The latest trends in kitchen design include some pretty nifty elements; with our discount cabinets, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to replicate them, or to come up with clever new kitchen designs on your own! Just remember not to stray too far from the beaten path if you have any intention of selling your home any time soon.
Elevation Changes
No, we don’t mean a kitchen built on a hill. Rather, this latest trend is in having work surfaces at various heights. For example, having the counters around the stove and sink be at the normal 36” height for average-sized adults will keep your appliances standard and thus affordable. But when it comes to an island, why not change it up? A 42” or even 48” upper tier will make it a lot more comfortable for a taller person to work in the kitchen. A shorter surface, 30” or even below, will allow kids, shorter adults, and disabled people who may have to sit to work, or who are wheelchair-bound, to use the kitchen as well.
Sound tacky? It’s not, and here’s why. People are already used to taller counters as the back edge of an island, with bar seating for kitchen socializing. Instead, this just incorporates it as an entire surface. Even an area a few feet on a side will make taller people much more comfy in the kitchen, without sticking out too much. And the shorter areas? They can be incorporated as a built-in kitchen table!
Small Appliance Storage
Another major trend is toward having a much cleaner, more streamlined look in the kitchen. The trouble is, we all love kitchen gadgets, don’t we? How many different countertop gadgets do you have? We bet it’s over a dozen, maybe close to two. While you can store some of the less-often-used ones in the pantry, for the ones you use at least a couple of times a week, it’s too much hassle to haul it out, find a plug, use it, clean it, and put it back, so they often just wind up living on the counter in plain sight, adding to the sense of clutter.
What if you could build in a way to stow those appliances out of sight, but still on the counter, ready to slide out for use? It’s totally doable with our easy-to-customize RTA kitchen cabinets. Other customers have found ways to incorporate slide-out appliance shelves into pantries; the possibilities are endless, especially with our full range of accessories, including Rev-A-Shelf storage solutions.
