The world of fashion does not stand still, the emergence of new trends in the design of living spaces is an endless stream of ideas from designers around the world. London, Milan, Paris and New York showrooms showcase the freshest, hottest novelties to create the most comfortable, practical and efficient interiors. The realization that thousands of professionals around the globe are working to ensure that we can use the most modern and technologically advanced materials, appliances and fixtures for our kitchen spaces cannot but inspire. But the most pleasant thing in all modern trends in the design of multifunctional rooms is the popularity of creating an interior with maximum personal comfort in mind. As in the last season, the main tasks of creating modern design were the use of environmentally friendly materials, the search for the simplest and most concise solutions and a harmonious symbiosis of practicality and comfort..
The modern rhythm of life dictates the features of creating the most efficient interiors. A modern housewife does not have time to cook complex dishes with many ingredients and a long time of simmering on the stove, there is no way to polish the silverware, and the appliances themselves have long given way to a more practical accessory. A modern kitchen should be not only convenient and comfortable, but also easy in terms of performing the simplest work processes, for any household, even a child. Therefore, the integration of safe, high-tech and energy-efficient household appliances into storage systems with the most convenient location and content is a priority for any designer (owner of the kitchen space). The good news is that it is possible to arrange a kitchen room with a high level of efficiency, visual appeal and ergonomics even with a small budget and within a small space..
The main motives for decorating the kitchen in the coming season
General trends
The modern style of space design is multifaceted, but at the same time laconic. He drew his motives in such stylistic directions as minimalism, loft, hi-tech, industrialism. But more «home», cozy styles are able to integrate their concept into the framework of a modern interior – country and eco-style, Scandinavian and Mediterranean motives can be woven into the overall design of the kitchen space.
The kitchen of 2017 is a spacious and bright room with a rational layout, simple furniture solutions and the most convenient use of all elements. Obviously, for Russian realities, the implementation of the latest trends often rests on the modest size of kitchens. That is why combining the kitchen space with the living room not only has not lost its popularity, but has become a real mainstream. No matter how far progress and the catering system have stepped forward, Russians will not stop preparing dishes for family meals in the kitchen areas, they will not stop receiving their closest guests at the dinner table..
Combining the kitchen and living room allows not only to expand the spatial possibilities, but also to create a multifunctional interior that can meet the requirements of the comfort of all household members. Another important feature of combining functional segments within one room is the level of natural light in the space. The larger your windows, the better. The lighter the existing room is, the more it will seem, the more maneuvers for interior decoration the designer or owner of the home will have.
The modern style has always been a kind of mix of the main design trends, borrowed in various stylistic directions. The mainstream of the upcoming season will be the so-called «reasonable eclecticism». One style is chosen as the basis (most often it is filled with laconicism and practicality) and elements from other styles are added to it in a very dosed manner to bring comfort, coziness and aesthetics. It is the correct dosage of elements of different stylistic manifestations that dictates the success of the created design..
One of the original trends of our time is the mixture of cutting-edge technology and progressive finishing methods with intentionally aged elements or surfaces. An antique sideboard can coexist with the smooth facades of a modern set, and the most common finishes alternate with worn surfaces, intentionally peeling paint..
Equally popular is (and will continue in the next season) the integration of retro-style household appliances into a kitchen with a modern interior. Most often, it is these retro appliances with a distinctive (and often striking) design that become the main accents of kitchen design..
Color palette
The fashion for everything natural, natural is so firmly entrenched in current trends that it will not soon give up its positions. You can be sure of purchasing high-quality finishing materials or furnishings made from natural raw materials. Not only durability, environmental friendliness and attractive appearance, but also the relevance of interior items will almost always guarantee a high cost.
Love for nature has clearly found its embodiment in color trends for decorating the most popular room in any home – the kitchen. The motives of land, sea, stones and vegetation are more popular than ever. Designers draw inspiration from the elements of nature, embodying eye-catching color motifs in their projects. Their customers only benefit from this approach – after all, natural shades always help to create a special, pacifying atmosphere of the room, an environment in which everyone will be cozy and comfortable..
Let’s take a closer look at some examples of using the most popular color schemes. White kitchens never go out of style. The symbol of cleanliness and freshness is so connected in our minds with the comfort of cooking, the sterility of all surfaces, that it is difficult to deny ourselves the pleasure of decorating the kitchen space in all shades of white. But it is not only lightness and freshness that attracts designers and their customers. White tone is universal, it goes well with any color scheme. Not to mention, to visually increase the volume of a small space, all shades of white are perfect.
White helps create a sense of spaciousness even in small spaces. Sunlight, reflecting off the snow-white surfaces, spreads freely throughout the room, creating a light image of a space in which freedom seems to be the most natural participant in the interior. You don’t need to be a designer to bring a color accent to a white kitchen design. On a snow-white background, furniture or any other interior items of any color look accentuated and colorful.
But a completely white kitchen will look sterile, airy, and not cozy. The ideal way to bring natural warmth, coziness and a sense of comfort to a snow-white kitchen design is to use wooden surfaces. Any wood species, even the lightest, will look accentuated against a white background. Such an alliance always looks advantageous in combination with modern household appliances. Even in a room of modest size, the snow-white-woody ensemble looks organic.
Kitchens made using contrasting color combinations do not leave their positions in the list of the most popular design projects. Most often, designers propose to oppose each other with snow-white surfaces and inserts in dark gray, dark chocolate and even black. Any of the wenge shades will look great when paired with light finishes or crisp white countertops. To avoid an overly straightforward contrast of the kitchen image, experts recommend «dilute» black and white alternation with wood elements. It can be both the facades of the kitchen set and countertops, furniture for the dining area and even decoration or parts of it..
