Kitchen Cabinet Trends to Avoid

Whether you’re planning out the construction of your new home or are just looking to renovate the old kitchen, the kitchen cabinet is no doubt an object of importance. It’s one of the first things people see when they enter the kitchen and serves both visual and functional benefits for anyone there. 

If you want to make your kitchen look and feel great to be in, though, you need to know what you SHOULDN’T be doing. A lot of kitchens look bland or messy because of a lack of planning and understanding of design theory.

Don’t worry, though – we’ve listed some of the most important kitchen trends to avoid implementing so that you don’t turn your lovely kitchen into a colorful mess.

Matching Every Detail Possible

One of the most important kitchen trends to avoid is that you do not have to match your kitchen cabinet with its surroundings. A lot of people make the rookie mistake of having their cabinets look exactly the same as the rest of the kitchen. And while this may not look bad, it takes away a lot of the creativity from the kitchen’s overall look.

Let’s say, for example, you have a white custom kitchen cabinet that matches your white tabletop and white backsplash, with a few rustic accents here and there. The problem with this is that the kitchen cabinet isn’t given any sort of identity, with it just blending in the background with everything else. It can even end up being hard to spot from a distance. 

If you want your kitchen cabinet to pop and stand out, you need to know how to contrast it with the rest of the kitchen. Of course, you shouldn’t go overboard, like painting it bright pink in a monochromatic theme.

Ornamenting every possible part of your kitchen cabinets

If your kitchen cabinet looks a little dull, you may be tempted to ornament it with a few bits and bobs to add color and variance. While that’s all good and fun, it can be an issue if you go overboard and turn your kitchen cabinet into an ornamental hodgepodge. Having too many ornaments can be incredibly distracting to the eye, and can even destroy the overall theme of the kitchen if you place the wrong ones.

 

A great alternative to adding ornaments would be to give the cabinet itself some design. The main purpose of the ornaments is to add interesting shapes and colors to the look, and you can accomplish this without even adding ornaments. Adding shapes and textures to your cabinet can pop out more than most ornaments.

 

If you must add ornaments, make sure that it fits the overall theme of your kitchen. For example, adding a set of traditional tea cups will look great on the shelf of a rustic kitchen, but will feel out of place in a more modern setting. Also, keep in mind that you should only add ornaments in moderation. Remember, ornaments add to a look – they’re not the centerpiece. While too few ornaments can make your kitchen look bland, too many ornaments will just make it feel messy. This not only makes it difficult to look at but can unknowingly distract you while you are cooking. 

So while ornaments aren’t bad by any means, keep in mind that they should never be the focus of your kitchen. The kitchen cabinet can look great on its own, and adding ornaments that match its overall theme will improve the look, too.

Wrong countertop type to go with your cabinets

A countertop serves as the overall centerpiece of the kitchen, as it serves many purposes. Because of this, many people spend absurd amounts of money on the fanciest countertops to either impress guests. However, this often ruins the look of the kitchen. The reason this happens is that the countertop fails to match the cabinets.

Imagine that the kitchen is one big framed painting. If the countertop is the canvas, then the cabinet serves as the “frame”. Because it wraps around the countertop, the kitchen cabinet must match the canvas, or else it will feel out of place. 

If you want to go the safe route, a simple trick would be to get a countertop that directly contrasts the color of your kitchen cabinets. This is especially true if your kitchen cabinets are black or white in color. The white and black contrast is a classic that never gets old, and it’ll look great without too much effort.

Another option to go for would be to match the colors instead. A white countertop with a white kitchen cabinet looks great. Keep in mind the previous point, however, and don’t go overboard with the matching. Matching the colors of the countertop with the kitchen cabinet works best when you have color contrasts in other places. Should you match your countertop’s color with the cabinet’s, be sure to add contrast elsewhere, preferably in the backsplash. This leads us to our next point:

DIY backsplashes that have nothing to do with your design

You’ve seen it on Pinterest, Instagram, or even Facebook – DIY kitchen designs that look too good to be true. And while they are definitely doable, you shouldn’t go willy-nilly with the DIY just because you can, especially when it comes to your backsplash. The backsplash can dictate an entire look, so have to be extra careful with it.

Kitchen backsplashes can generally be classified into two different categories: plain and patterned. Plain backsplashes are just that – simple colors that cover the whole kitchen. They’re nothing too special but are great if you want to shift the eye’s focus towards other parts of the kitchen, such as the countertop or kitchen cabinet.

On the other hand, patterned backsplashes can pop out on their own, depending on what design you go for. Some designs, such as a brick backsplash, are a little less fancy, whereas tiled backsplashes can be works of art by themselves.

 

So the next time you see a fancy-looking DIY backsplash idea or video on a social media page, you may want to hold back on trying it out unless you know it’ll work with your current kitchen. DIY projects are definitely fun, though, so try finding a backsplash project that complements the rest of your kitchen if you want to do a solo project in the future.

Combine or not combine laundry room with kitchen, that is the question

Finally, here’s something worth considering – should you combine the laundry room with your kitchen, or have them as separate rooms instead? Well, there are quite a few considerations to make when answering that question, namely budget, space, convenience, and, of course, design.

The first and most important thing to consider is your overall budget. If you really want to separate both rooms, but don’t have the funds to do so, you may as well just find a way to make the laundry room fit well with the kitchen. On the other hand, if you lack the funds to combine both rooms together, at least you can worry about designing the two rooms separately.

Space is another consideration to make. If you have the laundry room combined with the kitchen, you will definitely save yourself a little bit of space. On the other hand, having a dedicated laundry room may take up space that could have been used for something like a pantry. 

Then there’s the overall convenience. Sure, it may be more convenient to have multiple things in one room, but for a lot of people, having a laundry area in the kitchen can be distracting. The smell from the kitchen can carry over to the laundry too, and vice versa. And you’d have to schedule your laundry before or after cooking unless you want to deal with the noise of the washing machine. For home cooks and chefs, they’d probably sacrifice the convenience that comes with combining the rooms for a cleaner and more dedicated kitchen.

Finally, a brief discussion on the overall design. We discussed how certain kitchen cabinet trends can ruin the look of the kitchen, and this can apply to the laundry area, too. Having a laundry area can really break the theme of the kitchen, especially with the unique look of laundry equipment. Sure, you could cover or hide them in cabinets or shelves, but that’d require extra money and effort.

On the other hand, with a dedicated laundry room, you don’t even need to worry about designing it. Most people don’t bother making the laundry room look fancy, and having it out of sight can give you that added creative freedom when designing the kitchen. 

Overall, we’d recommend separating the laundry room from the kitchen, but only if you have the budget and space to do so, of course. You can always work around designing with the laundry equipment, and while it may not look perfect, it can save you quite a bit. If you want to dedicate your kitchen to cooking only, though, it may be worth investing in a separate laundry room.

Conclusion

Kitchen cabinets may seem like nothing more than storage containers to some, but they’re vital in completing the look of your typical home kitchen. The kitchen cabinet has to match the overall theme of the look and should pair well with both the countertop and the backsplash. Adorning the cabinet with too many ornaments can result in incredibly distracting looks. Finally, if you can afford it, try keeping your laundry room and kitchen in separate areas. Now that you know what kitchen trends to avoid, you’ll be able to design the perfect kitchen setup.