Affluent homeowners spent more money on kitchen upgrades including new cabinets, countertops and kitchen sinks last year, a new study has found.The new Home Luxury Report 2010 from Unity Marketing suggested that, perhaps in response to fewer people dining out during the economic downturn, affluents moved their home cooking up a notch in 2009.It observed that as a result, people invested more in cooks tools such as small kitchen appliances, cookware, cutlery and bakeware. The report also noted that more wealthy individuals opted to buy their kitchen equipment from specialist retailers rather than department stores.As we can see from some of the major take-aways from this most recent home luxuries study, those affluents who are still buying home luxuries are spending more, but their spending patterns have shifted to new items, new brands, and new channels of distribution, said Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing. Earlier this week, an article by Kitchen Tune-Up, a renovation firm in the US and Canada, claimed that homeowners can help to make their kitchen renovation projects more environmentally-friendly by opting to reface, rather than replace, existing cabinetry.