As a new season rolls round so does a whole bunch of new interior design trends. The industrial look is still pretty strong but it's moving further away from the professional kitchen look of a few years ago and more towards an uncluttered, yet warmer, more inviting feel.
Quartz Worktops
Out with the granite and wood and in with the quartz. While nothing really compares with the blackness of black granite, quartz has a natural beauty to it too. It tends to be lighter in colour, with subtler sparkly bits. It's also sealed, so it's generally more stain resistant than either granite or wood, and of course being a stone, it won't burn like wood or laminate can. We also think that it tends to look amazing with the trend for copper appliances – there's just something about its colour palette that matches better.
Tiles
Tiles never go out of fashion and this summer it's all about having an industrial vibe whilst also having fun with your tiling. For example, taking brick shaped, jewel-toned, high gloss, ceramic tiles, and arranging them with a 45° slope. Harking back to Victorian and Edwardian tiling, patterned tiles are also in this summer and can be used on both the floor or the wall. Usually used in small areas as an accent again it's about having a bit of fun with your tiles to lighten up the industrial look of the rest of your kitchen. We especially like the trend of tiling the sides of an island unit in patterned wall tiles to make it unique.
Clutter Free
The clutter free worktop is another big trend – perhaps so you can show off how much you spent on the quartz! Again, it comes down to this industrial vibe although cooking in an uncluttered kitchen is claimed to be calmer and more relaxed.
Following this theme is the trend for ingenious storage solutions involving pull out shelves, drawers within cupboards, shelves within drawers and finding a place for everything from the toaster to the tea bags. The cupboard doors themselves are generally handless with grooves carved into high gloss slab fronts – far easier to clean than previous trends for Shaker or Farmhouse style carving!
Copper Tones
Copper has been in the kitchen for as long as there have been kitchens, but this summer its golden-brown warmth is everywhere from sinks to stoves, pans to pendants. Pretty much every appliance and gadget that you can think of in the kitchen is being made in a copper colour – the more expensive items are real copper – and it does bring a warmth to the kitchen that was missing with previous trends for silvery coloured metals such as stainless steel and chrome.
Tying into the industrial and copper trends, you can also get away with having exposed pipe work running up your walls and updating small appliances such as the kettle with copper versions. This is a great way to bring your kitchen up to date – without costing you a fortune.
Which one of these trends will make its way into your kitchen this summer?
Thanks for the comments - in many ways I agree with you and in my own kitchen last year I re-used 35 year old wooden cabinets and doors and re-painted them in a "trendy" shade of grey (Little Greene French Grey.
The appliances that were there when we moved in had been recently updated so we kept them.
We had knocked through to our dining room so had some cabinets to spare and our builder/carpenter made those into a small island (again I agree the best/most useful part).
The old worktops couldn't be saved because they didn't fit the new layout and they really were dated so we had new white quartz worktops fitted and new floor tiles (large white porcelain).
I have a row of 3 lights over the island with small copper shades and a few copper accessories (bowls etc)
What I've ended up with is a kitchen that looks like a very expensive bespoke, hand-painted kitchen (in fact it is hand-painted, by me!) but I've saved myself probably $30,000
I feel good about saving the money but better about being eco-friendly - and by adding the "trendy" touches (none of which cost very much) I feel like I have a new kitchen!
My kitchen has 35-year-old oak cabinets that could use better cleaning and, perhaps refinishing, but they still look good. The formica countertops are unstained and not worn although we rarely go out to eat and both my partner and my tenant cook there every day. The small island that we had the contractor put in as an extra is the most useful part of the kitchen with no great distance to the sink or the range like I've seen in some of these very expensive industrial design kitchens--more for looks than utility.
I replaced the linoleum flooring with tile when it became worn and couldn't be cleaned anymore. The tile is better looking and functional but requires daily cleaning after cooking. The overhead florescent lighting costs very little and doesn't make the food look good, but it still tastes good and I do have lots of daylight in the room.
After changing out appliances, they no longer match. But they serve their purposes quite well.
When in my brother's recently built upscale kitchen, I noticed that the stainless steel double door refrigerator had a slight dent in the middle, probably from transit to the location. It ruined the whole ambience and probably wouldn't have been so obvious had it not been for the shiny nature of the front of that refrigerator.
So, it makes me cringe when I watch remodeling shows where they tear out perfectly good stuff for thousands of dollars to replace it with stuff that will go out of fashion long before its usefulness. I much prefer those shows that take great pride in and make great effort in restoring old stuff the way it was, bringing back the fashion of that day. It will come around again like the latest women's clothing.
Ron