household for family gathering and high-end entertaining. That’s why according to House Beautiful, “2020 is the year of the ‘living kitchen’ where function, aesthetic and technology combine to make day-to-day life a little easier and unify the rest of the home.” We are all looking for an efficient place to cook, technology to elevate our amateur chef skills and a stylish place to show off our homes. That’s why kitchen designers are looking to elevate every design decision to bring beauty to the busiest room in the house. To that end, Monogram, a luxury appliance brand, launched a new collection of good-looking luxury kitchen appliances to elevate everything from look, ease-of-use and performance.
We are all looking for an efficient place to cook, technology to elevate our amateur chef skills and a stylish place to show off our homes.
The Monogram Statement Collection offers edge-to-edge handles and integrated knobs paired with a shining stainless steel finish, brass accents, wide glass panels and interactive displays. The Minimalist Collection streamlines a modern, yet elegant kitchen with flush-mount controls, expansive glass and touch-open doors.
We talked with Christina Reed, a leader in brand design at Monogram, to get the latest about these luxury kitchen appliances we can’t take our eyes off of.
This year, we really wanted to focus on 2020 being the year of Monogram, so our slogan is “The Mark of Luxury You Can See And Feel”
ICONIC LIFE: I am loving how really beautiful this collection is. Can you tell us a little bit more about it?
Christina Reed: This year, we really wanted to focus on 2020 being the year of Monogram, so our slogan is “The Mark of Luxury You Can See And Feel” and that’s exactly the overtones that we’ve been using when creating this new line in both our collections. Whether it’s machined metal or sapphire class, we really meticulously selected these specific materials to not only esthetically bring that overall look that a consumer wants to have in their home, but also, to help get those really tight, clean lines. We took this as an opportunity to give Monogram a big facelift and show why it’s been the best-kept secret for a while. Now we’re launching it to the world to highlight the new collections of luxury kitchen appliances and shine bright.
ICONIC LIFE: You are part of the design team; tell me what your role has been.
Christina Reed: I am doing all of our customer displays around the country, and I’m here to really bring our story to life. I’ve been working closely with our product and marketing teams to make sure that what we’re telling is what we’re showing. People want to want to touch, feel and see, and to us, seeing is believing. So how can we bring our story to life? I’ve been bringing that story of “the mark of luxury you can see and feel” to our displays across the country.
ICONIC LIFE: Monogram took its collections even more high-end and a little bit European—what was the vision?
Christina Reed: We previously had a European line and a pro line, and if you really looked at, it wasn’t truly European. We asked ourselves, what have we never done before? How can we elevate to the next standard of luxury? So, with this new Minimalist Collection, we really wanted to pay tribute to that very ultra-premium, sleek design, and we took inspiration from other areas like the fashion industry and the automobile industry. We were able to expertly engineer machined metals that are able to give those really, really tight reveal lines for our luxury kitchen appliances. And that’s why the Minimalist Collection is so great, because we’ve never had anything like that. If you are looking for something very modern, sleek and timeless, we have something that is paying homage to what we’ve done in the past, but also making it more modern as well. People want clean lines; they want edge-to-edge; they want to tell a story. And so, we modernized everything in our product line to do just that. If you don’t want a seriously modern look, we have our Statement Collection that is just as beautiful, and it gives a more robust look.
ICONIC LIFE: You incorporated the brushed brass, which is so very now. It feels like it’s going to be with us for a while.
Christina Reed: We wanted to own brass. This is something that we were really strong about. Our focus was what’s something we can do that’s timeless. People are investing a lot of money into redoing their homes, and it’s not something that someone’s going to redo every two years. So, we wanted to make sure that we’re on trend but not trendy, and we wanted to make sure that the materials that we’re curating are not only beautiful, but functional. Our use of true brass sets us apart from competitors. We’ve now actually launched a brass hood that is completely new for our luxury kitchen appliances. It’s not even available yet. It will be available in a couple of months, but it’s a hood that someone could make a statement piece. We’re inviting people to go as wild as they want us to go, or as timeless as they want to go. But regardless, we want them to have the items to be customizable to their preference.
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ICONIC LIFE: The kitchen is really becoming—even more than ever—the place to be in the house from family time to entertaining. That’s why we want to make sure that the kitchen is fabulous.
Christina Reed: The kitchen is the hub of the house, and we are seeing the return of the kitchen table. We showed it at the recent KBIS. How can we do something unique so people can put their phones down, have a conversation and make the kitchen more of a hub for communication, taking a break and really enjoy the setting. That’s why we wanted to really focus on the overall design of not only our luxury kitchen appliances, but how people can integrate them into their home, making sense for them and the way they live their lifestyle.
ICONIC LIFE: We did an event with Monogram a couple of months ago, and one of the things that the local team here shared with me was the extraordinary performance. Can you talk about that?
Christina Reed: I think back to when I first started with GE appliances and the first product I was drawn to was our five-in-one oven with Advantium speed-cook technology because to me it blew my mind that something like that was available—aesthetically pleasing but, extremely functional without taking up a lot of space. If you are living in a high-rise, you don’t have to have this massive oven to do all of this.
And it’s a speed oven, cooking four to eight times faster than a traditional oven, and with no preheating. You can cook a rotisserie chicken in 27 minutes, which is amazing for me because I’m one of the people who don’t plan dinner until I get home. It’s also a warming drawer. It could be a standalone microwave and just be a regular oven. Having a luxury kitchen appliance that incorporates different functionalities is ideal, especially in this time and age where everyone wants everything immediately. The end goal is to make their lives easier.
ICONIC LIFE: One of the other things that came up at our event was the induction cooktop—traditionally we think that if you’re a chef, you’ve got to have gas.
Christina Reed: I love induction, and this is coming from someone whose dad owned restaurants where gas was king. The cleanability alone makes induction an easy choice. Our induction is so easy to maintain, but also the functionality behind it gives you the same results if not faster than gas. With ours, the way we designed it, you can use three burners on full high heat, where other brands, you can just use two. We also have a Sous Vide attachment because it’s huge now, and you’re able to sous vide directly with your own cookware on our cooktop instead of having to have a separate appliance.
I think again, incorporating all these multifaceted and multipurpose technology advancements within the induction is so helpful. It’s a safety thing as well, especially with aging family members and children. If you were to touch the induction, and there is not a pan on it, it will not turn on. If you were to take the pot off and accidentally forget to turn the burner off, it will automatically turn off after a few seconds.
2020 is the year of Monogram. We're setting a new mark; we're setting a new tone; and we're also elevating to the next standard of luxury that's pretty much unprecedented within this industry.
ICONIC LIFE: What about refrigeration?
Christina Reed: We have our new Column refrigeration. We have an 18-inch, 24-inch and 30-inch column refrigerator and freezer. And the nice thing about these is the columns offer flexibility. You can put them together; you can have them apart which is really great in that way of the full customization that you’re able to get with Monogram.
ICONIC LIFE: What’s next?
Christina Reed: For sure, 2020 is the year of Monogram. We’re setting a new mark; we’re setting a new tone; and we’re also elevating to the next standard of luxury that’s pretty much unprecedented within this industry. We really want to focus on leaving our mark on luxury kitchen appliances that you can see and feel. For the longest time, we were the best-kept secret, and now we’re going to make sure that everyone knows that we’re the best out there in the industry.
This story was produced in partnership with our friends at Monogram. For more information about the new collections, click here.
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