Truth: Many of us have a love-hate relationship with our kitchens.
On one hand, it’s a warm and cozy space for families to gather. At the same time, the kitchen is the home’s 24/7 eat-in restaurant, where loads of meal prep and cleaning take place.
Still, this workhorse room deserves a little love now and then—and what better time for a few small style tweaks than at the beginning of the year?
Yup, 2024 presents a golden opportunity to take a hard look at your cook space and decide where you can make some improvements. To help you on this journey, we’ve got a few smart ideas from designers in the know.
So, go forth and cook in style with these hot 2024 trends for the kitchen.
Leave your plain-Jane kitchen in the past, and embrace the interplay of different materials. The same white-on-white look is sterile and cold. But when you take a chance on something fresher, you’ll achieve “a lively yet refined feel,” notes Ariel Barrionuevo, designer at La Coralina Island House.
Barrionuevo recommends mixing wood and metals, as with the kitchen island and chairs above.
His suggestion: “Try light oak combined with brushed steel and natural stone—and then add in pops of color with accessories.”
You can also hang industrial metal lights over a wooden, butcher-block counter, or install a metal backsplash under cherry cabinets.
Photo by Crown Point Cabinetry –
Even though open shelves need to be tidied up and scrubbed down regularly, they’re here to stay in 2024, says Barrionuevo, partly because they add to your kitchen’s utility.
With open shelving, you have easy access to bowls and glasses and a decorative look that’s cheaper than full-sized cabinet boxes and doors.
“Kitchens are now leaning toward sleek, functional design with a touch of warmth,” Barrionuevo explains.
Open shelves fit this look to a tee, though you can add other functional design touches, such as better task lighting for small jobs or a roll-top door to hide appliances.
Photo by Paul N. Brow, Architect, LLC
Whether you love the convenience and variety of those little coffee pods or are a devotee of single-origin beans, you’ll appreciate the convenience of a coffee center in the kitchen.
And since remote work is here to stay, having a personalized coffee setup greatly improves your home office (even if it’s just a small space at the end of the kitchen counter).
A coffee station is also a small investment, since it can quickly be created from a cabinet where you can store your pot, filters, grinder. Add a few pegs to the wall for mugs, and your caffeine hub is a go.
Of course, you can also go high end and install special lighting and customized drawer inserts to corral your coffee gear and accessories.
Photo by Mitchell Construction Group
When the colors of the year are announced, the design world pounces—which is definitely the case with the true blue hue, dubbed Blue Nova, just introduced by Benjamin Moore.
Dan Mazzarini, principal and creative director of BHDM Design and ARCHIVE, is already a big fan of this cornflower blue, which can be used to significant effect in the kitchen, as shown on the island above.
Blue Nova is a midtone blue that skews more violet-blue, without a speck of green. Try this sky-high shade on your kitchen cabinets, as tile on a backsplash, or on the floor via a runner or sink rug.
Another hot trend, says Pamela O’Brien, principal designer at Pamela Hope Designs, is a fresh embrace of moodier kitchen counters.
“Clients seem poised to prefer darker, heavily patterned stones again, and there’s lots of movement in slab designs, too,” she explains.
And homeowners are shelling out big bucks to make it happen.
“I’m seeing folks spend much more on their countertops, selecting exotic quartzites and marbles—even for the whole house,” O’Brien adds.
This makes good sense given the fact that lots of us are staying put in the homes we own rather than venturing into the real estate market and the elevated interest rates that come with it.
Shaker-style cabinets in the kitchen have always been a top pick. Lately, though, there’s a lot of interest in the “slim shaker” look, says Philip Consalvo, principal of PJCArchitecture. These boxes, which feature a narrower border at the cabinet edges, offer a modern take on the classic Shaker design.
This option is also called “skinny shaker,” and the streamlined look is a worthy upgrade in the kitchen and pantry.
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