Who: Fisher & Paykel
What We Noticed: What does the future hold for our kitchens? I, for one, hope the future includes a better refrigerator. Forget the jetpack; I want a fridge that doesn't take up an entire wall of my kitchen, freezes the lettuce, and costs an arm and leg too. When I talked with Thomas Johansson of Electrolux about the future of the kitchen last fall, the fridge was what he promptly focused on. And here's one way that new fridge could work out: Fridge drawers. 

Who: Faber
What We Noticed: I am always so obsessed with range hoods when I visit these big kitchen trade shows. In the US, I rarely see anything but simple and understated stainless steel and glass hoods, but in Europe they seem to treat hoods as jewelry for the kitchen, adornments that come in all shapes and colors. Want to see a video of this crazy color-changing hood from Faber? 

Who: Hoover UK
What We Noticed: We know Hoover primarily as a maker of vacuum cleaners, but in the UK the brand is licensed to a company who makes kitchen appliances, like this smart little oven.  This oven is apartment-sized, but manages to be very roomy inside. And it has a very smart secret — want to see? 

Who: Leicht  
What We Noticed: We hit up KBB London, a kitchen trade show, this week, to take a look at what's fresh and new in European kitchen design. This is a small detail that has been around for a little while in high-end kitchens, but I really like: LED strips inside drawers, that light up when the drawer is opened. 

Last week I attended the 2013 Architectural Digest Home Design Show, which is a small trade show featuring a carefully curated selection of home and kitchen brands. It's a fun show to go to for that reason, since you know you'll only see the best of the best. Here are 5 brands that caught my eye:

One of the fun things about the Housewares show is discovering kitchenware companies from around the world. This is a blessing and a curse, because while it's cool to see what's coming out of Europe, for example, it's also a bummer not to be able to buy it anywhere in the US. That's exactly how we felt about these thermal cook-and-store pieces from Italian brand Ater. More

All week long we've been sharing our discoveries from this year's Home + Housewares show. We showed you this awesome new Greek Yogurt maker and Bodum's game-changing stand mixers. We revealed KitchenAid's new colors and Dansk's adorable teacups. But now it's time to round up a few of our absolute favorites, the prettiest and most eye-catching items in the bunch:

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Dansk Kobenstyle cookware is a darling of vintage cookware collectors. We love its mid-century styling and the practical enameled steel construction. (I have several vintage pieces that I use regularly!) So, last year, the big news at Housewares was that Dansk Kobenstyle was coming back, reissued and all new, but still in its classic form. We saw it up close this year, and really liked some of the new colors (teal, slate, stainless steel) and new pieces — hello adorable teacups! More

The International Home + Housewares show has literally millions of square feet of exhibition space, but every year, while plowing through it all, there's something that stops us in our tracks. A smart idea whose time has come. This year, that product was this: The Greek Yogurt Maker from Dash. Let me explain why. 

Every year we see a fair share of color at Housewares, but this year we saw an awful lot of pink, in all shades. More