What are the Trends in Kitchen Design for 2021?

Choosing a new design for your kitchen takes inspiration and vision. Most people start by researching other kitchens.

If you want to be modern and trendy, you may ask yourself 'What are the trends in kitchen design today?

Basing your kitchen design on today's trends not only inspires a beautiful new style for your kitchen, it also ensures your home will be desirable to guests and even future buyers by keeping up with the times.

The biggest kitchen design trends of 2021 are based partly on the steadily shifting desires of the real estate market and new ideas spurred by recent events. Let's dive into the top ten kitchen designs trends this year that you can draw inspiration from.

1) Eco-Friendly Cabinetry Wood Choice

Green design has been a rising trend for the past few years and in 2021, cabinetry is in the spotlight. Rebuilding your kitchen cabinets gives you the opportunity to rebuild in entirely eco-friendly materials.

Choose a fast-regrowing natural wood like bamboo or lyptus trees that are cultivated without needing new land to be cut for new cabinet boards. Or choose a recycled composite board made from green non-toxic materials.

You can choose cabinet woods harvested near your home to reduce the carbon footprint of travel or even choose reclaimed wood - rebuilt from the floors or walls of a recently updated historical building.

2) Home Office Kitchen Design

In light of the pandemic and massive work-from-home migration, it's no surprise that kitchen offices have become a popular choice. Many people turned their kitchen table or island into a desk.

This creates a friendly, open home office environment. Remodeling your kitchen allows you to redesign an ideal "broken plan" kitchen and office combo design. Broken-plan is an evolution of open-plan, designating separate rooms within a mostly open space.

3) Floating Kitchen Shelves

One interesting holdover from the tiny-house trend is floating shelves in the kitchen. When you have a small space that feels cramped, wall-mounted cabinets all the way around can further enclose the space. Floating shelves, however, make a kitchen feel larger and airier.

We're seeing a rising trend in floating shelves in small kitchens and tight kitchen nooks. These floating shelves hold coordinated dishes and boxed organizers to keep the entire space feeling open and tidy.

If you have a kitchen that feels small with wall cabinets, rethink your upper kitchen storage. Glass cabinet doors might be the answer combined with floating shelves for a layered and more open feel to an enclosed kitchen space.

4) Double-Islands and Dining Islands

Island design is transforming from a nice-to-have into a creative opportunity. As open-plan homes and kitchens become more predominant making more room for island design.

Double-islands create even more standing prep space and make a kitchen more welcoming to fellow cooks. They can also be bridged with a large cutting board to create a floating prep space or wheelchair-friendly space. T-islands are a surprising addition, many blending with the kitchen-office intended design.

We're also seeing more breakfast island variations as islands become a common choice, not just for prep and barstools. Breakfast islands are larger and designed to be seated with bar-height chairs instead of typical dining chairs.

Many families have already adapted to eating breakfast at the kitchen island to spend time with the family cook in the morning and for a more casual mealtime feeling.

5) Extra Sinks in New Countertops

Additional sinks are a hot trend in 2021 kitchen design. Often called a bar sink, a second small sink in the kitchen can double your cooking power by making it impossible to monopolize the only sink with a big project.

A bar sink in the island or at the far end of the counter can always keep one sink free for double prep or just for filling fresh filtered cups of water. We are also seeing a rising trend in statement faucets for both the kitchen and bar sinks.

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