Elevated Design. Moderated Price.

Introducing elements, A New Line of Modern Kitchen Cabinetry Designed with Both Style and Price Point in Mind.

LAS VEGAS, NV, JANUARY 27TH 2009 — Fu-Tung Cheng, world-renowned designer, has partnered with TONUSA, leading manufacturer of contemporary kitchen and bath products, to create elements, a modern line of kitchen cabinetry that offers elevated design at a moderated price. The elements series was designed in response to the desire of builders, remodelers, and resellers to offer a high-end, contemporary residential kitchen at a lower price point. Industry professionals viewed the new series at TONUSA'S booth number N363 at the International Builders Show, January 20-23.

With elements Designer Fu-Tung Cheng has created a look and feel that is decidedly modern, yet surprisingly timeless. Cheng notes, "Modernist design is sometimes associated with being stark or devoid of character. The design of elements aims to create a more engaging form, utilizing accent accessories and negative space. We wish to expose a little more in this kitchen yet work within the basic box shapes which make up most modernist design."

In addition to award-winning design and unexpectedly low price points, the elements series offers flexible component layouts, integrated accessories, a specially selected color palette, and high quality, environmentally responsible raw materials. "The name elements reflects both the modular nature of the line, which easily accommodates differently sized and configured spaces, and the universal elements of earth, air, water, and fire, that organically comprise a kitchen," says Cheng. These natural elements were also the inspiration for the color palette, ensuring a timeless feel, yet purposefully embracing a sense of modernity, a trademark of Cheng Design.

"It's fulfilling when this natural, timeless feeling in the design is matched by material choices that are environmentally responsible," says TONUSA Product Manager John Golamco. " Like all our other products, the elements cabinetry will meet the strict European E-1 Formaldehyde and Toxic Gas Emission Standard which exceeds the U.S. standard for green cabinet construction. In addition, the materials are FSC-certified to ensure we are protecting the environment through supporting responsible forestry management."

This attention to environmental responsibility in no way compromises the high quality of materials used for the elements series. Solid wood boards that are FSC-certified and rated low VOC are used to produce the cabinet frames and panels. Premium grade wood-veneer finishes give the kitchen a warm, yet modern look and feel. The hardware specified for elements, including soft-close hinges and drawer runners, is handpicked from German hardware authority, Hettich International. Aluminum alloy storage devices, specially designed handles and pulls, and translucent panels round out the high quality components that make elements by Tonusa an exceptional value in modernist kitchen design.

Perhaps the most unexpected feature of the elements series by TONUSA is its price point of approximately $180 - $250 per linear foot for a complete kitchen. This pricing provides the building trade with an economic tool that allows them to promote a value price point for the kitchen. Alternatively, they can use the savings to incorporate other enticing products that encourage customer buy-in such as Fu-Tung Cheng's signature Zephyr range hoods or his Design Inspirations 08 sinks by Elkay.

Industry professionals can view the new elements series at TONUSA'S booth number N363 at the International Builders Show, January 20-23. Fu-Tung Cheng and TONUSA media interviews are available by appointment.

About Fu-Tung Cheng: Designer, Author, Speaker

Fu-Tung Cheng, designer, best-selling author, and speaker is internationally known for his sophisticated design and innovative use of materials in the home. He is one of today's top experts on residential, commercial and product design and speaks to trade and consumer audiences on the importance of timeless design, balancing luxury and conscience, and how craftsmanship informs design. Cheng heads three companies in Berkeley, Calif.: Cheng Design, Cheng Products and Cheng Concrete. He designs exclusive branded product lines for manufacturers such as Zephyr, Elkay, and Tonusa as well as his own kitchen hoods and Geocrete™ brand of concrete products, including countertops, kitchen islands, fireplaces, water features and commissioned concrete pieces. His architectural design work ranges from full-scale homes and kitchen and bath renovations to hospitality, commercial and retail store design. He brings to audiences a practitioner's view to creating green, timeless design. His first renovation in 1975 was his home in Albany, Calif., just north of Berkeley, where he created his first-ever concrete countertop (a 14-foot single cast piece), and experimented with applying Japanese joinery with recycled timbers, recycled gymnasium flooring, solar panels and salvaged steel-frame windows.

Cheng speaks regularly at national and local events across the country such as American Institute of Architects, International Builders Show, American Institute of Building Design, National Kitchen and Bath Association, and the World of Concrete.

He is the author of three books by the Taunton Press: Concrete Countertops: Design, Forms, and Finishes (2002) and Concrete at Home (2005), which combined have sold more than 200,000 copies. His third book Concrete Countertops Made Simple (Dec. 2008) brings countertop design to people renovating on a shoestring budget.

Cheng has been inducted into the National Kitchen and Bath Association Hall of Fame (2006), named one of the top 50 most influential figures in the industry in 50 years by Kitchen & Bath Business, and honored as the designer of Architectural Record's "Record Houses." He has won numerous awards for his work, including 2008 AIA East Bay Exceptional Residential Award, 2007 International Interior Designers Association Northern California Chapter Honorable Mention for Commercial Design, 2006 California Home + Design Achievement Award for Commercial Architecture, 2005 Builder's Choice Design and Planning Award for Kitchen, 2004 Kitchen + Bath Designer Design Award, and First Place in the NKBA Design Competition.

