by Lauren Busser The House Designers' Contributing Writer
If you want to make sure your home has a truly updated look and feel, start with the kitchen. With everything from a cool gray color palette to innovations in cabinet and countertops, 2013 promises to be a year of great kitchen advances. Here are some of the hot new kitchen trends that have started gaining popularity in the first half of 2013.
What is hot in kitchens these days? Well, cool would be a more appropriate word. That’s right, in 2013 the color palettes are cooling down and the Mediterranean kitchen of yore is giving way to more of a Belgian-style influence. The great thing about this trend is that you don’t have to scrap your entire kitchen just to stay updated. Keeping up with this trend could be as simple as a new coat of paint.
The hot color right now is a cooling gray. It lies at the heart of a Belgian style kitchen. With the color gray comes some sophistication but no pretense. It has timeless appeal and works great on both walls and cabinets. You don’t have to think of gray as boring either. You can find grays with a touch of blue, violet, or green to give them some depth. And all of these shades can be mixed and matched until you find a color that you love.
But your color palette doesn’t have to be completely cool. A little bit of lemon is another trend that has started showing up in kitchens again. Yellow and kitchens have a long relationship, but recently the shades of yellow that make it into the kitchen have been showing some restraint. In the kitchen, yellow is now being brought in as either a soothing pastel wash or an eye-popping accent.
Playing with color is another trend. Though the color palette is still leaning towards neutrals and grays one way that people are playing with color is by going “bi-cabinet.” In short, they are using two different color cabinets. Design-wise this look has a lot going for it. It can break up a neutral palette, and it's a simple change with a big impact. Depending on the colors chosen you can either bring color into the kitchen and increase the contrast, or lighten it up. Consider using a darker color on your base cabinets as a way to anchor color in the room.
When selecting your cabinetry, you want to coordinate it with your countertops. Custom cabinetry from KraftMaid® is the perfect solution. Selecting cabinetry to go with your gray kitchen presents quite a few options. You can choose a natural wood stain or you can go towards a white or a darker gray cabinet. KraftMaid® has several different styles and finishes to choose from making it easy to find one that fits your asthetic.
In terms of cabinets, not only are the finishes changing but manufacturers like Blum® are changing the way they work. Blum® has designed cabinets whose doors fold up and out of the way with the push of a button. Other automated appliances are making an appearance in kitchens again as well, including hands free faucets with motion sensors from Moen®.
Cabinets aren’t the only thing that is getting a makeover; kitchen sinks are trending away from basic white and silver. In one of many partnerships, designer Johnathan Adler has partnered with Kohler® to design such accents as a green apron-front sink.
Kitchen counter tops are also being innovated. Not only are granite and quartz continuing to be quite popular but now wood countertops are coming on strong. Fortunately you don’t have to choose between the two, because companies like EnGRAIN are combining the look of wood with Calacatta marble.
These sleek new innovations in kitchen designs and technology are sure to breathe life into your kitchen and make it a space your family will enjoy cooking, eating, and entertaining in. From a simple coat of paint to a complete cabinet upgrade, kitchens design and asthetics are taking an interesting shift.