The use of various shades of gray does not go out of fashion when creating a practical, functional and at the same time outwardly attractive image of the kitchen. The good thing about neutral shades is that even non-professionals can cope with combinatorics. Gray shades are easily combined with wood, they always look advantageous in combination with a white tone and dosed interspersed with bright colors. The design in gray tones is not only comfortable for our eyes, but also favorable for creating a neutral emotional background of the room, in which every household member or guest of the home can feel comfortable..
Room decoration
No matter how much time has passed, no matter what innovations progress in the production of finishing materials offers us, and the special microclimate of the kitchen space dictates its own criteria for choosing raw materials for decorating the surfaces of a multifunctional room. Constant changes in temperature conditions, high humidity in some areas of the kitchen space and possible mechanical influences complicate the choice of finishing materials, putting practicality and functionality at the forefront. But modern technologies allow us to choose options for the design of kitchen surfaces without losing aesthetics, maintaining environmental friendliness and practicality of materials..
In modern design projects of kitchen spaces, decoration acts only as a background for the main participants in the interior – a furniture set and a dining group. Wall decoration is most often done in a single color scheme. Neutral light shades can alternate with dark contrast, but print is considered irrelevant (at least in modern kitchen designs).
Considering the fact that materials harmful (or even slightly suspicious) for humans are taboo in 2017 interiors, natural raw materials come to the fore. Many designers use cork to decorate modern interiors. It is a light, warm and environmentally friendly material with its own distinctive texture, which is not disturbed during painting. The use of cork is quite capable of replacing the use of decorative plaster, moreover, it is easy to install..
Concrete surfaces (or their spectacular imitation) do not give up their positions and continue to be popular with both designers and their customers. A light touch of industrialism (and hence modernity) gives the kitchen interior even a small concrete surface. The gray color of concrete can be safely called the most neutral, it easily harmonizes with any color options for finishing and furniture.
Features of the choice of furniture
The modern furniture set is a symbiosis of laconicism, practicality, ergonomics and aesthetics. Whatever design the furniture is made in, it should be functional, as easy to use as possible and easy to clean. Modern mechanisms, the latest developments in the field of furniture fittings allow you to create convenient storage systems even in hard-to-reach places, using every centimeter of kitchen space rationally.
The use of ready-made furniture solutions for kitchen spaces is significantly inferior in popularity to the manufacture of custom-made headsets. This is due to the peculiarities of the layout of apartments dating back to the buildings of the last century, and with the lack of square meters and with the desire of customers to obtain a furniture solution that will fully satisfy their needs for storage, integration of household appliances and the distribution of work surfaces..
The fashion for absolutely smooth facades has subsided a little, an increasing number of global brands for the production of ready-made furniture solutions for the kitchen prefer to use fittings. But for many designers, sleek facades are still a symbol of modernity. So we can only hope for our own intuition and taste preferences, choosing the best option for the execution of facades for our kitchen.
Another trend this season and the coming season is the use of open storage shelves as an alternative to the top tier of kitchen cabinets. In small rooms, this approach will prevent the creation of an effect «caskets», when a small room, completely filled with storage systems, visually presses with its volume on the people in it. In large kitchen spaces, a combination of wall cabinets and open shelves is most often used – the interesting design and practical component win over many homeowners and designers.
If we talk about choosing furniture for organizing a dining area, then there is no universal option that could be called mainstream. The furniture for the dining segment is selected based on the room’s possibilities, the number of family members and the characteristics of the lifestyle. Someone needs to seat several people at the table every evening for a family dinner, while others just need a bar counter or a kitchen island countertop to accommodate a couple.
If there is enough space in the kitchen space to organize a dining area, experts recommend using round or oval tables. This form allows not only to add the number of seats if necessary, does not impede traffic and is safe for a home in which there are small children, but also looks attractive and homely. Rectangular and square tables for meals are equally popular – the weight depends on the geometry of the main furniture – a kitchen set. But even in these pieces of furniture, most often modern manufacturers began to round the corners..
If your family has no more than three people and mass feasts are not your strong point, then a small dining area organized on the extended countertop of a kitchen island or peninsula will be enough. Such a dining area is compact and can be made in a very original way. With the help of unusual bar stools or stools, you can bring originality and creativity to the kitchen interior.
Lighting system, accessories and decor
In modern design projects, decoration is kept to a minimum. In particular, the trend towards a decrease in the number of elements with a purely decorative function is noticeable in kitchen spaces. In a room where a large number of storage systems with embedded household appliances must be located on several quadrant meters, work surfaces and a dining area must be organized, there is a risk of creating a cluttered effect if the decor is used too actively. Therefore, as decorative elements, fully functional interior items are most often used – lighting devices, dishes, cookbooks, live plants, fruits.
In laconic and most functional design projects of kitchen premises, lighting fixtures are often the only bright, accent or original interior elements that can stand out from the general background, attract attention and even dictate the filling of the zone around them.
A bright, prominent spot on a completely neutral background of the interior of a modern kitchen can be the colorful upholstery of the kitchen corner or small sofa, the tablecloth on the dining table or the piece of furniture itself. You can choose colorful upholstery for chairs or stools, regardless of how the dining area is organized – at the table, on the kitchen island or at the bar.
Designers pay special attention to kitchen accessories, which means that manufacturers of various fixtures for this multifunctional room strive to provide as many options as possible for modern, practical and aesthetic equipment. For example, mixers have long ceased to be just taps for water supply – this modern device helps to save fluid consumption and clean it. And at the same time, they can look futuristic, be equipped with lighting and amaze with the shine of chrome surfaces, or be executed in an old spirit with copper or bronze coatings, carved valves and luxurious decor..
