Page 19 - Designing Ways 250

industry networking and product
event even further. Keep an eye out
for more details on events in Cape
Town in February, Port Elizabeth in
March, Gauteng in May and Durban
in July.
• Our 2022 Consumer Guide will be
coming out at the end of January.
or woodgrain detail inside makes the time Embracing new ways of thinking about Hard copies will be available from
in the kitchen more of an experience. kitchens and materials is only the start to your local KSA office and the digital
2022 for KSA. We are planning a bumper version will be available via the link
The question is, how do we achieve year of value add for our members and the on our website homepage.
these high end looks while remaining industry. • Fabricator training – we are teaming
conscious of budget, accessibility and up with some of our supplier
durability? The answer, by changing our Here are a few of the things to keep an members to offer hands on training
attitudes to materials like high pressure eye out for: for fabricators. Our first port of call
laminates (HPL) and melamine faced • We will once again be undertaking will be Cape Town.
board (MFB). The technology behind our kitchen design project with • We will be making use of KSA
the manufacturing of HPL and MFB has the IID and design school tertiary Cape Town regional representative,
seen incredible advancements in the past institutions. Following the success Carmen Howard’s vast knowledge
few years, realistically capturing the look of the project in 2021, we are looking about optimising retail space to
and feel of other materials at a fraction of forward to working with multiple offer an online seminar aimed at
the cost. They offer a viable alternative to institutions in 2022 to increase helping our members rejuvenate
veneers and duco finishes at a price that students’ knowledge of, and passion their showrooms spaces and ensure
makes a high-end look very accessible for kitchen design. they fulfil their full potential in
to a far wider range of the South African • Planning for our industry showcases generating and securing sales. dw
market. While Europe and the UK have is again underway and we look
already seen their kitchen market change forward to growing this successful www.ksa.co.za
their attitude to melamines and laminates,
the middle to upper income bracket in
South Africa tends to view the material as
dated, unimaginative and non-sustainable,
relating it back to the 1970s and '80s
kitchens. In an exercise undertaken by one
of the KBSA’s (the UK’s version of the KSA)
key kitchen members, consumers were
presented with a fully melamine kitchen
and challenged to guess the materials used.
Consumers were taken aback to learn the
kitchen was not made with veneer and
duco, and even more surprised when they
learned the price.

By changing the way we view laminate
and melamine, we facilitate access to
high-end styling and aesthetics, that are
locally manufactured, more affordable,
easy to maintain and, if installed and
manufactured correctly, very durable.

dw • Issue 250 19