The Latest Trends for Kitchen Cabinet Designs

By McDaniels Kitchens and Bath|Kitchen Design

The kitchen is truly the center of family life, where everyone gravitates during a party and where everything happens from family dinners to homework. We have high expectations for today’s kitchen designs. They must be multi-functional work and living spaces, and balance style with functionality. That’s a tall order!

The foundation of the kitchen is your cabinets. They cover a large surface area, helping to define your room’s style and providing essential storage and workspace. Cabinetry is typically a starting point for deciding on other products like countertops, hardware, and backsplash. Selecting the right cabinets to fit your style, functionality, and budget needs is an important first step in designing a kitchen that will enhance your family’s home life.

Start by determining what you like and don’t like about your existing kitchen, and then research styles and colors online or by browsing in a showroom. Our latest blog will get you started by examining the up-to-date trends in kitchen cabinet design.

Focus on the wood

Neutral tones are always popular for kitchen cabinet designs, with shades such as white, gray, and beige featuring at the top of the list of favorite cabinet finishes. While they will never go out of style, other alternative color schemes are increasingly taking over as popular choices for a stylish kitchen design.

One of the most popular options right now is wood tones, either in natural wood shades or stained finishes.  Stick to high quality wood cabinetry with clean lines, and the beautiful grains and unique features of the wood can transform a kitchen remodel with a subtle finish. If you want to give your cabinet design a rich, luxurious feel go for a darker stained tone, accented with satin brass hardware.

Luxe dark tones

Speaking of dark shades, black painted cabinets have become another top choice, giving your kitchen design a truly luxe feel. Black was once limited to very modern kitchen designs or on a very limited scale in accessories, but today’s kitchen designs are seeing full kitchen cabinet designs in black. If you are not ready to commit to a bold black kitchen design but love the look of this luxe cabinet style, consider pairing a section of black kitchen cabinets or black island cabinetry with another, lighter neutral shade.

Bright pops of color

Brighter colors were once thought to be limited to a quirky, eclectic kitchen design or to small accessories that could be easily changed. However, they are becoming more prominent in today’s kitchen cabinet styles with bright or navy blues, dark greens, and even deep red hues featuring as cabinet paint colors. If one of these bold cabinet colors fits your home’s design aesthetic, then go for it and commit to a full cabinet transformation that brings a pop of color to the center of your home. If you love the color but are not ready to commit to it on a large scale, then consider a section of cabinetry. One approach is to use the bright color for lower cabinet paired with white upper cabinets. Or you could use a color for a standalone area like a beverage bar.

Subdued hues

Blues and greens are especially popular for today’s kitchen cabinet designs. In addition to the bright and deep shades, softer hues are also growing in popularity.  Pale blue is ideal for a kitchen design with a coastal vibe or a cottage style home design. Sage green and other softer hues give a kitchen design a more natural, calming feel.

Carefully consider how your preferred kitchen cabinet finish will pair with other design elements. Countertops, backsplash, cabinet hardware, the kitchen sink, and accessories all must combine to create a cohesive kitchen design. Brushed finish hardware, matte black, satin brass, and rose gold are some of the latest popular choices.

Create custom storage

While cabinetry is essential to your home design style, it also serves an important practical role in any kitchen design. Cabinets form the foundation of your kitchen’s layout, provide workspace when paired with a durable countertop, and, perhaps most importantly, outfit your kitchen with essential storage. In the latest kitchen designs, ultra-custom accessories are more important than ever and are tailored to your specific storage needs. These inserts and pullouts turn your kitchen cabinets into an organized oasis, where every item can be neatly stowed away and found when needed. Custom storage reduces clutter, helps you maintain a neat and organized kitchen, and lets your room’s style shine through.

Here are some of the most effective kitchen cabinet storage accessories available:

Pantry storage can be stand alone or incorporated into a section of cabinetry. Within your pantry cabinet include rollouts and pullouts that allow each can, jar, and box to be visible and easily accessible. If you have a walk-in pantry include customized cabinet storage within the pantry room that can be a continuation of your main kitchen cabinets or a distinct style or color.

Waste disposal is made so much easier with trash can pull outs that allow you to separate trash and recycling.  Add a separate built-in compartment for food waste near your food prep area if you separate out compost.

