Kitchen trends 2022 - Hiie Härm
Kitchen designer Hiie Harm introducing

2022 Kitchen Trends – colors, materials, appliances

What stays. What goes.

2022 Kitchen Trends – colors, materials, appliances

What new directions await us in kitchen design?
Which materials and colors do people want in their homes?
Where are the kitchen appliances trends heading?

The article is long.
I try to make fewer words and show more pictures.

Photo: Tuuli Saarniit; kitchen design Hiie Härm

What stays?

from previous years kitchen trends

  • Green kitchen
  • Natural and sustainable materials
  • Wood, light and dark (like walnut)
  • Black cabinets + black countertop + black splashback
  • Minimalism, handleless, pure kitchen style
  • Marble decor on the countertop and also on the splashback design
  • Quartz countertops
  • Pantry

What goes?

  • The high gloss was out already last year.
  • The open kitchen plan (in some people opinion, still no)

Customers wanted to separate kitchen and living room zones already last year.

The main argument is the desire to separate cooking and kitchen activities from spending free time with your family and watching TV.

Also, that the smells and noise of cooking should not disturb the conversation in the living room.

But what`s new then?

I found so many new and exciting things, which I want to share with you.

I am so excited.

I`m begin then

to share

the news.

KITCHEN CABINETS

Smoked glass and warm light in glass cabinets

Suits for modern style kitchen very well

Mesh cabinetry

I have seen this already.
Karuse Furniture, a solid wood cabinet maker in Estonia, introduced it to me already in the spring of 2021.
This trend is just beginning to show up.

Fluted cabinetry

Last year, fluted glass cabinets appeared.
This style has now been developed further and spatial material has been made,
covering both the cupboard doors and the sides and back of the kitchen island.

Pantries with glass doors and windows

We, here in North Europe, maybe make more floor-to-ceiling storage cabinets,
but in America and England love the pantry,
where are stored dishes, vegetables, and other groceries.

1-2 floating shelves

Open shelves are used to hold either everyday tableware to get them quickly or show family heritage tableware.

Three-level kitchens

This is a trend that we have here, in Estonia, already been used for several years.
But in America, it will be a trend next year. They said that this came from Scandinavia. This is cool!

Integrated bench

This solution is considered comfortable but at the same time a bit minimalist, but also cozy and homely. How to understand this.
The importance of a seating kitchenette in small apartments is especially emphasized.

COLORS

Green – in every tones

Green is the hottest color right now.
On cabinetries,  kitchen walls, wallpapers, curtains, splashbacks, tableware, etc.

Green is the color of Nature and nature is calming.
That is exactly what people need right now or the last two years the most.

Green + wood

Even better is the green mixed with wood. Natural wooden tone will be the second most used color on kitchen 2022. year.

They say that green with wood is the Trend no. 1 next year.

Suitable for both light natural wood and darker warmer walnut.

Pastel pink

This color is actually more versatile than it looks.
It is used as splashes, on the walls or all over the kitchen cabinetry.

I have already had to design a pink kitchen myself.

Brave color contrasts

Picking two shades on opposite sides of the color wheel,
like pink and green, will achieve bold contrasts.

Clients combine absolutely insane colors,
like pink + green, orange + mint green, and so on.
Opposite colors bring out the second color the most.
People want colors and freshness in their lives.

More about colors

  • Warm ocher, warm light gray with wood
  • Butter cream has a warm and neutral background for every other color
  • Brown tones – sandy beige and dark wood tones
  • Jewelry tones – emerald green and sapphire blue
  • Dark orange
    In fact, it seems that all colors are represented.

Golden

If in previous years there were golden cabinet knobs, golden faucets, and golden sinks.
Then now the golden background splashbacks and the golden shelves are eye-catchers.

Of course, the golden details are not lost anywhere.

MATERIALS

Natural wood

One of the most important trends in 2022 is, of course, ecological and sustainable cuisine.
Eco-style continues to be at the zenith of its popularity.

The focus here is on materials that are durable, resilient, and as natural as possible.
There’s increasing evidence that reducing the amount of chemically treated materials in a home has health benefits for those within.

 Not only is sustainability a new trend, but it also has become one of the top five factors that people consider when planning out what type of new kitchen design to have installed in their homes.

There has been growing interest in the second hand kitchen market.

From a sustainability perspective, buying second-hand or ex-display kitchens makes a lot of sense, recycling products that are usually in pristine condition. 

Buying second-hand is also a purse-friendly option that can save buyers up to 70% off rrp.

The wood is matched with all shades of color.

Marble decor with a large pattern

Gray or beige veining marble decor quartz or ceramic countertops have been on the rise for years. Now a stronger pattern will appear too. Both as countertops and as a splashbacks.

Thickness is not always equal to strength. Modern kitchen designs with thin countertops look almost weightless, yet good performance is designed to withstand standard household loads.

Wallpaper in the kitchen

Yes.
And not only on splashback but in the whole kitchen.
In all walls.
Not just in one effect wall.

The wallpaper pattern is also important.

