8 Inspiring Kitchen Design Styles and Ideas

If you could create your kitchen exactly as you wanted, how would you design it? Having the chance to remodel and design your kitchen means that you have some choices to make. In fact, there are so many kitchen designs to choose from that your head may start spinning.

To help you get started, we’ve gathered eight kitchen design styles that will inspire your inner chef.

Kitchen Design Styles and Characteristics

When choosing the design style for your kitchen, you will want it to be functional for your needs and have a look that matches your personality as well as the rest of your home.

Here are 8 inspiring design styles for your new kitchen:

1. Traditional
2. Rustic
3. Contemporary
4. Transitional
5. Cottage
6. Mediterranean
7. Old world
8. Eclectic

Each one of these kitchen design styles offers a unique set of characteristics, so it’s important to consider each before making a final decision.

1. The Traditional Kitchen

The traditional kitchen gets its name because it is, well, traditional. But it is far from boring. In fact, traditional kitchen designs usually boast an eye-catching piece of something at every turn. This can be attributed to their elegance. Traditional kitchens tend to have a formal feel.

Characteristics:

• Crown molding.
• Dark, wooded cabinetry – often found in tones of cherry, mahogany, or walnut.
• Antique fixtures, such as faucets, knobs, and pulls.

2. The Rustic Farmhouse Kitchen

The rustic or farmhouse kitchen brings a cozy, earthy feel to the space. No matter where you live, you will feel like you have escaped to a mountain cabin when you enter a rustic kitchen. Here you will find a mix of earthy colors, such as reds, greens, browns, oranges, and yellows. The wood for the cabinetry is usually dark, often knotty pine, hickory, or alder.

Wood isn’t just for the cabinets in a rustic farmhouse kitchen. Instead, it is typically designed with wood beams on the ceiling and even some wood paneling on the walls. A rustic farmhouse table is usually the eye-catching piece. The general feel with this design is a comfortable, lived-in-style.

3. The Contemporary Kitchen

Contemporary kitchens are often sleek and clean. They offer bright natural surfaces and hard lines, but they can bring with them a dash of playful color.

Characteristics:

• Stainless steel appliances with a high-end appearance.
• Playful and unique lighting or a highly decorative chandelier-type of lighting as a centerpiece.
• Extensive use of backsplashes throughout the space.
• Use of glass or concrete for countertops is common.
• Cabinetry is often sleek with minimal design.

4. The Transitional Kitchen

Transitional kitchens are like a combination of traditional and contemporary styles. They offer a warm and welcoming feel, but they manage to keep it light and airy, too. They provide clean and simple lines throughout the space.

Characteristics:

• Natural surfaces of either stone or wood.
• Traditional wood cabinets with a simple and sleek appearance.
• A slight touch of traditional elegance can make its way in, often in the form of lighting, bar stools or chairs, or the like.
• Stainless steel appliances.
• Contemporary backsplashes in neutral, traditional colors.

5. The Cottage Kitchen

Looking for a bright, yet cozy feel? The cottage kitchen works well with any size kitchen, but it functions especially well with a small one. This style goes for a vintage look that boasts refurbished products and worn, weathered woods. The colors you will find will be bright, especially primary colors and the patterns found on stools and dining areas are fun and stand out.

Cottage kitchens are inviting and welcoming to friends and family of all ages.

6. The Mediterranean Kitchen

A Mediterranean kitchen will send off great feelings of romance and allure. Believe it or not, these are some of the hottest sought-after kitchen designs today. This style is not only welcoming, but it signals that you’ll have a wonderful time of inclusion here, too. It’s bursting with color and texture you won’t want to miss.

Characteristics:

• Colorful, hand-painted tile on walls and countertops.
• Wrought iron displays of pots and other signs of metal are common This includes the appliances – which are also typically large.
• The range hood in these kitchens is often made to be a center point of attraction.
• There are no hard lines in a Mediterranean kitchen, here you will find lots of curves.

7. The Old World Kitchen

What is the first thing you think of when it comes to “Old World?” For most, wood. Dark woods are very common in Old World kitchen designs, but they aren’t smooth and sleek. Instead, they often come with superior craftsmanship, sturdy build, and intricate design detail. Appliances in this kitchen will be bulky and strong, with a stainless-steel finish.

Stone or wood floors also add a bit of design era feel. Add some heavy fabrics with old world designs and you will be transported to another time.

8. The Eclectic Kitchen

Do you and your spouse have different tastes in design? Do you like to offer your guests a neat surprise at every turn? Then perhaps an eclectically-designed kitchen is for you. Here you create your own style by incorporating a variety of aspects from some of the other design techniques into one purposeful fashion.

Eclectic kitchen spaces can include fun colors that coordinate with one another. You may have dark wood cabinetry and a sleek, modern dining table. Make it rustic, make it Mediterranean, make it whatever your heart desires. That is what makes this type so fun.

You can do anything you want in your kitchen if you use a fashionable mix of styles, rather than a disastrous mix. The bright, funky design should lighten the mood of anyone who walks in your door. How would you like to wake up to that every morning?

What Kitchen Styles Inspire You?

Which kitchen design style speaks to you?

Believe it or not, you don’t have to sacrifice style for functionality. Whether you choose rustic, contemporary, traditional, transitional, or even eclectic, you will be able to turn your kitchen into your favorite room of your home.