5 Kitchen Design Rules To Break In 2021

Kitchens are, in many senses, the heart of every home. They are where family’s meals are prepared, and stored and where guests often congregate, even if you have the most beautiful living room. Consequently, kitchens make up a disproportionate part of the value of any home. The essentialness of the kitchen to the value of the home, often makes people conservative in their design choices. Yet, we feel that in 2021, “go big or go home” is the mantra that homeowners should have when making their design choices. Herein, 5 rules you should break in 2021 when designing your kitchens. 

Rule No. 1: Every kitchen needs bulky upper cabinets

Get rid of your bulky upper cabinets. 

Sure, a kitchen needs a storage space for mugs, glasses, and plates. You need somewhere to store dinnerware. Nevertheless, it is possible to have too much in the way of cabinetry. Getting rid of excess cabinetry can help improve how your kitchen looks. 

Homeowners tend to follow a standard playbook that features upper-wall cabinets, but eliminating them all together can make the kitchen feel larger.

Designs that abandon upper-wall cabinets allow for space for more aesthetically pleasing features, like art, or a solid-slab backsplash

You are probably wondering what happens to your small appliances and salad bowls?! You could utilize your island or base cabinets, which are within easy reach. 

Rule No. 2: Kitchen islands must be stationary

Many people often assume that kitchen islands must be fixed to the floow, cabinets below, but this design principle does not work for smaller kitchens. 

It is important to think outside the box of traditional design, to more flexible designs. Mobile kitchen islands with open bases, become active pieces of your kitchen, pieces which you can equip with lockable casters, and which will move according to your needs, rather than merely being a storage unit. 

Floating islands are the perfect multitasking unit and can be used by the kids to do homework during the day, and used to prepare food at mealtime. You can use a bar-height table with ultra-durable surfacing, to help make the unit multi-functional.

Rule No. 3: Kitchen should be all white

The kitchen is the part of the house where people’s colour choices become incredibly conservative. White is the default choice of almost every homeowner. Try experimenting with dark, moody colour schemes and combinations of black and white, as well as midnight blue or dark green cabinets. You could try going dark with Legacy Countertops to create a luxurious look. 

Rule No. 4: Match all kitchen finishes

Mixing finishes is something that you really should try. There is no reason why your lighting fixtures, faucets, appliances and cabinet hardware should match. 

Uniform finishes are the safe bet, but mixing finishes can elevate a kitchen’s design. The question is, do you want to be safe, or better? 

Rule No. 5: Lights should only be installed for function

When people think of lighting in the kitchen they think in terms of illumination rather than aesthetics. Accent lighting is a powerful tool in changing the aesthetic dynamic of a space. Picture and vanity lights above the kitchen sink and open shelving look really good.