By Nick Jeffries
If you are updating a kitchen this year, these are the seven directions worth looking at.
- Open shelving. It makes a kitchen feel lighter and larger, and it puts the china and the cookbooks on show. It also means the shelves have to stay tidy, which is the trade-off.
- Two-tone cabinets. Pairing light upper cabinets with dark lower ones adds depth without adding colour, and it lowers the visual weight of a small room.
- Statement splashbacks. A coloured mosaic or a marble splashback carries the personality of the room, and it is one of the cheapest things in a kitchen to change later.
- Mixed materials. Stainless steel appliances against a timber island, or marble worktops against exposed brick. The contrast is what gives a kitchen texture.
- Smart appliances. Appliances that can be controlled from a phone add convenience and, on an oven or a washing machine, can save energy by running off peak. Plan the power and the data before the units go in.
- Large islands. An island adds worktop and becomes the place people stand while somebody cooks. It needs a metre of clearance all round, which is what decides whether the room can take one.
- Natural materials. Timber, stone and marble warm a kitchen in a way that a manufactured surface does not, and they wear rather than fail.
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Published 6 January 2023. Written by the NU Projects studio, edited since for house style and accuracy.