The kitchen is the ‘heart of the home’. Designing a space where friends and family can gather and reconnect is one of the most important aspects when designing or renovating your home. Current trends in kitchen design focus on creating a relaxing atmosphere while utilizing quality materials, custom woodworking, and the latest in technology. Modern kitchen design has shifted away from functional design to inclusive design: people want places where their families can relax and hang out.

So, one of the most important decisions when designing your kitchen is to decide the color scheme. This will help you choose the best designs and materials to compliment your color palette.

High-end kitchen design once went hand-in-hand with extravagant details, but the tide has turned. “Clients today are focusing less on ornamental decoration and more on higher quality materials for kitchen designs for efficiency, durability, and functionality,” says Wendy Raizin of Raizin Design.

“For example, I prefer to opt for open, industrial shelving when designing a modern kitchen with a relaxed feel. Why open doors when you can have everything in front of you to see and reach easily? Also, the design must consider ideal distances from appliance to counter for optimal functionality. The old school of thought in kitchen design was to create a cooking triangle. The new school: cooking stations (think foodie culture). This is ideal when more than one person is working in the kitchen at a time, which is usually the case.”

The New Pantry

Storage space is always very important, and the latest designs are incorporating custom woodworking into the kitchen pantry.  “The days of walk-in pantries are all but gone unless they can be created in a very sophisticated/clean way,” says Tampa, Florida architect David Balber. “I have done kitchens that when you look at them all you see are cabinets, but then you pull on one cabinet and it is actually a door that leads to a secret walk-in pantry — something like Batman would have!” he explains.  Balber’s latest designs have included the cabinet pantry, where the kitchen “looks like a bunch of cabinets, and then you pull on some of the cabinets and the entire wall pulls out exposing shelving for cereals, bread, cans, etc. – very sleek and easy to see all the food.”

Custom Cabinetry

Custom cabinetry not only complements the aesthetic of a kitchen – it increases utility by conforming precisely to the measurements that you need.