KITCHEN DESIGN STYLES : Exploring Design Styles That Speak to Your Personality in the Kitchen

The style in which you organize and finish your Kitchen should align with the style you have in the rest of your spaces. That style should consistently run through your finishing choices, appliance selections and even down to the type of hardware you use on your cabinetry. Consistency is important, as a cohesive space is always more inviting and welcoming than a chaotic one.

Design Styles and Eclectic Choices in Kitchen Design

With a range of beautiful styles common to home and kitchen design, it can be difficult to make decisions on how you want your Kitchen to look. How you want it to FEEL, however, should be easier and can lead to a style that matches those emotions. Often a mix of styles (maximum 2 or VERY carefully 3) or choosing a more eclectic style leads to a richer space, and can have deeper personality - but only when done well with a lot of thoughtfulness.

Mixing Design Styles : Creating Eclectic Spaces

It’s possible to dream and create a space that is both Modern and Vintage (the French do this well!), or perhaps Classic and Coastal. Try to stick with two styles when mixing for a cohesive space, and put the main focus on the areas where the styles share commonalities (ie Modern and Scandinavian both have clean lines, making that a good core focus for mixing both when choosing finishes or appliances). For more eclectic spaces, commonalities might be harder to find (therefore making the space more interesting), but don’t let that steer you away. Use 3D modeling to ensure eclectic doesn’t become incomprehensible chaos.

Design Style Guides and Kitchen Inspo

The internet is full of ‘Take our Style Quiz’ websites that are meant to narrow down decisions for those who aren’t sure, or want an update from their old style. Unfortunately many of these sites provide obvious and uninspired directions rather than usable and actionable information. Another approach is to search for inspiration on Pinterest or Instagram and make your own ‘moodboard’ of your 10 favorites. You should end up with a great visualization of your dream Kitchen’s stylistic direction with practical solutions for every element.

Traditional

Traditional Kitchen design evokes a certain hominess that we’ve become accustomed to seeing over the past few decades. Rich, decorative and full of trims with wood paneling or painted finishes are accompanied by stainless steel appliances.

Classic

Consider the flourish of a finely detailed European Kitchen - Classic design reverberates with time-tested elements, layer upon layer. Truly Classic kitchens should never go out of style - using colors and stains that have been used for decades, if not centuries.

Modern

Modern design lends to clean lines and hidden appliances, but with the newest technologies can stretch so far as to render the entire Kitchen invisible. Blending the Kitchen into the rest of it’s home environment is an ease on our overfed brains, potentially making the Modern style, contrary to how it might sound, the most ‘homey’. 

Farmhouse

There is an inherent charm to the Farmhouse Kitchen style. It evokes the ideas of fresh, organic produce, locally sourced proteins and foraged specialties. In-season food preservation and canning - ‘clean living’. Big, oversized sinks and the charm of reclaimed woods on the cabinetry. Stone counters and ‘icebox’ style Appliances.

Contemporary

A frameless version of the Traditional style, Contemporary Design keeps warm, inviting colors and tones but leans more towards the sleek. Most Appliances will be integrated while one or two might remain Stainless or featured. Cabinetry may still have hardware, but it will be fine-lined and subtle.

Transitional

Transitional is best known as a mediator between Traditional and Modern. It’s a cleaner look than the Traditional Design’s decorative finishing, but not entirely Modernized. Some Appliances may be paneled, but many remain as stainless steel or perhaps one in colored metal.

Coastal

Cooking, dining and entertaining with a view or homage to the deep blues of the oceans or bold teals of the seas bring a peacefulness to the space as the mind drifts to thoughts of warm summers and coastal breezes; fresh fish and tropical fruit. Slatted wood walls reminiscent of boardwalks and the soft colors of grassy dunes. Appliances might be freestanding and likely white.

Cultural

There is a difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. The world around us continues to get smaller with unprecedented access to travel and families and friend groups blending myriads of cultures. When meaning and understanding accompany our design decisions they become a part of us - they become personal. Ethically incorporating cultural styles into Kitchen design means going beyond their decorative purposes into meaningful decisions. You can also take the principles of another design style, but interpret it in a new way.