  • Green nature.
  • Large leaves and flowers.
  • Exotic plants.
  • Jungle.
  • Tropics.
  • Parrots.

Floor

The herringbone flooring adds texture and warmth and works wonderfully with natural lighting.

This trend can be made with multiple types of wood to complement numerous other 2022 trends. For example, you could accompany blond oak herringbone floors with sustainable kitchen materials.

ACCESSORIES

Plants

It was the fanciest find for me.
The more plants in the kitchen, the better.
The larger, more lush the leaves, the more modern.

Even a tree can grow in the middle of the kitchen.
So cool!

Layered Lighting

Recessed lighting layered with pendants and wall lights are the key to adding character and also a brilliant way to zone your lighting for cooking, dining and lounging areas.

Expect teardrop-shaped pendants and line chandeliers in more interiors in the coming years.

Designer lamps could be used as pendants above the island. Long fine, slender vertical forms for modern kitchens and rattan lamps for country-style wood kitchens are very trendy.

For example, several chandeliers can be used side by side.

Layered lighting also means that if there are pendant lamps above the island, then there may be another style lamp above the adjacent dining table.

APPLIANCES

A survey of American kitchen designers reveals what customers expect the most in the coming years.

And these are:

  • Kitchen appliances controlled by app / phone / tablet / voice commands
  • Faucet with sensor or voice command
  • LED lighting under kitchen cabinets, by voice command

Refridgerators

Soon, large screen refrigerators will be normal in each kitchen as technology advances so fast.
Why is a big screen good?

Because there you can display, for example:

  • A calendar of activities for the whole family, ie what time the child starts training, what time the father has meetings and at what time the buses leave.
  • View and discover new recipes. Tell the fridge to order the food you need to make these recipes.
  • Digitally save and store moody pictures of your family, pets, or children’s drawings.

And by keeping all these things in one digital place, the kitchen will actually be much cleaner from small papers and important calendars that need to be remembered, and so on.

Ovens

More and more companies are launching their ovens, which are connected to the app, voice commands, Home Connect, Amazon Alexa, etc.

The latest invention I heard from an American webinar is the camera built into the oven that you can monitor in real-time from your phone. For example, you talk to guests in the living room, but keep an eye on the cake baking in the oven so that it doesn’t turn too brown.

Or you choose a recipe from the screen on the fridge, let the fridge bring the food home, put things on the cooking plate and tell to the oven through the fridge that now please cook meat or fish according to this recipe, etc.

The third example – a child comes home from school, takes fries from the freezer, scans a QR code from a packet of french fries with the phone and sends it to the oven. The oven chooses the right temperature and time for cooking. The child does not have to choose or know anything.

In fact, all of this technology has been around for some years. For example, this Whirlpool video, from 2018, shows you how to take a picture of the contents of your refrigerator, then the tablet finds suitable recipes that can be prepared with these substances, gives step-by-step tutorials and also turns on the oven at the right temperature. When the food is ready, the oven will alert you via the app, and if you do not come to take out the food, the oven will turn itself off so as not to scorch the food.

Cookers

In the case of cookers, a surface is being developed that is fully interactive. There’s a cooker surface and you can choose yourself where to put the pot. Then open the recipe book next to it to see how to prepare this meal. At the same time, you can also surf your social media. But this whole surface is still under development.

I found another great video about the Future kitchen.
In fact, there is nothing that cannot be done today.
I guess.

Dishwashers

In the case of dishwashers (as well as refrigerators), more “drawer-type” machines have started to appear on the market and have been well received by customers.

We have already understood that is much easier to get things out from drawers than from deep cabinets.
Now, this idea and development have reached also the world of kitchen appliances.

True, Fisher & Paykel has been making such machines for years, but now other companies have realized too, that they are comfortable to use. And best of all, they can be integrated into kitchen furniture. So the kitchen has a drawer-fridge, drawer-dishwasher, drawer-freezer and everything looks the same.

Fauchets

In the market of faucets, most new faucets that the companies were developed are with a sensor, contactless.
It has been a result of the pandemic of the last two years.

Kitchen sinks

Most of all, the customers want the sink to be like a work center.
There you can wash, clean, chop, serve.
The fanciest such work center was invented in America.
The Galley.
I wrote about this on my blog some time ago.
The most similar product in Europe is Box Center from Franke.

In summary – kitchen trends in 2022

  • Green kitchen and greenery in the kitchen
  • Earthy calm tones
  • The pink color in the kitchen is also allowed
  • Smoky glass and warm light
  • Pantries with glass doors and windows
  • Metal mesh in glass cabinets
  • Lots of wood, natural, unprocessed, recycled
  • 3-level kitchen
  • Large-leafed plants or wallpaper in the kitchen
  • Multilayer lighting, designer lamps
  • Herringbone parquet on the floor
  • Contrasting colors of the kitchen – pink and green, orange and mint
  • Environmentally friendly and sustainable materials
  • Drawer-fridge, drawer-dishwasher
  • Smart app-controlled kitchen appliances
  • Sink as a work center
  • Fauchet with sensor

All these pictures and more you can find from Pinterest.

Click here and look closer.