Cheng was born and raised in Los Angeles among a family of artists. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where in 1968 he won a junior-year abroad scholarship to Japan. After a year of studying Buddhism, Japanese culture, and the martial art of Shorinji Kenpo (in which he later earned a second-degree black belt), he transferred to the University of California, Berkeley and graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts in 1971. Soon afterward, he began his lifelong practice of T'ai Chi, and currently teaches at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery.

He and his work have been featured in more than 15 books and in media that include Architectural Digest, The New York Times, Sunset, House Beautiful, Consumer Reports, Interior Design, Kitchen & Bath Business, Robb Report, Designer, Kitchen Trends, Women's Day Kitchens & Baths, Designer UK, Trends, Innovative Home, Western Interiors, Custom Home, California Home & Design, Fine Homebuilding, Builder, The Los Angeles Times, Better Homes & Gardens, Kitchen & Bath Design News, San Francisco Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Metropolitan Home, Chicago Tribune, Architecture, Elle Décor and Architectural Record.

Books by Fu Tung Cheng

Concrete Countertops Made Simple (Taunton Press, December 2008)
Concrete at Home, (Taunton Press, 2005)
Concrete Countertops (Taunton Press, 2002)

Other Publications Featuring Cheng Design Work

The House to Ourselves, Todd Lawson and Tom Connor, Taunton Press, 2004
It's Your Kitchen, Joan Kohn, Bulfinch Press, 2003
Tropical Modernism, James Grayson Trulove, HBI, 2002
Modern Kitchen Workbook, Wanda Jankowski, Foreword by Fu-Tung Cheng, Rockport Publishers, 2001
The American House Today, Arian Mostaedi, Carles Broto i Comerma, 2000
The New Family Home, Jim Tolpin, Taunton Press, 2000
The Kitchen Idea Book, Joanne Keller Bouknight, Taunton Press 1999
The Not So Big House, Sarah Susanka, Taunton Press 1998
Kitchens, Diane Dorrans Saeks, Chronicle Books 1997
Expressive Details, Duo Dickinson, McGraw-Hill, 1997
House Beautiful Great Style, Christine Pittel, Hearst Books 1996
House Beautiful Kitchens, House Beautiful Editorial Staff, Hearst Books, 1993

About Tonusa

TONUSA is founded on the vision of bringing high-end contemporary design, which would normally only be found in specialty showrooms and design centers and at a very high cost, to a wider range of customers and at a more affordable price.

The TONUSA group has been innovating new designs and bringing the highest quality products in a diverse portfolio of business, Including cabinetry, consumer electronics, imaging systems and premium marble home furnishings. Based in City of Industry, California, a suburb-city of Los Angeles, TONUSA has showroom dealer partners throughout major metropolitan cities in the U.S. carrying its retail line of bathroom vanities.

TONUSA is a manufacturer of Euro-design contemporary bathroom vanities and kitchen cabinetry, specializing in high density infill urban projects. They are able to provide turnkey solutions for builders, developers, specifiers, contractors, architects and designers.

TONUSA'S bathroom vanities offer unique Italian contemporary designs tailored specifically for the U.S. market and manufactured with the highest standards of quality and craftsmanship. Specializing in a unique "floating" wall-mount design, TONUSA vanities enhance the sense of spaciousness and modern elegance in any bathroom. The designs are clean, simple and symmetrically-balanced. This provides the bath space with the contemporary high-end feel and finish at a price-point not usually found in similarly designed vanities in the marketplace.

TONUSA'S attention to detail and quality can be found in every bath vanity set they manufacture. From equipping their vanities with high-tech premium-grade drawer runners made by Hettich International (Germany), to extensive investments in product research, testing and certification against established U.S. quality standards, TONUSA is determined to become a household name for quality and value in its product category.have been tested for resistance to humidity, moisture and extreme temperatures by one of the most recognized and respected university wood labs in the country.

TONUSA'S kitchen cabinetry is comprised of two series. In addition to the new elements series designed by Fu-Tung Cheng, TONUSA offers the Custom Series.

In response to popular demand, TONUSA also offers custom design and fabrication of cabinetry for projects. This provides their customers in the builder trade the ability to custom-spec full kitchens and bathrooms including cabinetry, countertops and hardware at a very competitive price. TONUSA is in a unique position to provide the building industry the following advantages: direct access to manufacturing, ability to fabricate quality product to specification, in-house design and logistics capability, and an 8-12 week turnaround.

TONUSA also has its own design teams based both in China and the U.S. allowing fast turnaround of design and material for its customers. They offer the following custom services: design and fabrication of kitchen and bathroom cabinetry, engineered wood boards and real wood, various finishes such as laminate, wood veneer, real wood, painted, sourcing and integration of cabinet hardware and parts for turnkey product, and OEM bath vanity and kitchen cabinetry manufacturing.

In addition, TONUSA supplies natural stone products such as granite and marble and can integrate these into a total kitchen and bath solution. TONUSA'S knowledge of the U.S. housing market combined with its Asia-based manufacturing facilities gives a unique advantage to provide high-quality product matching the needs of the market at very affordable price-points.

TONUSA also recognizes the need to care for our environment for the benefit of future generations. TONUSA uses environmentally-responsible raw materials in its products such as wood boards which meet stringent European standards, imported premium laminates and veneers. Research is ongoing at our manufacturing and R&D facilities to find better ways to provide cost-effective products of the highest quality and still minimize our environmental footprint.

Please visit www.tonusa.com for additional information.