Drawers of varying sizes and depths can be customized for everything from pots and lids in a deep drawer with a peg system to a shallow drawer with a built-in spice rack. Shallow drawers with custom dividers are perfect for utensils or cooking tools. Consider a separate drawer with built-in plugs and charging points to keep phones and tablets out of the way and charged up when you need them. Toe kick drawers are shallow drawers that turn the dead space under a base cabinet into handy storage for serving plates or place mats.

Corners can be tricky and become an abyss of disorganization if you do not carefully plan your corner storage. Super Susans fit neatly into a corner cabinet and allow you to rotate it so that all items are accessible. Magic corner swing out are specialized shelves that tuck neatly away into a corner cabinet but swing out fully when you need to find something.

Vertical dividers are ideal for keeping heavy baking trays in line, but also work very well for cutting boards, serving trays, and platters.

Pull outs fit anywhere and are ideal for storing a wide range of items. Base pull outs can include storage inserts for cooking oils and utensils. Narrow pull outs fit neatly next to the refrigerator or cooking area, providing extra storage for food items, knives, and more.

Appliance garages let you conveniently keep small appliances or gadgets handy without cluttering countertops. When not in use, tuck these items away into a countertop compartment and conceal them with a pull down or slide shut door.

Beverage bars allow you to create customized storage in one convenient location for all your beverage needs from glassware to drink mixers, coffee supplies, and more.

A baking zone is the ideal place to include a mixer lift to easily store and pull out your stand mixer when you are ready to create sweet treats, along with baking trays, mixing bowls, cake decorating tools, and all your baking supplies.

Amp up your island(s)

The island is a staple is many kitchen remodels, but today’s islands are bigger and better than ever. Make sure your island is sized to fit your kitchen’s layout or consider expanding your kitchen design by knocking down or moving a wall to fit your perfect island. The island is a natural focal point in the kitchen so consider cabinetry in a different style or contrasting color to your perimeter cabinets to help it stand out. If you love a bold cabinet color but are not prepared to commit to it throughout your kitchen design, the island cabinetry is the perfect opportunity to include this tone in your room’s color scheme, balanced with neutral perimeter cabinets.

Include custom storage to fit the work zones in your kitchen island, whether that is baking, food prep, entertaining, or clean up. If you plan to use your island for entertaining, you could include an undercounter beverage refrigerator at one end, so guests have easy access to drink refills.

In a very large kitchen design, consider including two islands, each with its own distinct purpose. One could be for food preparation and baking, with a section of marble countertop for rolling out pastry and preparing cookies. The other could focus on casual dining and entertainment, with barstools or even a tabletop end for a distinct dining space.

Sleek lines

Simplicity is a popular approach in today’s kitchen designs, with sleek cabinet lines that give your kitchen a neat appearance and best of all are easier to keep clean. Go for either slab cabinet doors or a simple Shaker style with limited embellishment for a classic look that will last for years. Continue your simple cabinet style from floor to ceiling to maximize storage and to keep your kitchen uncluttered.

Open up your walls

The flip side of this trend is a move toward emphasizing closed storage in your base cabinets, island, and a separate pantry, which allows you to remove most or all your upper cabinets. Limiting upper cabinets allows your walls to take center stage, in which case you could extend your backsplash material to the ceiling for an eye-catching style. A beautiful but easy to clean option in this case is a slab or large format tile backsplash that can be wiped clean without having to worry about grout lines.  Choose a backsplash material that works together with your cabinets and countertop to create a cohesive kitchen design style.

Another top trend is to replace upper cabinets with open shelves.  This allows for limited storage and space to display special items.  The shelf can match your kitchen cabinets or stand out in a different color or material. Likewise, the shelf contents become kitchen design accessories so choose items that will complement your style and color scheme, add texture to the space, or bring a bit of personality to your room.

Your kitchen cabinets are essential to creating a stylish space that meets the functional demands of your family’s daily life. Look at the cabinet styles that fit your home’s design aesthetic, find a finish that defines your color scheme, and incorporate storage accessories and features that make your kitchen an enjoyable place to live and work. Talk to our experienced team about your kitchen cabinet requirements.