High-Tech Espresso Makers For Your Home

For some, coffee isn’t just an essential morning elixir—it’s a way of life.

For the bean-obsessed, it makes sense to invest in a machine befitting their beloved beverage, and, fortunately, technology has reached a point where coffee lovers can create cafe-quality coffee drinks—without barista training—in their own home.

Miele CM 7750 CoffeeSelect

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Offering 20 drink specialities at the tap of a button, including single and double-shot espressos and espresso macchiatos, the Miele CM 7750 CoffeeSelect is a masterpiece of modern coffee-making technology that sits on your countertop.

In addition to offering on-demand espressos (and cappuccinos and americanos, etc.), the CM 7750 puts a premium on quality with three separate bean containers (ensuring that whatever you order will be prepared with the proper bean); an innovative grinder system that grinds the beans fresh for each order; and a descaling process that automatically prevents the build of limescale in your machine. All that and Miele’s WiFiConn@ct technology that allows owners to operate and monitor their machine remotely from their smartphone.

The Miele CM 7750 CoffeeSelect is available for approx. $7400.

JURA GIGA 6

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This Swiss-made wonder is a tale of twos. Equipped with two heating systems, two pumps and two electronically adjustable, precision ceramic disc grinders, the JURA GIGA 6 is capable of producing two separate coffee drinks at the same time. But the real magic with the GIG6 happens when these dual systems work in conjunction—heating and frothing your milk perfectly while simultaneously brewing your coffee—for an optimally prepared cafe-quality drink, of which you’ll have many choices. The GIGA 6 can create 28 specialty drinks, using three different brewing processes. But its ample brains don’t stop there. The GIGA 6’s artificial intelligence system uses a self-learning algorithm to discover a user’s preferences and then tailors the touchscreen to highlight preferred drinks and brewing methods.

The JURA GIGA 6 is available for $6490

Breville Oracle Touch Espresso Machine

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Espresso lovers who want to focus solely on their drink of choice would do well to invest in the Oracle Touch Espresso Machine from Breville. The Oracle only brews five types of specialty drinks (espresso, americano, latte, flat white and cappuccino), but it handles every step of the process. Oracle owners need only tap a button and the machine will grind, dose and tamp coffee, extract at the ideal water temperature and pressure, and texture milk to your taste, to prepare your ideal bean-based beverage. The Breville’s awesome automation doesn’t prevent users from having input, however. Oracle owners can easily adjust coffee strength, milk texture and temperature, shot size and choose from 45 different grind settings.

The Breville Oracle Touch Espresso Machine is available for $3299

Philips Saeco Xelsis

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For coffee fans who want to play the part of barista—but, you know, without all the hard work—the Philips Saeco Xelsis is a solid choice. The Xelsis is capable of preparing 15 different espresso and coffee drinks, but here’s the beauty—users can exercise complete control over the process (easily) thanks to the Coffee Equalizer system. Providing total personalization, the Coffee Equalizer system is a touchscreen that allows users to adjust every aspect of the beverage until they find the mix that is ideal specifically for them. The Xelsis will even save up to six user profiles so that everyone in the home can have their drink preferences preserved. And in keeping with Xelsis’ “be the barista without the work” philosophy, the device will automatically clean and descale itself.

The Philips Saeco Xelsis is available for approx. $2642

The idea of wallpaper elicits so much apprehension in homeowners, New York designer Francis Toumbakaris purposely uses the term “wallcovering” when speaking to clients about it. Yet decorating websites and media accounts teem with instances of the stuff. “It transforms a room and gives it personality,” said Casey Keasler, founder of design studio Casework, in Portland, Ore.

So what keeps folks from hanging the gorgeous material, and how do homeowners get over these wallpaper willies? Here, some case studies of conversions.

Hangup: It’s too pricey.

Budget concerns can hamstring homeowners. Home-services company Angi estimates that wallpaper can cost as much as $12 a square foot for labor and materials, while painting tops out at $6. “If the wall surface needs work beforehand, prices go up,” said Bethany Adams, an interior designer in Louisville, Ky. And Keasler notes that paper can cost as much as $400 a roll.

Antidote: Baby steps

New York designer Tara McCauley says homeowners can get more hang for their buck by using paper strategically. In an apartment in Brooklyn whose homeowners sweated the bottom line, she coated only the hallway with a dark-blue pattern inspired by Portuguese tiles. “It added so much impact,” McCauley said of the modest use. The designer adds that another way to save money is by hanging what she calls the gateway drug to wallpaper: patternless grass cloth. With no need to align a motif, the material goes up quickly and costs less to install, she says, “but it adds visual depth in a way plain paint never could.”

Hangup: I’ll get sick of it

A fear of commitment stops many would-be wall paperers, who worry about having a change of heart later. Erik Perez, a design publicist with his own firm in Los Angeles, campaigned hard for what he thought was the perfect old-Hollywood look for his and his husband’s dining room—a maximalist, leafy green wallpaper made famous by the mid-20th-century decoration of the Beverly Hills Hotel. His husband, Paul Hardoin, a voice-over actor, resisted. “Is it going to go out of style? Will I tire of it? Will it affect resale value?” he worried.

Erik Perez, right, and his husband, Paul Hardoin, in their Los Angeles dining room, clad in CW Stockwell’s Martinique paper. Photo: Julie Goldstone for WSJ

Antidote: Low-use spaces

Infrequently used rooms can carry a bold choice long-term. Of the Brooklyn hallway she wrapped in blue, McCauley noted, “It’s a pass-through, so you don’t get overwhelmed by a bold pattern.” Ditto powder and dining rooms, like that of Perez, who said, “We only used that room when we were entertaining and it was too cold to be outside.”

It took three years, but Hardoin caved when the banana-leaf pattern became available in blue. “I thought it looked cool,” Hardoin said. He took the leap, knowing his sister Annette Moran (a wallpaper enthusiast) would be their DIY installer. “Now it’s the happiest room in the house,” he said.

Hangup: It’s dated

When Sarah and Nate Simon bought a historic home in Louisville, Ky., the walls sported oppressively dark patterns, including big, repeating medallions set in a grid. Sarah recalls thinking, “ ‘Not this! What’s the opposite of this?’ In my mind that would be paint.” Even for folks who haven’t pulled down awful examples, “the word ‘wallpaper’ can take them back to flowery patterns of the ’50s and ’60s that feel very dated,” said Toumbakaris.

Antidote: Modernity

“Wallpaper does not mean what it used to. It can be meandering, abstract, ombre or sisal,” said Simon’s interior designer, Bethany Adams. She suggested a sophisticated Chinoiserie that New York designer Miles Redd, in a collaboration with Schumacher, updated with an aqua colorway. Adams explains that like most Chinoiseries, this pattern doesn’t repeat for more than 8 feet. “You get a peripatetic design that keeps the eye engaged,” she said. “It’s looser.” Said Simon of her dining room today, “It’s a complete transformation, like art on my walls.”

Stereotypes of fusty florals and pitiless patterns fall away when designers present homeowners with contemporary picks. Still, sometimes the conversion takes time. One of Keasler’s clients, gun-shy after removing old paper, came back a year later, ready. “We chose a clean classic style that was graphic and minimal for a modern edge in the bathroom,” said the designer.