Kitchen Trends Worth Keeping: Five Ways to Make a Kitchen Your Own

The kitchen is the heart of the home, the room for the first meal of the day, family dinners and a cup of coffee with whoever drops in. Our other piece on the subject asks which kitchen trends last. This one is about a different quality: what makes a kitchen yours. Here are five ideas that have stayed with us since we first listed them, and how to carry out each so that you still like it years on.

Custom organization

People take kitchen organization seriously, and built-in organizers are the answer: for spices, for pots and pans, even for the roll of paper towels. It is the idea on this list least likely to date, because it follows how you cook and not how kitchens look this year.

Start with an inventory. Count what you own, and decide what is used daily and what twice a year. Then the cabinets can be fitted to it, with a drawer for spices beside the range, dividers for the cutlery, a pull-out for trash and recycling, and a shelf that lifts the mixer to counter height. A cabinet maker can show you the rest.

A stone slab with character

The counter is one of the strongest ways to put personality into a kitchen, and natural stone does it as nothing else can, because no two slabs are alike. The three most asked for behave differently.

• Marble is the softest of the three. Acids such as lemon juice and vinegar etch it, and over time it takes on a patina that some owners prize and others regret.
• Granite is hard and stands up well to heat and knives. It is usually sealed from time to time.
• Quartzite is a natural stone with veining close to marble’s and a much harder surface. It needs sealing too.

Choose the actual slab, not a sample the size of your hand, and decide with the fabricator where the veining and the seams will fall. The same stone carried up the wall as a backsplash makes a small kitchen read as one piece.

A worn-in look

Muddy paint colors, brassy finishes and handmade tile give a kitchen built yesterday the look of one that has been lived in. The way to do it well is to use materials that truly age and not ones printed to look old: unlacquered brass that darkens where hands touch it, tile with the small variations of handwork, a painted finish in a soft, grayed color.

In an older New York apartment this look suits the building. It is also easy to pull back from. Hardware and paint change in a weekend, and a backsplash of handmade tile is only a few square feet.

Detailing

Think smaller than the counter or the cabinets. Do the place mats sit across the color wheel from the chairs? Do the plates share a finish with the counter? Details like these make a kitchen feel like its owner’s.

The same holds for the construction. In our trade the smallest details make the largest difference to how a finished room looks: an even gap between tiles, a floor that is truly level, cabinet doors that line up, pulls set at one height. Nobody praises these when they are right. Everybody sees them when they are wrong.

Playful color

First, do not panic: white kitchens will not go out of style, and if white is what you like, keep it. But if you find an all-white kitchen flat, color is the remedy. Deep reds and navy blues go especially well with a dramatic stone.

Put the color where it can be changed. An island or the base cabinets in a painted finish can be repainted, and walls even more easily. Bring a large sample home and look at it in your own kitchen in daylight and under the evening lights before you commit.

How personal should a kitchen be?

As personal as you like, in proportion to how long you will stay and how easily a thing can be changed. If you may sell within a few years, keep the permanent parts quiet and let the paint, the hardware and the details speak for you. If this is the kitchen you mean to grow old in, choose the slab you love.

Fitted interiors and door styles are covered on our custom cabinets and custom storage pages, the whole job under kitchen renovation in NYC, and finished rooms in the kitchen gallery.

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