Kitchen Designs & Trends that Work

Your kitchen is more than just a place to prepare food – for many people, it’s the heart of their home. Friends and family members meet up there to share meals, play games, pass down generational recipes, and catch up on each other’s lives. A skilled custom kitchen designer like Ana Micieli can make this room into the beautiful gathering place it deserves to be.

Many people may not realize just how diverse kitchen design really is. From the flooring and countertops to the appliances and layout, every aspect of your kitchen can be customized to create a unique look. We’ve assembled a list of our favourite kitchen designs, as well as a few more specific trends that can be worked into a variety of different styles. We hope this will get you thinking about the many ways you can bring your preferred style into your own kitchen.

Our Favourite Kitchen Designs

• Open Concept

  

  Open concept kitchens eliminate the divide between the kitchen and other nearby spaces within the home. This style is perfect for people who love to make cooking into an event. With no division between the kitchen and dining room or living room, you can seamlessly juggle the roles of chef and host over the course of an evening. You can even invite your guests into the kitchen with you to show off your cooking skills and make unforgettable memories together.

  Ana’s Entertainer’s Dream project provides a good example of what an open concept kitchen can look like and the functionality that it offers. There is plenty of room to move around and ample counter space for preparing or serving food. The kitchen sits across from another large open room where guests can also gather. The minifridge located under the counter provides an easy way to store chilled drinks. The bright polished marble counters and gleaming white walls and cabinets complete the design and give the room an impressive yet approachable air. 

• Traditional

  

  Sometimes the best design ideas come from styles that have worked in the past. Traditional kitchen design is all about replicating the type of look you would expect to see in an upper-class home from many decades ago, with all the elegance and comfort that statement implies.

  This style uses primarily light colours for its palette, but mid-tones are sometimes included, too, especially warmer hues. Moulding details are very common as well and may appear on the cabinets, islands, wall trim, and other areas. Timeless touches like stained glass cabinet doors, delicate hand-painted tiles, and soft floral accents create a welcoming environment that is decorative without being too fussy.

  Image Credit: Laura Hammett

• Bright and Airy

  

  Bright and airy kitchens offer homeowners an easy way to make a smaller space feel much larger. Always very light in colour, they incorporate lots of windows to let in as much natural light as possible. They also emphasize clean surfaces with minimal clutter, and they often make use of vertical space to make the room feel open and expansive.

  You can see many of these elements at work in Ana’s Conventional Formality project. The wall of windows provides the natural light that is so important to this look, while the glass cabinet doors and high ceilings help reflect that light and extend the space. The white colour scheme ties the room together and helps it feel larger and more open.

• Foodie-Friendly

  

  Ana often tells her clients that good design is not about prioritizing form over function - it's about finding a way to marry the two. This design style is a perfect example of what she means.

  A foodie-friendly kitchen holds all the appliances, ingredients, utensils, cookware, and other items that you might need when creating your culinary masterpieces. However, it does not simply leave them out in the open. Instead, it either hides them in a series of beautiful yet accessible cabinets or incorporates them into the kitchen design using aesthetically pleasing shelving. The overall effect can be quite striking if it is done right, evoking the look of a culinary library or an old-fashioned apothecary.

  Image Credit: Laura Hammett

• Contemporary

  

  Contemporary kitchens are growing in popularity, especially with young homeowners taking their design cues from the minimalist approach favoured by many tech companies. These kitchens usually feature little ornamentation but offer plenty of visual impact regardless. They use simple colour schemes (often dark) and clean, angular shapes to create an almost futuristic atmosphere inside the space.

  Ana’s Statuesque Style project shows how a kitchen designer can implement a contemporary aesthetic. Note the muted, neutral colour palette and sharp lines on display inside the space. Small considerations like the tall, squared tap and the diamond-shaped light fixtures add a bit of embellishment to this otherwise very stripped-down look.

