The 35 kitchen design trends to know about

What’s hot in the world of kitchen design? From exposed kitchen storage, smart extractors and patterned flooring to raw surfaces, curved edges and fluted glass, there’s certainly no shortage of super cool kitchen trends for 2020.

So, whether your current kitchen needs renovating or you simply want to refresh a tired scheme, take inspiration from the latest in modern kitchen design. We’ve found the latest, most on-trend kitchen updates for 2020…

Find your nearest kitchen showroom.

1. New in town

There’s a recently launched kitchen brand to add to your memory bank – Hush. Mixing traditional craftsmanship with modern manufacturing, its units are painted to spec. Bespoke style at a price that won’t make you wince.

Kitchens start at £12,000, hushkitchens.com

See Also: Before & After: A dated family kitchen gets a fresh new look

2. Classic cool

Move over globe pendants, the conical light is jostling for position above our kitchen islands and tables. The new creamware pendant light by deVOL is handmade 
with earthenware clay and hand-painted a glossy cream so no piece looks the same. Perfect for that touch-of-vintage feel.

Creamware pendant light, from £200, devolkitchens.co.uk

See Also: Stylish kitchen island pendant ideas

3. COOL CURVES

This softer profile is shaping up to be big news. So say hello to pure indulgence. London-based 2LG Studio’s curve-focused Rise collection almost broke social media when it was unveiled in 2018, and predict a swathe of curvy kitchens will follow suit this year.

See Also: Trending: Pink Kitchens

4. THE ANTI-KITCHEN

When is a kitchen not a kitchen? When it is concealed with chameleon-like prowess to obscure the functional and put the focus squarely on form. This trend for un-kitchen-y kitchens, creeping up on us in tandem with the open-plan movement has reached peak refined beauty. The trick is to select a considered palette of materials and finishes that are more typically associated with living room furniture. Luxurious timbers and exotic stones score highly, plus use fully integrated appliances wherever possible.

See Also: Wood Kitchen Ideas

5. High colour

Terrazzo is cranking up its lust factor this summer thanks to the bold colour options in Balineum’s new Siren tile collection. Handcrafted in Italy, it offers six saturated pigments in three square sizes – 10cm, 20cm and 60cm. Stick to a single palette or mix them for extra sass.

Tiles start from £3.08 each, balineum.co.uk

See Also: Matte Black Taps And Granite Sinks: 3 Tips For Cleaning Your Design-Led Kitchen Features

6. CANDY CRUSH

Bring some East Coast style to your kitchen or bathroom with the limited edition Miami Colour Pop collection from Dowsing & Reynolds. It features striking taps in pastel pink, soft white and neo mint, which have a matt finish and work with a variety of surfaces.

 Tinkisso mixer tap, £99.99, dowsingandreynolds.com

7. CONCEALED EXTRACTORS

A bulky extractor fan can ruin the look of a super-sleek, minimalist kitchen. Hurrah then for Falmec’s barely there Alba design. Its glass frame sits almost flush to the ceiling and is LED backlit.

See Also: Cool Black Kitchen Ideas

8. COLOUR CHOICE

Despite the name, Naked Kitchens is all about injecting colour, not going bare. Its Hampton Court kitchen combines Shaker-style drawers and cabinets in dusty pinks and turquoise, offset with dazzling copper hand-aged splashbacks. So that’s something to gaze at while you do the washing-up…

See Also: Painted Kitchens: Kitchen Colour Ideas

9. HEX APPEAL

Our love for brass is showing no sign of abating, and it’s not surprising with on-point designs like this tap from Abode. The monobloc mixer’s hexagonal detailing will add industrial style. It’s all about the antique brass finish with a patina that will only get better over time.

Hex tap in antique brass, H36.9 xW22cm, £339, abodedesigns.co.uk

See Also: Edited Choice: The Best Brass Taps

10. COOL HANDLES

Nkuku’s hand-embossed straps in black and brown leather are just the ticket for tired-looking kitchen cupboards or perhaps that charming but scruffy antique dresser in need of some TLC. ‘Add to basket’ immediately.

Dinka stamped leather handle, £5.95, nkuku.com

11. MINIMALIST HOOD

Left behind for far too long, the humble extraction hood is the final frontier to be tackled in the rapid rise of the smart kitchen. Following the introduction of FoodView in its pyrolytic ovens – a feature that allows you to check on the cooking status of food from your smartphone thanks to an internal camera (one for the keen soufflé chef) – Miele has introduced a cooker hood capable of communicating with its induction hobs via Con@ctivity 3.0 technology to automatically operate at optimum settings and switch off when the hob is no longer in use. Impressive stuff, yes, but that’s not to disregard its elegant doesn’t-look-like-an-extractor-hood design in a sleek white gloss finish.

