3. Identifying a style

by | Oct 15, 2018 | Planning Tools | 0 comments

Traditional bank of base cabinets

Zeroing in on a style

In step one of the design process, we contemplated how the layout, style, and purpose of your kitchen fits with the rest of your house. Step two focused on identifying priorities, seeking opportunities to optimize your budget, and pulling together a big picture plan. Step three of the design process focuses on identifying a kitchen style. Whether you're working with an interior designer or taking on the project yourself, you will need to spend some time researching your options in order to choose the look that works best for your home. In many ways, your kitchen should flow with the style and era of your home, but there are still opportunities to express your individuality. Dozens of style names such as country, cottage, modern, traditional, and Tuscan help define the specific style choices, but you can start with even more basic questions. Do you like sleek lines or ornate details? Do you like natural woods or painted surfaces? Are you all about cool, or all about cozy? Does your kitchen need to match or harmonize with a dominant style like arts and crafts, modern, or Victorian that's prominent in the rest of your home?

 

While there are dozens of choices to choose from, the core style decision comes down to a traditional kitchen or a contemporary kitchen. Traditional kitchens typically include cabinet doors with detailed woodwork, natural wood colors, and a warmer feel. Contemporary kitchens have simpler surfaces, often bolder colors, and may place an emphasis on space and light over complex details.

Resources to aid in your exploration

Sound overwhelming? Fortunately, you have a number of great resources at your disposal to inspire you. Even before you get professional advice from a designer, you can familiarize yourself with popular styles. Start exploring on Pinterest.com and Houzz.com, which contains thousands of neatly categorized photos. Often you will get more results than you expected. A search for "red galley kitchen," for instance, returned 6,967 results.

 

Be sure to visit one of our cabinet lines: Heartland, Revola or Evoke for a library of door styles and colors, as well as photo galleries of finished kitchens. You can also see descriptions for twelve of the most popular style types and the matching door styles and finishes in our cabinet lines by visiting our Find Your Style page.