Spring is the time of year for renovation. Many homeowners wonder what style, layout, and special elements to include in their design when choosing cabinets. A renovation or build is the perfect time to update and upgrade cabinets and perhaps step away from the familiar by adding color or selecting a different look altogether. If you are considering adding or changing out your cabinetry, our experts have some tips for 2021.
One of the biggest trends in cabinetry is color. Our experts agree the color palette for cabinets is moving away from greys to softer whites, adding pops of color and natural wood tones. “Color trends are moving away from the grays to softer white painted cabinets combined with natural wood tones,” says Rachel Thomas of French’s Cabinet Gallery. And Esther Lovingood of Southeastern Salvage Home Emporium adds, “We are seeing a move to warmer color palettes (including natural and stained wood), contrasting top and bottom cabinets, or contrasting islands.”
Other emerging trends are painted insets, simple, clean lines, and features like range hoods, frameless cabinets, increasing island sizes, hidden appliances, and open or floating shelving. Abbi Tomme of Blue Cord Realty trends are opening up toward adding light into the space, “I’m loving custom color base cabinets and open shelving in place of uppers. If doing uppers, adding seeded glass in the doors to allow light to shine through your kitchen. The more surface the light has to reflect off, the more beautiful the kitchen is.” In addition, integrating lighting into the cabinets is also an emerging trend in cabinets in 2021. “We are implementing more lighting into cabinets to improve the function. Lighting can be activated when opening the door or drawer, illuminating the interior while the cabinet is being used. We’ve used this quite a bit for coffee bar areas that are behind retracting pocket doors,” says Terri Sears of Hermitage. Rachel Thomas adds, “Lighting is an important feature to consider when designing your cabinets. LED strip lights make under cabinet lighting easy, so you don’t have to focus your cabinet layout on a lighting plan. This is great for prep areas that may not get as much natural or ceiling light.”
Open shelving and floating shelves are gaining momentum in the design world. People enjoy the beauty and elegance it brings to a kitchen, plus the backsplash becomes more of an art piece since it is more visible. Glass panel doors are also present in multiple designs giving a break to the traditional closed cabinets and providing some visual interest to the design. This always makes for a beautiful effect in any room and works great to display certain items you treasure, such as that heirloom dish from your grandmother. Paul Byler sums it up beautifully, “Whether you’re entertaining or maybe you are working on a kitchen for an Airbnb, open shelves or glass fronts can get your guests to the right place quicker and make everyone feel more comfortable in the home.”
Cabinet style is trending toward minimalist/mid-century modern with clean lines. Rachel Thomas points out, “A sleek, clean-lined transitional cabinet seems to be most popular these days. Instead of the farmhouse shaker look, we’re seeing an increase in frameless cabinets. Customers are choosing shaker style doors ‘with a twist’ that have a little extra detail.” Paul Byler of Byler Industrial Tool adds, “It’s all about functional use with cabinets. We lean more towards a simple cabinet style where the paint and hardware will be the stars.”
While cabinets are intrinsically designed for storage, our experts say there are more ways to organize cabinets to accommodate storage. Things like drawer inserts and dividers, adjustable shelves, rollouts, and the amount of drawer storage are all things homeowners are looking for in their new cabinets. “I’m seeing a lot of lower large drawers,” says Charles Davis of Furnish, and Abbi Tomme implores the value of lots of drawers, “The more drawers in a kitchen, the better. You can actually store more kitchenware and dishes in drawers and get to them more easily. No more bending down or sitting on the floor to get to those dishes in the back. Just pull the drawer out.” All of this lends to the growth of custom cabinets: “We think it’s all about customization with loads of cabinets in all areas of the house, not just the kitchen. Pantries, mudrooms, and even garages are seeing more custom cabinet options now,” says Paul Byler.
When it comes to hardware, our experts agree, this is the place to customize the look. Everything from brass, black, and nickel to brushed gold and matte black to mixed metals and glass knobs are showing up in designs in 2021. “Right now, popular finishes for hardware are satin brass, black, and nickel. We have some kitchens where we will use hardware that is a slim, streamlined pull that is hardly visible,” says Terri Sears, and Rachel Thomas adds, “Again, we are seeing more transitional styles being selected this year. Brushed gold finishes are still very popular, but matte black is coming on strong as well! The black is so versatile and can be mixed easily with other stainless, chrome, and gold fixtures in the room.”
Overall, our experts are excited by the emerging trends in cabinet designs and recommend homeowners take even a little bit of risk when choosing cabinets. Choose a color, add some lighting, or stretch that design muscle adding unique hardware to plain cabinets. Any one of these ideas will help make the space personal. To help find that special feature, our experts offer some “secret” design tips to get you started:
- Focus on quality. The quality of the selections is essential in maximizing the value of the investment.
- Cabinet trends come and go, so it’s important to stay true to what you love! On the flip side, if this is not your forever home and you plan on selling in the near future, a more on-trend cabinet selection is wise, so you have something that will appeal to most homebuyers.
- Work with an experienced kitchen and bath designer who can maximize your space’s function while still making it visually appealing.
- Answer the following questions: what do you plan on doing in your kitchen? What is your lifestyle? Do you cook? How many kitchen appliances, gadgets, cookware, etc., do you have or plan to have? Do you entertain? Make sure the quality withstands your use.
- Storage should simplify your life. Choose features and designs that you know will work FOR you.
- Keep it light, bright and mainly allow for plenty of storage
- Hide some useful and very functional tool or technology within every design.
- Work with a company that will address your needs and not simply focus on their abilities.
- Design for the space.
- Color coordination and blending colors for good flow and very good lighting.
- Use a lighter color palette and a lot of shine for a clean look!
- Well-designed cabinets are not hard to create. Make sure kitchen design is a priority for contractors and home plans.
There are lots of choices for Cabinet Design in Nashville:
Byler Industrial Tool Vanleer, TN 615-763-6227
Blue Cord Realty Clarksville, TN 931-933-0522
Cabinet Makeovers Nashville, TN 615-828-0209
French’s Cabinet Gallery Brentwood, TN 816-371-8385
Furnish Chattanooga, TN 423-645-3785
Hermitage Nashville, TN 615-843-3310
Schwinn Hardware, Inc. Scottsdale, AZ 602-614-9059
Southeastern Salvage Home Emporium Chattanooga, TN 423-385-1841
Tiffany Jones Realty Group Savannah, TN 731-607-7203
Town and Country Kingsport, TN 423-384-6261