The Mediterranean Kitchen

Typically identified by cool blues and greens, bright whites, Mediterranean Kitchen styles can also evoke the warm neutrals of woven grasses and the soft greens of olive trees. As seen with the Provençal FRENCH Kitchen, soft, warm off-whites and mellow tints of orange and yellow are also common. Appliances are often bold and unpanelled, with white powdercoats.

The Mexican Kitchen

If you love the thought of bold, decorative tiles and fire Ranges with a focal hearth space, you might be at home in a traditional or modern Mexican style. Try also incorporating stoneworks inspired from traditional mortar and pestles, lots of nearby tropical plants and warm, reclaimed woods. Appliances can be brightly colored and unpanelled.

The Japanese Kitchen

Visually meticulous, Japanese Kitchen design is at its best an exploration in efficiency. Incorporating only what is absolutely needed, Japanese design is a great option for smaller Kitchens, using innovation for multi-use pieces and engineering for unique problem solving.

The Scandinavian Kitchen / Hygge

With a clean ‘less is more’ approach - similar to Japanese design - Scandinavian is typically focused on whites and light, natural woods, deemed to be the most calming mixture of finishes. Its approach is one of relaxation and subtlety. The concept of Hygge is finding the warmth and comfort in this approach.

The European Kitchen

“European” can’t be defined in one note, but typically would be seen as modern, modular, clean-lined and minimalist in direct contrast to the millenia of patina found on the exterior of many of the buildings they lie within. Appliances are panelled, hardware ‘invisible’ - sometimes the entire Kitchen will blend right into the walls around them.

The French Kitchen

Perhaps the most replicated and adopted cultural design style is ‘French’. But what does that mean? The reality is that most French people live in a space and Kitchen that is either very old (and often in desperate need of updating to codes) or very modern. The best of French design beautifully combines old historic pieces with modern ambiance. Style also varies greatly between French country (Provençal), French coastal (Riviera) and French city (Parisian) design.

PROVENÇAL

Villages in Provençe can be sunny up to 300 days of the year. Warm, deep yellows and oranges mixed with ancient (or new to look old) stonework, rustic wood beams and old iron accents prevail. In Kitchen Design this can translate into warm whites, reclaimed wood shelving, deep mustard accents, and olive-tree greens.

RIVIERA

The French Riviera - or Côte d’Azur - is world famous for its mix of soft pastels and beautiful teal and navy blues that run for miles along the coast. In design a French Riviera style comes off as bright, warm and bold - all while maintaining a calm and inherent subtleness. 

PARISIAN
Thinking of a home Kitchen in Paris, the mind is drawn to a crisp, finely fabricated, dark marble counter holding a barely-there modern induction top lit by a centuries-old, pendant fixture. Parisian design is the epitome of old meets new. Storied meets a fresh slate. Patina blends with the unwavering.

Bringing Character and Charm into Your Kitchen Design

Overly designed spaces can often lack character and charm. Leaving room for found objects, heirloom pieces, travel treasures or personal collections. Don’t overly plan the details in a new Kitchen design - leave room for your personality to show through over time.

Commercial Restaurant Kitchen Design at Home

A great argument can be made for incorporating a more commercial style at home. Restaurant kitchens are well-planned for easy maintenance, efficient functioning and clean layouts. These ideas can be incorporated into home kitchens in principle or as a direct interpretation right down to stainless steel countertops but adapted to the warmth of a home.

Working with Your Kitchen Design Style

Once you have defined your personal Style - one that works with the rest of the adjacent spaces and fills you with joy every time you look at it; a style that yearns for the gathering of friends and family; a style that represents you, how you cook, how you live within this space - it’s time to put it into reality. Let your reduced and curated moodboard (and 3D explorations) inform every decision from hardware finish to pulls to appliances to countertop materials.