The pros at Yorkville Design Centre (YDC) in Yorkville Village have been working on home and kitchen renovation projects since 1972.Specializing in kitchen design, supply, and install services for both homes and condos, the architect-owned design services company also works on new construction projects and can recommend experienced, talented general contractors for work in other areas of the home. YDC is also an official dealer for ​the renowned kitchen cabinetry​ company Downsview Kitchens.To find out more about the top kitchen trends of the moment, and the process for creating your dream kitchen, we talked to Thomas Tampold, an architect and the owner of Yorkville Design Centre.What is the process when someone is looking to renovate or build a new kitchen?It's a collaborative effort, and we spend hours consulting with our clients, showing them design ideas and creating beautiful 3D renderings. We love to find out what it is that inspires them about their kitchen ideas. It's really a collaborative effort—we go back and forth, and some people have very strong ideas about what they want to do and others really leave it up to us to present them with ideas.Open space planning is key, because usually the kitchen is exposed and right in the middle of your house or condo these days. It's the center of the home and the hub of all the activities, so you want to make it pretty, and it's the place where we probably invest the most money per square inch in your home, which is nice. The details and the finishes are have to be really superb and sublime.

What are some of the big trends right now for kitchens?The industry is always coming up with new ideas and we're always coming up with new ideas, and there's some exciting things happening. People are using stone to clad their cabinetry, which allows us to make a whole island, the kitchen island for example, all out of the same material. So the countertop, the sides, and the faces of the cabinetry can all be clad in stone.Handleless kitchens are very much in vogue these days. We work with the Servo-Drive motion technology system by the hardware company Blum, which are automatic opening drawers. So you just touch them and they open automatically, which is great for cooking when your hands are dirty or wet.We’re also seeing Invisacook countertops in kitchens. It a new technology that's coming out where the induction burners for your stove are underneath the porcelain. So you don't even see the cooktop until you turn it on, you have to put a pot on it for it to work.Do you work on condo kitchen remodels?That's one of the big things about being located in Yorkville. A lot of people don't know how to start with renovating a condominium because it is tricky having to deal with the condo board and the limited hours that you're allowed to work and having to take everything up and down the elevators. It's a little bit of a tricky business and knowing how we can smooth that process because we've done it so many times is very helpful to people.Learn more about Yorkville Design Centre.