Jim Sexton at IBS

Trend spotting

IBS is a great place to spot trends. Here are a few so far today:

-- I like a clean, well organized garage. Is that a guy thing? At Whirlpool they've developed a very cool garage organization system. First you mount a couple of unobtrusive racks on the wall, and with that simple beginng you can hang everything from cabinets to tool holders. I have several neighbors whose garages are so full of gear they can't pull their cars in. The trend I see here is that most American use their garage to store the junk they can't quite get rid of. Whirlpool is smart to tap into this large market.

]]> -- Wine. Is is just me, or is everyone more intersted in wine these days? Certainly every kitchen manufacturer has wine storage systems now. Already today I've seen dozens of under the counter wine fridges. If you want to go big time, GE has you covered. Their Monogram Wine Vault costs $35,000 and will hold over 1,000 bottles. And the computerized inventory system will give you food pairings for any type of wine in your collection. Best of all for builders, this is basically a plug and play system. Not a lot of customization needed for the installation.

Hot products this morning

This show is gigantic. It would take a week to see every both. Here are some highlights for me so far:

-- At Viking they are moving the kitchen completely outdoors. Certainly this trend has been going on for years. But Viking is taking it to another level-- with outdoor ovens and even infrared grills. These grills are sharp, using electricity to quickly sear meats.

]]> -- Kohler is such an impressive company. One of the interesting things they are showcasing this year is a small backup generator. With so many computer based systems in homes today, this seems like a necessary move for high end homes.

Also, their new Smart Divide Kitchen sink is really, well smart. In fact it won their internal industrial design award (given to the smartest design of the year). It's quite simple, the divide in the middle of the sink only reaches about one third of the way up the sink. So moving big pots or pans from one side of the sink to the other becomes easier. It's one of those subtle changes in kitchen design that makes complete sense.

Must Have Products for 2006

As part of our coverage of IBS we're thinking a lot about the best products of the year. The products you really need to do a great job and impress your customers. Check out our cool new package called Must Have Products for 2006. These are the products we think you need to give a close look to stay in front of the crowd.

]]> How did we choose? Well, it was tough-- there is a tremendous amount of innovation going on in the home building world. So we put the question to our network of writers and experts. Visit this package to see what they uncovered.

Preparing for the International Builder's Show

At HGTVpro we've been VERY busy getting ready for IBS, the Super Bowl of trade shows. Pro is now one-year old and in recent months we've put a lot of thought into focusing the site on the three areas most important to builders and contractors. Those three areas are News, Best Practices and Products.

]]> We're redesigned the homepage and the site to reflect this focus. You'll find new sections for each of the areas mentioned above. We also have a new section called Design Ideas, and a brand new classifieds section called Marketplace. More to come on each of these areas in the days ahead.

In the meantime I want to send out a special thanks to the great HGTVpro team responsible for these many upgrades to the site: Brooks and his guys Brian and Matt for terrific design work; Ralph and Marjie for great content and jack-of-all-tradesmanship (is that a word?); and Jeremy for keep this whole project in the road and on time. You guys rock!