Kitchen, Bath Store Schedules Trade Show

The average homeowner doesn’t have the time, money or inclination to attend the kinds of trade shows that design professionals--and this columnist--get to see in the course of their work.

That’s why next Saturday and Sunday are good dates to remember if you have plans to remodel a kitchen or bath this year. On those days, GMA Kitchen & Bath Center, 2327 Federal Ave., West Los Angeles, is holding its 1986 trade show.

From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day, representatives of more than two dozen manufacturers will be at the store (Federal Avenue at this point is a short street two blocks east of Barrington Avenue, reached from Pico Boulevard) to explain what’s new for 1986, according to Mike Hartstein of GMA.

Some of the firms scheduled for the two-day free event are Kohler, American Standard, Villeroy & Boch, American China, Eljer, Corian by DuPont, Elkay, Chicago Faucets, In-Sink-Erator, Nutone, Artistic Brass and Harden.

“We’re also going to have a slide presentation on kitchen cabinets,” Hartstein said.

GMA has expanded the showroom portion of its 3,600-square-foot store, reducing the space devoted to hardware display. Hartstein said that this is in response to customers who want to see how various kitchen and bath fixtures look in fairly realistic settings.

Hartstein said that he expects that many designers and architects, as well as remodeling contractors, will be at the trade show. Not all of them have the time to go to trade shows in places like Dallas and Chicago.

If you haven’t seen some of the new products available, you literally don’t know what your missing. There has been a revolution in kitchen and bath design in the past half dozen years, as European products--and those influenced by Europeans--have reached our shores.

Speaking of remodeling, this year I visited the Pasadena Showcase House of Design before the designers did their work. The 7,000-square-foot house in San Marino, the 22nd in the showcase series, will be open to the public April 20 through May 18, with shuttle buses taking visitors from a Pasadena department store parking lot to the house. San Marino is very, very picky about street parking!

The house is substantially smaller than last year’s showcase house overlooking the arroyo in Pasadena, but it will be worth a look. The cause, supporting the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and youth music education in the San Gabriel Valley, is certainly a worthy one.

The kitchen of the San Marino house appears to be unchanged since the house was built in 1931. Remodeling it will require the removal of portions of walls, something readers of this column can identify with!

I’ll have more information on the house in an upcoming column.