Utilize Closed Storage for Modern Kitchen
One of the best ways to update and modernize your kitchen is to take advantage of cabinet storage and recessed appliances. By embracing closed storage, you can create a cleaner looking kitchen and keep items up and off countertops. Look into inset cabinets, which remain flush with each other and remove the bulky look of traditional cabinet doors.
Many modern kitchens look like they don’t have any appliances, until you open a cabinet to access a carefully hidden microwave or refrigerator. Closed shelving creates a minimalist aesthetic for cabinets and appliances that ripples into the design and look of the rest of your kitchen. By utilizing closed storage, you also have access to more work and counter space.
Choose Neutral Tones
One common feature among modern kitchens is that they all tend to embrace monochromatic color palettes or complimentary neutral tones. The time of flashy kitchens with in-your-face colors and patterns is a thing of the past.
Whether you want a warm, bright kitchen or a cool one that speaks of elegance, the best way to achieve your goals is to carefully select paint and feature colors. In order to make your kitchen look modern and stylish, opt for warm neutral and earth tones such as beige, taupe, gray, white, and black.
Incorporate A Kitchen Island
If you’ve walked into a home built in the last couple decades, then you’ve almost certainly noticed the upward trend of functional kitchen islands. While kitchen islands became popular in the 1980s, they really began to ramp up and take on functional use in the 2000’s.
By adding a versatile island in your kitchen, you’re able to create more functional workspace for food preparation or other needs. A kitchen island acts as the focal point of the room and adds versatility to how you can use your kitchen. You can add a large farmhouse sink, bar stools, increase cabinet storage, designate a food cutting or cooking area, and more.
Add Seating to Make it Modern Kitchen
With more modern kitchens adding kitchen islands and bars, one of the best ways to take advantage of these additions is to add seating to your kitchen. Whether you purchase a couple of barstools or create a comfortable island that doubles as a kitchen table, you won’t regret being able to comfortably sit and enjoy your kitchen.
Seating can easily be incorporated into a kitchen island or a countertop that leads to living space, and acts as a natural divider between two rooms–such as the kitchen and living room. By adding bar or counter seating, you can cook and serve food, easily entertain, and add flexibility to the way you use your kitchen.
Maximize Lighting
Bad lighting can ruin the aesthetic and design of a kitchen. Invest in interesting light fixtures to improve visibility for cooking and entertaining, modernize the look of your kitchen, and make navigating the kitchen in the dark for a midnight snack easier with a dimmer switch or under cabinet lighting. There are a variety of kitchen lighting options, including: recessed, track, under cabinet, suspended, and more.
Pendant, or suspended, lighting allows you to choose gorgeous hanging light fixtures. Recessed lighting looks ultramodern and is a great choice for lights that don’t call too much attention away from the rest of the room. Track lighting has a great aesthetic and offers more flexibility to where the light is pointed. The lighting possibilities are endless, but in order to create an updated, modern kitchen you should ensure plenty of lighting that highlights the room’s best features.
Update Flooring
The most telling sign of an outdated kitchen is an older floor with damage or a dated style of flooring. A damaged floor may have structural issues such an unevenness or sagging in the middle, along with scratches, dents, and other aesthetic damage. Your kitchen’s flooring may still function fine and be in good condition but look “ugly” or outdated for the time.
Modern kitchen design features gorgeous flooring in a variety of materials and styles. Hardwood, large tile, slate, and even marble have become staples of modern kitchen flooring. Hardwood allows you to easily mesh living and kitchen space with no interruptions in flooring. Slate is durable, beautiful and versatile. Marble looks and feels high-end and gorgeous. Tile comes in so many different forms and can add distinct style and personality to your kitchen.
Use Dark Or Colored Cabinets
Older kitchens tend to look dated because of their cabinetry–especially those that select light wood cabinets without designing the rest of the kitchen properly to complement them. Modern kitchens typically have all-white cabinets or dark wood cabinets that look and feel high-quality and durable. Others may choose to paint cabinets to select a color to create a specific kitchen design and theme.
Regardless of the color you select, try to stay away from “dated” looks like light and medium colored wood paired with dark colored countertops, cabinets with visible grain patterns, or cabinets that are multi-toned with white and wood.
Modernize Your Countertops
Another tell-tale sign of an older kitchen is damaged countertops, along with those made of vinyl, laminate, tile, or wood. In order to make your new kitchen shine, consider replacing cheaper tile and grout or vinyl with new granite quartz, and marble countertops. These modern materials are durable, beautiful and will ensure your kitchen looks modern, even if you make no other changes.
While each material has its advantages and disadvantages, the “big three” (marble, granite, and quartz) are long-lasting countertop options for your kitchen that come is a huge variety of colors and styles. With so many options, you’re bound to find a countertop that fits your design vision and budget in order to bring your kitchen into the modern world.
Embrace Energy Efficiency
Replace outdated kitchen appliances and save money on energy bills, while reducing your carbon footprint in the process. By upgrading to modern appliances, you can save money and help save the environment. Swapping out appliances for more energy efficient options is an especially smart choice for homeowners that plan to stay in their homes for a long time or experience especially high utility bills.
A few easy ways to make your kitchen look amazing, and function just as well is to install smart appliances with energy and water saving features, choose eco-friendly lighting and smart bulbs that turn off when not needed, opt for low-flow faucets, along with so many more easy and smart features.
Keep It Open
You see open concept kitchens on every home renovation shows and in almost every newly build home, and for good reason. An open concept floorplan opens the kitchen and makes it feel roomier, fallows it to flow better into other spaces, and adds ease to entertaining.
Keep your kitchen open by removing awkward or restrictive kitchen walls wherever possible. You’ll feel less boxed-in and enjoy the space more. A kitchen island can help add functionality and prevent the space from feeling “empty”. Even if you don’t have a lot of space to work with, a good designer can easily help you plan an open kitchen.
Contact Us
Do you want to modernize your outdated kitchen? Contact the experts at Kitchen Design Center in Fairfax, VA to help you turn your dream kitchen into a reality. For Kitchen remodeling and design, contact Kitchen Design Center in Fairfax, VA to help you create your dream kitchen. Call us at 703-244-1220, send us an email at [email protected] or visit our local showroom at 11217 Lee Highway Unit E, Fairfax VA.