Generation 7000 DA7078 Aura 3.0 cooker hood, £3,699, miele.co.uk

See Also: Striking And Stylish White Kitchen Ideas

12. PRECIOUS METAL

Known for infusing his brand with a rock’n’roll aesthetic, Massimo Buster Minale of Buster + Punch has drawn on his love of motorbikes to create a new Burnt Steel finish that mimics the rainbow effect of oxidised exhaust pipes. Check out this striking look on Precious Bar – a nifty cabinet handle with padlock and chain you can trust to keep tots well away from your whisky collection.

£85, busterandpunch.com

13. INDUSTRIAL VIBES

Looking for a kitchen tap that combines a rustic finish with eye-catching form? Say hello to the Armstrong range by Perrin & Rowe, inspired by Victorian locomotive engineers Joseph and George Armstrong.

Armstrong mixer with textured lever handle in satin brass, £686.28, perrinandrowe.co.uk

14. BROKEN BEAUTY

Embrace your tile imperfections with Patch Decor, part of Iris Ceramica’s striking new BeLike collection. The design is inspired by the Japanese restoration technique kintsugi, which repairs fragments of broken pottery with gold. The wall tile comes in blue and brown, with the glittering lines creating fractured geometric patterns.

Blue Patch Gold from the BeLike collection, 20x20x0.75cm, from £39.10sq m, irisceramica.com

15. HANDS FREE

Imagine asking your tap to dispense 150ml of warm water. Controlled by Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant, the U by Moen provides any volume of water up to 20 litres and at precise temperatures. It also works manually.

Price on request, moen.com

16. DITCH THE PLASTIC

Thought your Quooker boiling water tap was a feat of modern day engineering? Then get a load of this; install the new CUBE extension (attached to the existing tank with a CO2 cylinder) and the tap will stream not just filtered, chilled and boiling but a sparkling option too.

17. RED ALERT

Those clever clogs at deVOL are at it again. Now the brand has unveiled two new shades, Bakehouse Green and Refectory Red, which you can order for all its pieces, including the Potager cupboard, with its hand-painted backboard inspired by French ornamental kitchen gardens.

Hand-painted Potager cupboard, from £2,800, devolkitchens.co.uk

18. WHATEVER THE WEATHER

Hydroponics is one of the fastest growing (excuse the pun) horticultural trends, and Ikea has a complete hydroponics collection for cultivating plants indoors all year round. The Växer range includes LED lights, nursery and sprout boxes, cultivation insert sets and growing media, including starter plugs, pumice and fertiliser, all mounted in a stylish cultivating unit.

Krydda cultivation units, £19 each; LED lights, £27 each; sprout boxes, £6.50 each; cultivation insert sets, £3.50 each; starter plugs, £2.50 for 50, all Växer collection, ikea.com

19. VIP STYLE

Danish company Vipp has unveiled a grey version of its modular kitchen. The design is made from powder-coated aluminium and has a stainless steel worktop. Think of the kitchen as building blocks – there are four modules, including the Island, which gives versatility in an open-plan space, and the Tall for maximum storage. Kitchen Lego for grown-ups – we’re ready to play!

From £12,500, vipp.com

20. THE NAME TO DROP

Montreal-based Rachel Bussin is one worth keeping an eye on, not least for her knockout Sainte series of pendant lights created for Canadian firm Lambert & Fils. Surprisingly simple in construction, each is made up of laminated glass panels, an internal lighting box and nylon thread for suspension.

Hang them in multiples and their colours – a soft pink, burgundy red, vivid green and 1970s-feel yellow – overlap and intensify in Mondrian-like grids.

‘I had a slightly backwards approach to the collection, says Bussin. ‘I wanted to create a beautiful object first and then figure out how to make it a luminaire.’

More of her self-stamped ‘visceral’ aesthetic can be seen at Studio Kiff – the commercial design agency founded by Bussin and Helene Thiffault – whose debut project is an intensely coloured, heavily carpeted boutique jewellery shop.

21. A TOUCH OF TIMBER

While an all-out timber treatment might be hard to get right without treading perilously close to traditional lines, we’re all over this season’s restrained injection of woody warmth. As with most natural materials, the joy of embracing timber in the kitchen lies in its inherent uniqueness. With real wood it’s impossible to achieve an exact copy – and therein lies the richness and personality that will ensure your new kitchen stands out.