Our Favourite Kitchen Design Trends 

If you are not looking to bring an entirely new design to your space, consider incorporating some of these trends instead. They can change your kitchen and bring a new look and feel to the room.

Monochromatic Black Kitchens

White has long been one of the most popular choices for monochromatic kitchen colours, but its popularity is beginning to fade in favour of black.

Black is a striking yet practical choice for a kitchen colour scheme. It projects an effortlessly modern image that is easy to build into a stunning kitchen design. Homeowners love it for its versatility and timelessness. Because it’s a neutral shade, it pairs well with any personal touches you want to add to your kitchen to make it truly feel like home.

Two-Tone Kitchens 

If you’re interested in using colour in your kitchen but don’t want to go too bold, a two-tone kitchen might be the right choice for you. This design concept combines two different colours in one design to create a balanced colour palette.

Two-tone kitchens often use neutral hues like white, beige, and gray as a base, allowing the brighter colours to work as accents without becoming overwhelming. It is also possible to use two shades of the same colour (one lighter and one darker) for a more impactful look that is still pleasing to the eye.

Statement Taps

Adding a large, decorative, or interestingly shaped tap to your kitchen sink can bring an unexpected pop of visual interest to the room. This is especially true if the sink is built into an island. As the tap will often sit closer to eye level than anything else in the center of the room, it draws the viewer's attention and establishes the aesthetic of the space.

Decorative Countertops

Your countertops are a very visible part of your kitchen, so it makes sense to choose ones that add to the room’s design. Individuals who prefer a more natural look can opt for organic materials like marble or soapstone, while those who want to make a statement with their counters can opt for textured glass or some daring speckled terrazzo.

Built-In Appliances 

Thanks to modern carpentry conventions, you no longer have to design your kitchen around your stove, oven, or dishwasher. You can build these appliances right into your cabinetry, creating the illusion of an uninterrupted wall.

This design choice helps to change the visual layout of a room and allows other elements within it, such as a luxuriously tiled island or a sparkling chandelier, to take center stage.

Hidden Storage

This trend is the cornerstone of the foodie-friendly style described above, but the basic idea can be incorporated into any kitchen design. Adding things like toe-kick drawers, tip-out trays, and sliding racks to your kitchen allows you to create a clean, uncluttered look in the room without putting your tools and equipment out of reach.

Sustainability 

Saving the planet is a team effort, and modern homeowners are eager to do their part. There is a high demand for sustainability in today’s kitchen design market. This could mean anything from using environmentally friendly materials in the building process to functional considerations like adding recycling bins and energy-efficient appliances into their kitchen design.

Natural Finishes 

Consumers’ growing taste for green kitchen design is also reflected in the type of surfaces they choose to incorporate. Many opt for cabinets and countertops made of simple exposed wood, often with a little sealant applied to add smoothness and shine. This gives the space a pleasantly rustic look while also minimizing the amount of synthetic material present in the room.

Smart Tech 

Now that we have the technology to build a fridge that can keep a grocery list for you, an oven that can scan recipe cards and program its own cooking times, or a coffee machine that connects to your phone, why wouldn’t you want those things in your kitchen?

Many people seize the opportunity to upgrade their kitchen tech during a redesign. These appliances can blend seamlessly into almost any design aesthetic and offer additional utility once construction is complete.

Design Your Next Kitchen with Micieli Designs 

Feeling inspired? Your kitchen could be remodelled to include any of the features described above, but you’ll need the right kitchen designer to help you do it.

Micieli Designs provides full-service interior design for homeowners who are ready to re-vamp their surroundings with a new, upscale look. Our artisan designer, Ana Micieli, will take your design ideas and refine them into a cohesive space that will reflect your family’s unique tastes and lifestyle. Depending on your needs, we can redesign your kitchen, your entire home, or design from the ground up.

Contact Micieli Design today at 905-770-3030 to arrange a consultation with our interior designer and start bringing your new kitchen design to life.