4 Kitchen Design Trends Destined to Become Classics
We live for kitchen and bath classics, and we love it when timeless designs are all the rage. Here are four trends that we feel confident we’ll be living with for quite some time to come:
1. The Farmhouse Sink:
It feels strange to be calling farmhouse sinks a trend, since they have a history that dates hundreds of years. With the exception of the occasional vintage farmhouse sink, the apron front farmhouse sink was absent from the kitchen. Now it’s made an earnest comeback, having been reinvented over the past decade. This time we don’t think it’s going anywhere. Especially now that there are so many types of farmhouse sinks, available in bright colors, cool textures, and a variety of interesting and sustainable materials. From the concrete farmhouse sink to the double basin farmhouse sink to stainless steel, fireclay, and of course our beloved copper farmhouse sink, the bases of taste and style are all covered.
2. The Prominent Range Hood:
Remember when you hardly gave a second thought to range hoods? Then suddenly the decorative range hood became a centerpiece of the modern kitchen. Custom range hoods today come in luxurious and interesting styles, shapes, and materials. You’ll find everything from copper range hoods to uniquely shaped stainless steel range hoods to island range hoods. Many of which double as works of art. The range hood trend is indicative of the homeowner’s desire for a professional style kitchen. In direct correlation with their pro-grade counterparts (ranges in particular), they have become bigger, more powerful, and more prominent in the kitchen. Yet they don’t have to be obtrusive to make a big statement.
3. Open Kitchen Design:
It’s now almost a given that any new construction American home will unfold in the form of several large multi-purpose spaces. As opposed to yesterday’s home, which was segmented into a series of small rooms. Many older home remodels are also centered around the taking down of walls between the main living spaces, as John Petrie, 2014 president of the National Kitchen and Bath Association, told CBS, “Walls are going to continue to come down.” Among other industry trendsetters, we’ve seen appliance makers respond to the open kitchen trend by debuting sleeker, subtler appliances—for example, the microwave drawer—so that the divisions between the kitchen, dining room, breakfast room, and/or family room are all but undetectable.
4. Kitchen Work Zones:
The kitchen work space was once defined by the triangle created by the kitchen sink, refrigerator, and oven. Modern kitchen design has distorted this triangle, thanks to the now ubiquitous kitchen island and the advent of ever more must-have appliances. Instead of the triangle, which formed one central kitchen work space, we’ve noted an increase in the number of kitchen “work zones” devoted to a specific task—for instance baking centers, coffee bars, wine-tasting nooks, and pizza-making stations, each decked out with its own set of appliances, amenities, and gadgets. Separate bar sinks, prep sinks, and cleanup sinks are popular additions to these areas. Of course, we see work zones far more often in larger kitchens and in kitchens where two or more people share in the cooking.
