H&K - epsiode 21, part 3
Welcome to Two Gins In, a designer's perspective, where your hosts, Karyn and Helen, both qualified and experienced building and interior designers. So grab your favorite drink as we sip, chat, and dive into the world of interior design and construction, sharing expert insights, trends, creativity, and inspiration.
Cheers to insightful perspectives with a few laughs along the way.
Welcome listeners. It's Helen here. I'll be flying solo for this installment of our two gins in podcast, a designer's perspective. Unfortunately, Karyn couldn't join me today, which will feel a bit strange not having someone to banter with.
However, I am excited to take you through part three of our series on kitchens. Today, I'll be diving into the aesthetic side of kitchens. I'll be exploring materials and emerging trends for 2024 with a few tips thrown in for good measure. Stay tuned and grab a drink as I discuss creating a kitchen that harmonizes functionality with style.
Welcome everyone. Unfortunately, Karyn isn't able to join me today, so I'll be running solo for this third part in our kitchen series. In today's episode, I'll be continuing our topic on kitchens because let's. Base it, it's such a prominent space in our homes, as well as being a highly functioning space that we have so much to talk about.
As we all know, the kitchen is one of the most important rooms in our home. So when renovating or designing a new kitchen, getting the functionality as well as the aesthetics on point is an absolute must for many of us. The kitchen is the hub and often the heart of the home and its design goes beyond.
Just its functionality. In our last episode on kitchens, we focused more on the functional side of things. Today, I'll be focusing more on the aesthetics of the kitchen, where I'll be talking about suitable materials used in kitchens, as well as what's trending in kitchens for 2020. Four. So whether you're a culinary enthusiast or busy parent, or someone who just simply enjoys the art of cooking, the aesthetics of your kitchen really does matter.
It's about creating a space that not only brings you joy, but serves its purpose, and also Ree resonates with your personal style and your home. Okay, so what I wanna start off by offering is a few practical tips when it comes to selecting the surfaces and finishes for a new kitchen. These days, we are so spoiled with.
Dozens of options. We've got lots of colors, textures, different materials that we can choose from. So it can be extremely daunting for someone that's untrained to be able to make a decision as to how to pull together the right combination for their kitchen. So firstly, you need to consider the overall style and theme of your home.
Your kitchen should harmonize with the rest of your living space. It's not a standalone, so whether you've got a modern minimalist look going on or a cozy farmhouse feel, I can't stress enough just how important it is to ensure that your kitchen's finishes align with the overall aesthetic of your home.
Secondly, think about durability. Kitchens are a high traffic area, so wear and tear is inevitable. So when choosing your finishes, Make sure that you choose a finish that will not only look fabulous, but just make sure that it's able to withstand the daily hustle and bustle. Look for durable materials that are easy to clean, easy to maintain, specifically and particularly with your work surfaces, because over time, these are going to cop the most bashing, and they'll need to withstand things like heat, staining, as well as scratching.
Thirdly, be a little adventurous. Don't be so frightened to mix and match your materials that you select. A well coordinated combination of finishes can really add depth and visual interest to your kitchen. So don't be afraid to experiment with a few different textures, different colors, and materials.
Just make sure that there is a cohesive element that's going to tie those together. Now, if you're feeling a bit out of depth here with pulling together a scheme with different materials and textures, don't be so freaked out. There are plenty of skilled professionals out there that can really help you and assist with pulling together a combination of finishes that is going to create a great impact without that overbearing clashes.
So yeah, give it a go. Another important tip is to prioritize the functionality of your kitchen. Now I know we're talking about aesthetics today and aesthetics are super important, but a practical and functional kitchen is absolutely crucial. It's going to impact your daily routine. So I want you to ask yourself these questions.
Is the surface that I've selected easy to clean? Is it going to complement my cooking style? Is it durable for the type of cooking that I'm going to use? And is it going to stand the test of time, I guess? And is it going to give me longevity with my kitchen? Just keep these questions in mind so that you can strike that perfect balance with the look and practicality of your kitchen.
