Today’s modern kitchen serves as a family hub for activity and home entertainment. Now they are open and well-lit places. Kitchen size and layout should address your family’s lifestyle and how your kitchen is used for cooking, eating, and entertaining. Since the kitchen has to occupy more roles than any other room in the house, they have also had to increase in size. The challenge of today’s kitchen design is to create an open kitchen, one that is part of a dining area, family room, or the so-called great room.

Both the function and the style of the modern kitchen play an important role when approaching a kitchen design or renovation project.
If you are remodeling an existing kitchen or planning a kitchen addition or a new home, here are some current kitchen design trends to watch out for.

One of the newest trends in modern kitchen design ideas is making the kitchen part of a “great room” – that is, combining the kitchen with an adjacent family room. To create the great room, the wall separating the kitchen and the family room or dining room is completely removed, creating a more open space centered on a spacious kitchen island or peninsula.

There are some clear benefits to expanding your kitchen. You can open up the space and by doing so you make both the kitchen and the other room look and feel more deceptive. Plus, since kitchen cabinets, countertops, and appliances are beautiful pieces of furniture in their own right, you can now show off your new kitchen. Your remodeling costs won’t really go up that much when you open up the kitchen, aside from the cost of the extra cabinets. Regardless, the additional cost that would go into this type of kitchen design would be more than offset by the increase in the value of your home.

Furniture-style cabinets will continue to be a popular trend in kitchen design, at least according to the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA). These furniture-style cabinets are considered especially popular in kitchen island development. Features that give cabinets a furniture-like appearance are legs or legs, trim, and trim. Cabinet doors are made from solid wood, with maple and cherry being the most popular. In terms of finishes, light and medium finishes remain popular, although kitchen designers and trend watchers also see a growing interest in deep, rich browns as influenced by the furniture industry to some extent and to create a more formal look for the kitchen.

Cabinet makers and kitchen designers are beginning to design more individual and freestanding furniture rather than the usual built-in cabinets for expanded ‘great room’ kitchens. This is known as the “spaceless” kitchen design, first popularized by English designers and cabinetmakers. This also leads to another trend of incorporating traditional quality furniture features like glazed, distressed and antique finishes.

Cast iron and stainless steel undermount sinks are among recent kitchen design changes because homeowners like the clean, smooth look that blends with modern designs. The advantages of an undermount sink are that it is functional, beautiful, and very easy to install. The bowl is placed under a countertop. The edge of the sink is not visible above the counter and there is no edge to catch the water and collect dirt and crumbs. Instead, debris is easily swept into the sink so the countertop can be cleaned faster.

Other recent trends in modern kitchen design include:

Countertops: Natural stone remains the most popular countertop material, with granite being the most popular. Limestone is another popular option. Mixing of different materials is becoming more and more common, using stone on some countertops, butcher block or concrete on others.

Appliances: Commercial-grade appliances are becoming popular, particularly ranges, as are European-style built-in refrigerators and dishwashers. Warming drawers and convection microwave ovens that can be used as a second oven are also popular.

Put pots and pans in drawers. With heavy-duty drawer glides, large, heavy pots can now be placed in drawers instead of cabinets.

The cabinet door thickness is likely 1 inch instead of 3/4 inch, as this size is more considered to be higher quality.

Antique, aged, and enameled finishes are increasingly being used to replace the traditional ornamental details that were once used in many high-end cabinets.

Painted finishes now include colors like cranberry, white, off-white, and oyster.

According to kitchen designers, as today’s kitchen expands in size and complexity, “mixed orders” are becoming more and more common. Kitchen islands, sink bars, bake centers, and butler pantries are increasingly being incorporated into kitchen designs, creating the need for more contrasts in cabinet styles, colors, wood types and finishes.