See more timber kitchen ideas. 

22. JAGGED CONNECTIONS

Ideal for creating a distinction between two zones without the harshness of a straight line, these jagged connections are set to bring kitchen floors to life this year. Champion shaped tiles, but choose wisely. The key to a smart connection is exactitude – untidy joints won’t cut it. Hexagonal tiles are your six-sided friends, particularly when paired with wood flooring that can be cut with millimetre precision.

23. ON THE GRID

Crittall converts will fall for this dynamic approach to fine framework, as it moves from architecture to kitchen fittings. We’re seeing it used for grid-like shelving, often suspended from the ceiling for maximum impact, or cuboid cubby-style storage in lieu of wall units. As well as within vertical surfaces, such as doors and splashbacks, with contrasting materials recessed in geometric patterns with striking effect.

See Crittall-style kitchen extensions. 

24. FLUTED GLASS

Favoured at various points throughout history – from Greek columns and pilasters to reeded glass in Art Deco, and then mid-century, furniture – the latest fluted revival is firmly kitchen bound. On cabinetry, fluted patterns can be used to provide 3D interest – just enough to bounce the light and add character while staying within the simplicity of modern design – offering privacy and depth.

See more kitchen storage.

25. IN THE RAW

Bert & May’s passion for raw materials runs through to its new kitchen designs which reference the past but feel contemporary. We love the reclaimed look of Yard (below), while Library has a grown-up hand-painted finish. Kitchens start from £25,000, and the new ranges are on display at the showroom in East London.

26. PATTERNED FLOORING

Celebrated patternista Neisha Crosland’s collaboration with Harvey Maria continues with Dovetail, her third design for the luxury vinyl flooring brand. Drawing inspiration from traditional tile patterns, Dovetail has a strong geometric repeat pattern and comes in five colourways: Flax, Ink Black, Lavastone, Ochre and Oxford Blue (shown below).

27. INDUSTRIAL SURFACES

Five new colours have been added to the Metropolitan collection by Caesarstone. With industrial shades inspired by concrete and burnished metals, highlights include 4046 Excava, with rusty copper tones, and the terrazzo-led 4601 Frozen Terra.

See more concrete style kitchen surfaces.

28. STONE SINKS

DeVOL’s Carrara marble butler sinks bring a slice of cool Italia to its English-country aesthetic. Choose the Milano Penthouse or Tuscan Farmhouse design, with each sink cut from a single block of honed, smooth stone, which ages beautifully over time.

See more modern butler sinks.

29. FINE DETAILS

The much admired Air kitchen by deVol has had a timely design update. Inspired by the timber work of old gentlemen’s haberdasheries, it now features dark interior cupboards, aged copper end panels and natural stained oak finishes.

30. SILENT TREATMENT

If you long for a bit of peace and quiet while rustling up dinner, a Navy cooker hood could well be your new best friend. The 7840 Vision model has the sleek, good looks the design conscious love, but still boasts a noise-reduction system to keep that whirring noise at bay.

31. GOOD CONNECTIONS

Just when you thought home tech couldn’t go any further, Miele launches a cooker hood that can communicate with the hob below, automatically adjusting its suction strength according to what’s sizzling  beneath it. They call it Con@ctivity 2.0 technology and it means less time fiddling around with switches and more time admiring the hood’s sleek, waterfall-like canopies made from curved glass. Smart and beautiful…

32. KEEP COOL

Dinner party like a pro with Miele’s sleek wine conditioning unit. Not only does it hold up to 83 bottles – which should be more than enough for a riotous evening – but it features a Sommelier set, complete with a glass holder and decanting racks. Independent temperature zones mean you can store reds, whites and champagnes all at their optimum condition inside the same unit.

Find the best wine coolers.

33. LOOKS LIKE STONE

We’re all for colourful, mosaic-style ceramics, yet the Cube collection of floor and wall tiles from Iris Ceramica is something altogether more effortlessly chic. Spanning a palette of cool neutrals, each porcelain tile interprets a stone finish with faithfully reproduced details like veins. Fast-track to a classic-meets-cool kitchen with a square design, or introduce a hexagon or lozenge shape for a quirky twist.

34. COLOURFUL COOKERS

Love Le Creuset’s casserole dish colours? Go one step further and deck out your appliances in one of its shades. A collab with Italian manufacturer Steel means cooker hoods, cookers and fridges from its Ascot, Genesi and Oxford ranges are now available in this pretty purple hue.

Genesi 120 range cooker, from £5,970, steel-cucine.com

35. 3D TILES

See Also: The Latest Bathroom Trends.