A final tip for today is to embrace Lighting. Now, lighting is so important, both from an aesthetic as well as a practical perspective. The last thing you want to happen in your kitchen is for your body to cast shadows over your workspace. Now, this is something we see happen a lot. This can easily be avoided by a well thought out positioning of your general lighting, as well as adding specific task lighting to areas underneath your overhead cupboards or shelving. This can be twofold in its purpose. It not only creates aesthetically pleasing ambience with your kitchen, it also provides that much needed task lighting. Well thought out lighting can instantly transform the look. And the feel of your kitchen. Think about also how the different finishes are going to interact with various lighting setups.
It's amazing what a well placed pendant light or under cabinet lighting can do for both the aesthetics and the functionality of your kitchen. Now, sadly, lighting is often underestimated despite it playing. Such a significant role in the overall feel of your kitchen. So please remember to keep these tips in mind, not just the lighting, but all the other ones that I've just mentioned, as you embark on your journey of choosing your finishes for your new kitchen.
So let's move on to talking about kitchen trends for 2024. As with all design, kitchens are just as susceptible to design trends. Now, Karyn and I have been in the design game for quite a few years, so we've seen many kitchen design trends come and go. I would say in the past five years, we've designed many, many Hamptons and coastal inspired kitchens.
Now, don't get me wrong, I do love this look, and this look is fresh and it has its place, but I have to admit, it has been nice. Say in the last year that we've had a few clients that have really wanted to embrace color. Now, this is a trend that is now coming into play in 2024, and that's the introduction of color in our cabinetry.
We're seeing rich colors. Such as navies and plums, even the greens that we've seen creeping in last year are still going to feature heavily in 2024. If you're a little hesitant to go with a bold statement color for your cabinetry, don't despair. There are other ways of introducing color with appliances and things, vases and things on your, that will be sitting on your benchtop.
These will allow for the flexibility to change without breaking the bank and without being such a permanent statement if you're feeling a little unsure. Another trend is the resurgence of featuring the range hood. Now, traditionally speaking, canopy range hoods were the main focal point of a kitchen whereby the layout of the kitchen was centered around the cooktop with quite a prominent range hood as a feature above.
The last few years, we've. seen with, with the simple clean lines that were fashionable, we were seeing, a concealed rangewood system becoming more of a trend. Now, don't get me wrong. This is still very popular. However, it's dependent on the style and the layout and the design of your kitchen. So We're now starting to see the resurgence of creating a feature of our range woods.
However, we're being more mindful of it, not taking over the space, but rather incorporating it in within the whole design scheme of the kitchen. Now we're seeing a featuring our, I guess, range hood these days is more with the cladding of the range hood rather than it standing alone, as I said earlier. So we're seeing it featured in cladding such as, we're trending sort of towards.
So range hoods that are cladded in materials that are complimented or featured in the style of the kitchen and form part of the overall design aesthetic. So, for example, we're seeing basic plasterboard cladded range hoods and just simply painted in the general paint color of the wall. We're seeing it cladded in both raw and painted metal finishes.
Now, we're also seeing prefabricated, range hoods now, very simple metal range hoods. in painted color becoming available. We're seeing it clad in the same stone as what we're featuring on our benchtops. And even cladding it in painted or raw timber finishes and timber with textures, such as a fluted finish or even the V joint to tie in with our more traditional kitchens.
Another trend is we're seeing more use of timber in our kitchens. So the fully timber kitchens that have been absent from our contemporary kitchens for quite a while now, apart from, the introduction of oak features such as in shelving, say contemporary coastal look kitchens, we're now seeing a reverse of this.
Where the timber is being featured more prominently. We're now trending towards deeper tones in timbers as well, with entire banks of cabinetry featured in say a medium to dark tone wood. And in some cases, the entire kitchen is finished in timber. There's also a variety of woodcuts, coming into play, which gives us a bit of depth and added texture to the timber look.
