Kitchen Styles

We are the top design and home renovation company with over 30 years of experience and offer only the best variety of design and renovation options. When creating a kitchen, you first must decide:

What styles appeal to you?

What items you must have?

How much you want to spend?

What is your preferred deadline?

What size and shape do you prefer?

Every kitchen has the same basic design elements:

• Cabinets
• Appliances
• Countertops
• Flooring
• Sinks and faucets
• Walls, ceilings, windows, moldings and other architectural details

But consider these factors when selecting products that will affect your kitchen's look and functionality:

The architectural style of your home - by making your home's interior reflect its exterior, you bring unity to the whole structure.

Your needs - perhaps you want space to cook big family meals, you're an at-home gourmet, or you have special accessibility concerns.

Your cabinets' door style and color - they will have the most impact on your new kitchen's palette by making the strongest visual statement.

Appliances also deserve top billing - which ones you select and where you put them will determine how cook-friendly your layout is.

Like clothing or furniture, kitchens come in many styles. Since a new kitchen is quite the investment, choosing a style requires serious thought.

Speaking broadly, it helps to know if you prefer a more classic or more modern look. Making that decision will help you start to narrow down choices on everything from wall color to cabinet doors. Picking a very specific design theme, such as French Colonial or Art Deco, gives you even more design guidelines. Mixing and matching styles is called eclectic, while a look that blends traditional and contemporary elements is considered transitional. Let's go over the different styles.

Traditional - Traditional kitchens have a formal, elegant look. They have similar characteristics of American and European homes of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. 

Expect to see:

Crown and rope molding, fluting, corbels and other ornamentation and trim

Cabinets in cherry, walnut, and mahogany

Raised panel cabinet door styles

Antique fixtures and appliances

Wood, stone, or other natural materials

Victorian - Elegance is the catchword when it comes to Victorian kitchens. Cathedral arch doors and raised panels come into play, accented by ornate molding and trim. Dark and heavy woods are best when it comes to cabinets.

Italianate - Much like the Victorian style, an Italianate kitchen relies on elegant cabinetry details, especially those of molding and trim. Generally painted cream with intricate raised paneling, these cabinets boast onlays, rope molding, and custom carved reliefs.

Georgian - A Georgian kitchen is best described as overall formal. Look to woods like cherry, walnut, and mahogany for your cabinets. Square panel raised doors are typical, as well as heavy crown molding and stacked cabinetry that reaches the ceiling. Black accents (such as a painted black island) are not uncommon.

Other traditional styles: Edwardian, Colonial, Farmhouse, Plantation, Regency, Cottage, Cape Cod, Estate, Bungalow, Federal, Queen Anne, Neoclassical, Early American, Manor and Shaker.

Other Country Styles: Tuscan Country, Swedish Country and Garden

Transitional - Transitional kitchens include elements of both traditional and contemporary design. Eclectic in nature, they mix natural and man-made materials as well as finishes and textures.

For example, an Arts & Crafts or Shaker kitchen can be made transitional rather than traditional by lightening the color palette, adding bamboo flooring, and/or showcasing appliances rather than hiding them behind wooden panels.

Molding and fixtures aren't elaborate, but do have some ornamentation.

Contemporary - Contemporary kitchens tend to be described as modern, minimalist, and geometric. Characteristics include horizontal lines, asymmetry, and a lack of molding or other ornamentation. Materials often are man-made rather than natural: stainless steel, laminate, glass, concrete, chrome, and lacquer. Contemporary encompasses styles from the 1940s to the present, with Europe-especially Italy, Germany, and Scandinavia leading the way.
Expect to see:

Frameless cabinets with oversized hardware

Cabinet material: stainless steel, white or bold-colored laminate, or subtly grained woods; such as birch, ash, or maple

Cabinet door style: slab or horizontal lift-up

Frosted glass inserts

Stainless steel and other metallic accents

Curved cabinets and counters

Contemporary styles: Art Moderne, Futurism, Functionalism, Modern, Post-Modern

Rustic - Rustic kitchens often have a regional American flair: Adirondack or Pacific Northwest, for example. Others resemble a lodge or cabin.

Expect to see:

Wood paneling and ceiling beams

Knotty pine, hickory and alder woods

Leather pulls

Warm, rich earth tones and reds, greens and yellows

Log Cabin/Mountain - Try bold and natural choices, like warm cabinetry with a strong grain (such as knotty pine or alder) stained in reds, greens or yellows. Wide rails and stiles (such as those of a Shaker door) enhance the look .

Rustic Country - Warm hickory wood tones shine on recessed flat panel doors. A hearth-style mantle hood, hand-carved turnings and furniture-like pieces bring a rustic country space to live.

Other rustic styles: Lodge, Southwestern, Mountain West and Coastal

Arts & Crafts - Grounded in form and function, Arts & Crafts kitchens rely on a natural bespoke look with a strong emphasis on craftmanship. Recessed panel doors with thick frames are dominant. Consider letting the doors into the frame by using flush frame cabinetry. For an interesting accent, contrast the finishes of woods of the frame against those of the door and panel.

Expect to see:

Neutral colors found in nature

Inset or recessed panel cabinet doors

Stained glass windows and lighting fixtures

Mullioned glass doors

Rich woods

Clean, strong lines

Old World - With their large cooking hearths or grottos and distressed, unfitted cabinets - trace their look to pre-17th century Europe. Often painted, the raised panel cabinetry should feature elements like cracking, beadboard, dish and cup racks, valence legs, flushed toes and bun feet.

Expect to see:

Furniture-look cabinetry

Stone walls and/or floors

Pewter or copper accents

Mosaic tiles

Brick or plaster walls

Deep, rich colors

Appliances hidden behind panels

Tuscan - With a softer, more feminine design, Tuscan kitchens rely on natural materials. While the cabinets are often painted in whites, creams or earth-tone yellows or browns, they tend to be monochromatic.

Other Old World styles: Italian Villa, French Chateau, Normandy Cottage, Dutch Cottage, Medival, Gothic, Mediterranean or Castle