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From high-end to heritage to hygge, it’s the easiest thing in the world to get caught up in design trends when curating a dream interior for your home. But whether you’re in the business of renovating or redesigning, you’ll want your personality to shine through in every element of your home’s design, and that includes the kitchen.
Research suggests that we spend an average of 400 hours in the kitchen annually — over half of a month each year — so it needs to be kitted out for cooking, hosting, and storage duties. But how do you inject your personal style into the hub of your house? Stick with us and we’ll walk you through four kitchen design ideas that could make your home feel more authentic to you.
1. Build a bespoke kitchen
There’s nobody quite like you — so why should your home look like anybody else’s? The surefire way to create a space that is tailored to your tastes is to build a bespoke kitchen. As designers at Harvey Jones explain, “when most people think of a bespoke kitchen, what they really want is a made-to-measure kitchen. In other words, a kitchen that is tailored to their space and how they want to live”.
These days, kitchens have to serve an array of different purposes. For the modern household with kitchens that function as home office spaces and dining areas too, you might not be able to choose any old style off the rack and stick with it.
Instead, select across different ranges as you require and build a bespoke kitchen around the property’s existing structures. This way, you can optimize your storage space, retain your home’s original features and design a unique look for your kitchen, mixing and matching styles to your heart’s content. There are no restrictions when you go bespoke.
2. Opt for warm minimalism
However, if you need a cohesive style to stick to, there are plenty of options available, and it’s just a case of figuring out which best suits you. In recent years, minimalism has grown especially popular — we’ve all seen the sterile suites and characterless corridors belonging to the rich and famous. Yet, there is a way to go clean and simple while still showing your personality: enter “warm” minimalism, which trades stark and uninteresting for bright and homely.
If minimalism is about stripping your interiors away to their bare bones, warm minimalism aims to build on this foundation with thoughtful, considered decor selections. Design tastemakers at Pure Collected Living advise that “a good mix of materials; woven textures, linens, florals/greenery, pottery among others, can all come together to add warmth & life to a space”.
By picking out your kitchen furnishings with intention, you can lose the clutter and curate a warm, comforting environment conceived with you in mind.
3. Take it back to basics
Even in the most developed of sky-scraping cities, there’s still a place for a little rural edge. You don’t have to make an indoor houseplant oasis by any means, but if urban style isn’t your thing, incorporate some traditional farmhouse elements into your kitchen design.
Here, natural materials are everything — consider reclaimed wood for your worktops, a choice as durable as it is unique. Fiber flooring and furniture-dressing options such as sisal can keep the natural trend going, while exposing the brickwork on walls and chimney breasts can add a rustic flair. As for the color palette, muted taupes or pastel cabinetry will keep the bright lights of the city at bay.
The best places to scope out vintage finds are thrift stores, flea markets and even reclamation yards. So, if you have an eye for traditional elements, resist the call of more modern decor trends — you’re designing your home, and it should communicate your style.
4. Go for glamour
On the opposite end of the spectrum, plenty of budding home curators prefer a plusher, more opulent arrangement. If you like to live it luxe, look for design fixtures that will send that message the second that a guest enters the kitchen.
When shopping to deck out a high-spec space, seek out the shiniest of chandeliers, appliances and table-setting decor. Strangely enough, a lot of these furnishings can be found in the same places as the more traditional furnishings that we have discussed — antique stores and markets are a treasure trove of luxury just waiting to be tapped.
As for worktops, you can’t go wrong with marble. Wraparound surfaces and kitchen islands can help to convey your refined sense of style, paired with modern lighting fixtures and smart appliances that will help to modernize your interiors to a slick standard. Form, function, and fabulousness — what more could you ask for?