And if you're tempted to go down this path of a timber kitchen cabinetry, maybe start to pay attention to the different cuts, as this will affect its appearance. Say for example, the rift cut or the quarter sawn cut are quite popular cuts. They're a little bit more simple in their feature, but without being too overpowering.
Now I quite like this trend in timber myself, as it brings so much warmth to the space. And the other thing is it pairs and works. So beautifully with a lot of the natural stone and marble, benchtops that are also on trend, which brings me to the next trend, which is marble. Marble isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
In fact, if anything, the slabs are making an even bigger statement in our kitchens now, where once upon a time, the marble, when it made its, resurgence quite a few years ago, the trend was to have more subtle veining. Now we're incorporating a statement piece of marble in our kitchens, giving it a more luxe, and richer vibe and feel to our kitchens.
We're now becoming a little bit more adventurous with our marble and our stone selections as the trend for Bolder colors and larger veining patterns is absolutely gaining popularity. A marble and stone is not now, is not just limited to our bench tops. As we mentioned earlier, we're now seeing, a trend in cladding our range hoods in marble, as well as our draw faces and even in some cases.
Cladding the whole, island bench in marble and making that quite a feature as well because stone is becoming more of a feature in itself. We are seeing, a trend with continuing the same stone as the bench top of the wall to create the splashback. Now this creates a seamless featured look.
Particularly as I said these days, the marble is quite striking, so the last thing you wanna do is to have it fight with too many other finishes. Another trend is a return to tradition, however, in a more contemporary look. So what I mean by that is we're sort of moving a little bit away from that minimalist look with everything be hidden behind cupboards.
And we're now moving towards a more, lived in look. I would have is probably the best way to describe, describe it by displaying on our benchtops, things like say your price coffee machine, and other clients, other appliances. Some nice vases with flowers, maybe a platter with ornaments, even knife blocks, are becoming a bit trendy to have displayed on our benchtops.
And like I said earlier, it's giving it that little bit of a lived in look. We're also embracing, as I said earlier, more warm and color in our designs with richer timber and paint colors. We're bringing in narrower shaker detailing on our timber doors and creating more depth and interest in our kitchens.
Now on a side note, I want to stress something, about trends, despite what's on trend, the look and the feel of your kitchen really must compliment your entire home. And more importantly, needs to reflect your personality. It needs to resonate with you and be practical and functional for your particular lifestyle.
And we emphasize this with our clients. Every space is different. Everybody is different. So not all trends are going to be the best option for you. They're not going to all suit your style and your space. So what we ask you to do is to take current trends with a grain of salt and use the inspiration, gain inspiration, I guess, from these trends and what's happening.
Try and be a little bit more adventurous, I guess, with your space, but make sure that you stay true to yourself. Self, your personality and the, overall design and style of your home. And that pretty much brings us to a close on trends and aesthetics. But if you do need further guidance, and this is a topic that can be very overwhelming for our clients.
If you need further guidance. We've got a free kitchen checklist that you can download and that will be in our show notes. So thank you for listening. Have a fabulous weekend, my friends and cheers to another, another wonderful week that has passed.
Thanks for joining us on the two gyms in design podcast. We hope you've enjoyed today's episode and insights on the world of design and construction. We look forward to our next episode with more design inspiration, tips from the experts, and a behind the scenes look at our latest projects. If you want more design information, or simply want to check out our portfolio of projects, visit our website at https://www.mcraeandlynch.com.au/ and our Instagram @mccraeandlynch. And feel free to reach out to us on our social media channels if you have any comments, questions, or even topics you'd like us to discuss. And please, don't forget to leave us a rating and review. Thanks again for listening. And if you've enjoyed this episode, we'd love you to share it with your friends and family.
We look forward to catching up with you on our next episode. Have a great weekend. Cheers.
