Kitchens: what will be the next trend?

[LakieLady]

We're going to have a new kitchen next year and, as we hope to sell up and move within the next couple of years, want to put in something that will be attractive to buyers rather than what we would choose for ourselves.

I think we have reached peak grey, so that will look dated by the time we sell, and doubt my ability to keep a high gloss finish free of fingermarks, so prefer a painted finish.

What does the MN hive mind think will be the next kitchen trend?

Kitchen is 16' x 10', and not very light, as the garden is higher than the house, iyswim.

Agree open shelving looks great in pictures, but isn’t very practical.

Dark colours are trendy, but I would hesitate to have a kitchen full of dark cupboards. Maybe a “tuxedo kitchen” where you have dark lower cabinets but keep the upper cabinets white.

I like the navy units, white worktops and brass handles and taps trend. But I'm not selling so IDGAF what anyone else thinks of it

I love this colour scheme. Shame I'll never afford a kitchen this lovely

Alexandra Stedman's house on insta is a good guide to what's currently in vogue, and she's just done her kitchen in dark green and white.

I really hope the next 'trend' will be people choosing kitchens that they like and want to live with for the next 50 years, instead of getting them re-done every time they get bored for 5 seconds.

Charcoal units are trendy I think. I just have cream shaker style.

Just had mine done, went for mid grey, satin finish. Don't care that it may not be fashionable; it's a good base neutral, finger marks don't show, and it's easy to jazz up or tone down with accessories. Also have a dark room, so went for a "natural daylight" led panel light. It certainly does the job! It almost looks like a skylight / light well.

I don't know but I've coveted all the big trends before they've gone mainstream and I'm currently dreaming of a dark green kitchen.

Our mortgage provider wouldn’t let us purchase a house with a freestanding kitchen so I’d rule one out straight away.

Huh? That seems ludicrous to me.

@Hingeandbracket and @bridgetreilly

Kitchens don’t last forever. Appliances break and get to the point they cannot be fixed. Cupboards breakdown and can’t always be mended. Taps leak, etc.

A decent kitchen will last about 15 years. Most people will be getting annoyed with all the things starting to fall apart and break down and put in a new kitchen somewhere between 15 and 20 years.

Because people know they will keep a kitchen for a long time, they want something flexible and timeless and not already starting to look dated.

I would go for white or cream real wood - then people can paint to whichever colour they like.

Blue has replaced grey.

The next trend may well be the same as the current one. Buy a nice house with a perfectly good kitchen, and rip everything out. Or knock the entire house down, put a basement in and remove any trace of character.

Just find a neutral kitchen you can live with. No hideous red glossy things, no black.

I look for light colours or something I can paint rather than remove so no laminated doors and open shelving works OK in restaurants where the plates need to be grabbed but think of the build up of dust and grease if you don't keep cleaning it.

I agree with white or cream with wood effect worktops. Not real wood worktops as too difficult to keep looking nice. Clean and bright and new buyers can easily change the colour scheme to their taste with the floor and wall colours which can be anything at all as the cupboards are white. Anything cutting edge fashionable will quickly date.

Or dark blue base units, white above .

We went for the DIY Kitchens Shaker units as someone else suggested and they are really good quality. We went for a blue/green colour but you can pick any colour you like from various paint ranges.

I would try painting on a large sheets of paper and sticking them on existing units to see what colours work for you

We just bought a house in the US, I'm getting the joy of enforcing mask wearing while our navy kitchen is installed. Our kitchen is big with lots of light though, and we've got Moorish tiles (navy, yellow, cornflower blue and white) on the floor. Splashback same as countertops and is a single slab rather than tiles. Instead of cupboards, we've gone entirely with drawers as bases - with heights specific for what goes in them.

We also have a huge extractor fan that's practically an art piece. It's 'silent' apparently. This was a lie.

If I were looking to sell within a couple of years I'd go more for things I could 'live with' but that a buyer can easily change out, pale neutral colours and no wallpaper. And I'd avoid 'trendy', go for 'classic'.

I've been looking (online) at houses and one of the BIGGEST drawbacks for me is rooms/cupboards that are painted colours that make me think "God, it's going to take major stripping and/or 500 coats of paint to cover that!" Same for bloody wallpaper. Wallpaper is such an individual choice and it's a turn-off to look at a house and think "Tearing that off and repainting is going to be expensive!".

And IMHO you can NEVER have to many kitchen cupboards.

@sergeilavrov Do share pictures. It sounds very different from what we are seeing in Britain.

I had a navy and off white glossy kitchen in the 80's, still like navy but wouldn't want glossy. I did think navy was on the way out though.

Dark green, nope. Our kitchen is old and has been painted, not by us. The doors are fine, and not outdated, still see the style for sale, but the dark green paint, dark green oven and hob, horrible. The paint has been scratched by previous occupants who had long talons, and has worn off around the handles so it is easy to see how dark the kitchen was. I would run away at the sight of a dark green kitchen.

@JayeAshe

Something to bear in mind if choosing Shaker style is the tendency for dust, grime etc to settle on the lower "sill" of the panel IYKWIM, and the ease of cleaning those inner corners.

Exactly why I didn't go for shaker style.

@psilyu that looks a lot like my kitchen! I love it. Also, as our cupboards are wood we can always repaint them in the future if it ages badly.

If I were looking to move in the next couple of years, I wouldn't put in a new kitchen that a new owner would just rip out anyway, unless the existing one was really falling to pieces.

(Our kitchen is 24 years old, and is nearly good as new.)

Not sure about colours, but I expect more people wfh will have an impact on designs.

I did off-white with walnut worktops and upstand/splashback 5 years ago and it's still looking smart, I went for flat cupboards because shaker style gets so dusty. It replaced wood veneer cabinets and a black worktop, something my mother in law still has.