Designers share hottest trends for kitchens and bathrooms
Consumers are choosing practicality in their homes’ most popular rooms, asking for lots of storage and good space planning
Several thousand fortunate designers and retailers spent a few days recently in Las Vegas, ogling the latest stunning kitchen and bathroom designs at the 2014 Kitchen & Bath Industry Show.
In its annual design survey, the U. S.- based National Kitchen & Bath Association ( NKBA), a not- for- profit trade group with more than 60,000 members in the U. S. and Canada, asked 420 designers what they saw cooking for the coming year for the two most- renovated rooms in the home.
In kitchens, contemporary styles are rapidly gaining ground on the ever- popular traditional look. “While transitional styles are still No. 1,” says John Petrie, NKBA president, “we see kitchen design trending contemporary this year, with clean, simple lines, less clutter and little ornamentation.”
More practical considerations are surfacing. Consumers don’t want “frou- frou,” one designer said, as much as they want “good storage and space planning.”
1. Cool contemporary
While transitional styles still hold the No. 1 spot, 62 per cent of respondents said contemporary kitchens are on the upswing. Shaker is No. 3, being a style chameleon that usually fits either traditional or contemporary spaces. Retro or mid- century came in at No. 8 on a list of 10 styles.
Slipping in demand in 2013 were Tuscan and Provincial styles, distressed or glazed finishes and country looks. Painted cabinetry will be very hot, while walnut will be chasing maple as the wood choice.
2. Grey hues
Whites and off- whites took over from beiges or bones in 2013 in the colour category, but grey will be tops for kitchens in 2014, 71 per cent of designers said. Grey also will be this year’s colour scheme for bathrooms, 58 per cent of respondents say. Currently, beige-toned decor with white fixtures and polished chrome faucets are popular.
3. Furniture- style pieces
Eighty per cent of designers called for furniture- style pieces in 2013, where, for example, a kitchen island stands off the floor on legs, and may be of a different finish and style than the cabinetry. Fifty- six per cent see that style continuing through 2014. Wall- hung vanities, console tables and open shelving will be in demand, and pullouts of all sorts will be de rigueur.
4. Spa- like bathrooms
Increasingly moving away from the traditional, bathrooms are sleeker, cleaner, with a spalike look. Just a few years ago 75 per cent of bathrooms installed were traditional; now it’s at 62 per cent, and respondents expect contemporary to grow.
Some 64 per cent of NKBA designers specified a soaker tub in the master bath in 2013, preferring free- standing, non- jetted tubs. Only 42 per cent see that trend accelerating, related perhaps to the rapidly growing move to clean- lined no- threshold showers with benches; 70 per cent of designers expect to install one in 2014.
5. Accessibility appeal
Fifty- six per cent of designers included accessible and/ or universal design in their clients’ kitchens. Two- thirds incorporated docking/ charging stations and desks, and 56 per cent installed flatscreen TVs.
Accessible and/ or universal bathroom design will also be featured in bathroom design, with 57 per cent of designers incorporating it and 60 per cent expecting to use it more in 2014. Comfort- height toilets and vanities were very popular, with 84 per cent and 81 per cent respectively being installed.
Outdoor kitchens are growing in popularity, with 43 per cent of respondents designing them in 2013 and 41 per cent expecting an increase in 2014.
6. Preferred materials
Quartz will be the new granite in 2014 with 70 per cent of designers saying they see quartz’s popularity increasing this year — but granite rules. However, butcher block and other woods are fast gaining.
Almost 25 per cent of respondents called for counters with recycled materials, and 40 per cent said they expected to do so more often in 2014. Backsplashes will be glass.
What about those oil- rubbed, bronze faucets and the polished brasses that were so hot recently? Overall, their popularity is predicted to decline in 2014 in favour of stainless, polished chrome and satin nickel again.