KITCHENS WITH PERSONALITY

“I’m excited to see that people are becoming more experimental in their design choices, from mixing metals to integrating a variety of textures,” Bakes says.

Lighting is one way to bring personality and modernity to kitchens. Recessed can lights are still with us, but there’s now a lot of statement lighting, too: a row of pendants or a supersize fixture over an island, for example.

While subway tile still dominates backsplashes, some are tweaking how it’s used. “For example, applying them in unexpected patterns such as vertically instead of horizontally, and stacked instead of staggered,” Erin Davis, a designer in Portland, Oregon, noted on the real estate platform Homelight,

Big sections of ceramic tile are also popular. New tech has allowed makers to make large but thinner, lighter slabs that are easier to work with. And fewer grout lines mean they’re easier to clean.