Top Kitchen Design Trends for 2024
Future kitchens will be innovative, sustainable and personalized for individual lifestyles according to the National Kitchen & Bath Association.
NKBA recently released its 2024 Kitchen Design Trends, a highly-anticipated report highlighting top trends in kitchen design over the next three years and featuring emerging categories and shifts in products, color, materials and space. Kitchens with innovative, personalized designs will be popular and will have an impact on how appliances, lighting, islands, and more fit into the space.
Here are some of the top items from NKBA’s 2024 Kitchen Trends report:
1. Hard-Working Islands
An expanded focus has been placed on kitchen islands that serve as everything from a gathering place and storage to a cooking, prepping and entertaining space. More than 57 percent of designers say their clients prefer an eat-in kitchen area instead of a formal dining room and 48 percent identified large islands as a top priority for serving and dining.
2. Whisper Quiet
By eliminating noisy appliances and banging cabinet doors, designers are making the kitchen environment even more suitable for everything from entertaining and eating to work and learning. Sixty-five percent of designers said their clients want ultra-quiet dishwashers and 41 percent are ditching noisy trash compactors in favor of standard pull-out receptacles.
3. Being Environmentally Conscious
Sustainability continues to be top-of-mind for both designers and homeowners, with a focus on:
- Reduce: 51 percent are selecting long-lasting products to reduce the need for future replacement.
- Reuse: 44 percent say they donate old kitchen cabinets, while 37 percent donate old appliances.
- Recycle: 53 percent allocate kitchen storage for recycling and 23 percent are creating kitchen storage for composting.
4. Well-Curated Lighting
In addition to incorporating lots of natural light into their kitchen designs, designers say they’re using multiple layers of lighting to support different functions: ambient lighting to create various moods (85 percent), decorative statement lighting to showcase design elements (80 percent), and nighttime lighting for safety and aesthetics (69 percent). Light sensing, motion sensing, voice activation and programmable control options all play a key role in enhancing the functionality of kitchen lighting.
5. A Place for Wellness and Nutrition
Kitchen design is focused on nutrition and healthy eating. Seventy-eight percent of designers say homeowners want more refrigeration space with better flexibility (e.g., columns, drawers, convertible) to accommodate healthy lifestyles, and 68 percent want appliances with integrated cooking functions like air frying and steam cooking.
6. More personality
Seven in 10 designers say homeowners don’t want a cookie-cutter kitchen and are looking for a design that is uniquely personal and just for them. “More personality [is what clients want],” said one designer. “I don’t think the first [approach] is going to be, ‘What will the next owners like,’ it will be more personalized to the current homeowner.”
7. Individualized settings, controls and tech solutions
Appliances with individualized settings and controls that can be accessed via apps will be in demand, such as ovens with temperature control precision and delayed starts. Additionally, homeowners want programmable lighting presets for different times of day, as well as mobile-device-connected lighting, motion-sensor lighting and voice-controlled lighting.
8. Personalized storage solutions
Many cabinets, islands, and pantries have personalized organization modules, improving the usability of the kitchen space. Homeowners specifically want cabinets to have improved storage solutions like drawer dividers and partitions that can be configured to their needs.
9. Specialized sinks
Workstation sinks with food prep and serving areas are in demand, with popular features including built-in cutting boards, strainers, and drying racks. And more than half of homeowners are embracing bold new sink designs through new colors and ceramic finishes, while also including two sinks in the kitchen.
10. Innovations for living in place
Cabinetry and islands that work for all ages will be another customized kitchen solution. Additionally, many homeowners are opting for nighttime lighting, such as toe kick lighting, for safety and aesthetics. These solutions, and technology like motion-sensor lighting and motorized window shades, can be part of living-in-place design.
11. Customized color
Another way designers are personalizing designs for clients is by adding color, as kitchens move away from white to white and grays. For statement colors, designers are leveraging cabinetry, islands, and vertical surfaces such as backsplashes, wall paint and wallpaper. Additionally, as islands become a kitchen’s design focal point, they are often designed with a contrasting color than surrounding cabinetry and/or countertop.
National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA) is a non-profit trade group that promotes professionalism in the kitchen and bath industry. Established in 1963 as a network of kitchen dealers, it has evolved into the premier association of designers, retailers, remodelers, manufacturers, distributors, fabricators, installers and other industry professionals.