From a financial standpoint, updating a kitchen will deliver one of your best remodeling payoffs. However, the personal gratification that comes from transforming this room also makes it worth the investment. Winter is a great time to tackle interior design projects. For those of you considering a real estate sale, winter is also the ideal time to start planning and strategizing how to maximize your return.
Did you know? According to the latest survey results from Remodeling magazine, a minor kitchen remodel will produce, on average, an 81% return on your investment (if you were to sell your house within one year of the project being finished).
Kitchen Styles, Colors, and Counters
The kitchen design trends that experts are touting this year are fresh and exciting, and many of the projects are very affordable. Here are some ideas and highlights.
Overall Kitchen Styles
It’s no longer gauche to blend wildly different styles and materials.
- An intriguing kitchen style trend just starting to gain steam calls for mixing key elements from both the traditional and modern schools of design. This combining of vintage and contemporary, traditional and modern, allows for a wide variety of textural and material combinations and produces a fun, highly personalized result.
- Another blending technique trending now is the mixing of different materials:
- Concrete counters with copper trim work
- Stainless steel appliances and gold fixtures
- Wood floors surrounded by a ceramic tile border
- Combining dark and light materials is also in vogue now, such as warm, honey-toned wood flooring with stark, matte-black cabinetry.
Kitchen Color Trends
There’s almost no limit to the shades of paint available, but dark-painted kitchens continue to get rave reviews in the design community.
- To follow the trend, consider petrol-green, deep blue, burnt orange, charcoal or matte black.
- For neutral colors, natural are popular. However, black and matte black are trending in this category as well.
- Plus, there are two new colors of the year:
- Sherwin Williams is introducing “Cavern Clay”, which is a warm, earthy terracotta color.
- Behr has crowned Blueprint, a mid-tone blue with a warm, soft hue.
Kitchen Countertops
Stone countertops (quartz, granite and marble) remain popular options, but two less common materials are also trending:
- Metal has proven to be a great material for a kitchen counter and seems especially well suited for modern-style homes. It’s both stylish and durable.
- For homeowners who care as much about our natural environment as interior design, kitchen counters made of reclaimed wood are a great way to make a strong statement on both counts.
Kitchen Tile Trends:
Just like your bathroom space, bold new looks in tile, especially wall tile, can also be used to transform your kitchen space.
- Three-dimensional wall tiles are becoming popular, because they provide a look and feel that can’t be duplicated with any other material.
- Tiles with dazzling, coordinated graphic patterns are also trending.
- Hot colors in the world of tile include denim blue and muted earth tones.
Kitchen Layout
The most important aspect is planning a kitchen layout. When updating or remodeling a kitchen, you must first look at your space. With larger kitchen space you have a lot more room to work with and can have limitless possibilities. If you have a large kitchen with a purse to match, you can create a luxury kitchen design, be it modern, traditional, country or even Art Deco. You can go all out with rich wood cabinetry, marble counters, tiled floors augmented with a plush rug or even having 2 kitchen islands.
The more smaller space kitchens can be a little trickier and have some limits. But with some creativity, you can make your small kitchen feel roomier and turn it into a masterpiece. Here are some ideas:
- Galley Layout. Small spaces can have a galley layout with vertical cabinets and higher shelves. Today, many kitchen shelves serve a dual purpose – holding spice jars and hooks for the practical hanging of kitchen utensils and accessories. With this feature, you can’t run out of storage.
- Innovative Solutions. You can also find many innovative container designs and dual-use items. One innovative design is to have a pull-out pantry cabinet vs. taking up a bigger space for a walk-in pantry.
- L-Shaped Layout. This can be ideal for smaller spaces. Both the counters can be as long as the space permits, but shorter tops mean less distance between the sink and often used appliances, allowing you to use the space more efficiently, which is what the L-shaped is all about.
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