In the New Year, many homemakers will look to refresh their favourite spaces, often starting in the kitchen. In 2018, we saw everything from banquette-style seating to two-toned kitchen cabinetry, and will continue to see innovative new designs prevail in the New Year.
Whether you're planning to remodel your kitchen or get inspired for a simple refresh, there's a whole new crop of design trends to consider for 2019.
Clients continue to gravitate towards concealed and clean integration in our kitchen designs, with maximized and clever storage solutions.
A new trend is replacing kitchen upper cabinets with metal, wood or glass shelving. This adds to the overall bold statements many want to make in their homes, forgoing the minimalism that was popular in years past.
We’ll continue to see traditional elements and forms in harmony with modern design in 2019. Think honed, natural stone, organic basalt tiles, hand wrapped rattan furniture and vintage-inspired fixtures and lighting.
In 2019 we are officially closing the door on pure white kitchens. Even if it's just one element of accent color such as blue counter stools, a patterned roman shade or powdered coated island pendants. Pops of colour will be sneaking into the pure white blank slate of kitchens past.
People are increasingly seeking connections from nature. It creates a welcoming and calming environment, and is a timeless, versatile material we love. We see a growing desire for lighter, airier spaces, and wood is a wonderful material to incorporate to achieve this.
Matte black—it never fails to make a statement. It started as an exciting finish of your phones, laptops, and other electronic devices. Now, a bunch of appliances, luminaires, kitchen cupboards, and tiles come in this colour, and it’s a must try on your next renovation.A total matte black kitchen needs a source of natural light. Black absorbs light rather than reflects it. You need to balance the dark features with something light and airy. Paint the ceiling white, install skylights, and have walls of sliding doors. Those are enough to tame the strength of matte black, preventing it from becoming a design disaster.Not all houses have window walls or skylights that invite massive amounts of sunlight in the space to make a matte black kitchen work. You need to find ways to balance the colours in your space. Take the kitchen above for example. Only the upper cupboards and half of the splashback is in matte black. The rest come in light neutrals. This combination keeps the kitchen light and airy, despite the use of a strong black colour.
The concept of the kitchen work triangle was developed in the 1940s by the University Of Illinois School Of Architecture. The goal was to show that by designing and building a kitchen with efficiency in mind, overall construction costs could be reduced.
The aim of the kitchen triangle is to create the best work area possible in this busiest of rooms.
Since the three most common work areas in the average kitchen are the stove, the sink, and the refrigerator, the kitchen work triangle theory suggests that by placing these three areas in proximity to each other, the kitchen becomes more efficient. If you place them too far away from each other, you waste a lot of steps while preparing a meal. If they are too close together, you end up with a cramped kitchen without adequate space to prepare and cook meals.
The kitchen triangle concept has faded in recent years, as it's become somewhat outdated. For instance, the kitchen triangle is based on the idea that one person prepares the entire meal, which isn't necessarily the case in 21st-century families.
And open concept kitchens which are popular with newer-style construction often don't require such uniform layout. In these kitchens, the design tends to focus less on a work triangle and more on kitchen work zones that may even spill over into the dining or living areas. One example of a work zone would be placing the dishwasher, sink, and trash can close to each other to make cleaning up easier.
Remember, your lifestyle should determine the functionality of your kitchen, not the other way around. The work triangle is not a law, merely a suggestion. Although it can be a helpful tool, don't let it inhibit you from thinking outside the triangle when it comes to designing your kitchen.