Kitchens will be sustainable and include multiple layers of lighting, quieter appliances and health-focused solutions.

By Elisa Fernández-Arias

Earlier this week, NKBA released its 2024 Kitchen Design Trends, a highly-anticipated report highlighting top trends in kitchen design over the next three years and featuring emerging categories and shifts in products, color, materials and space.    

Here are five top takeaways from NKBA’s 2024 Kitchen Trends report:

1. Hard-Working Islands. An expanded focus has been placed on kitchen islands that serve as everything from a gathering place and storage to a cooking, prepping and entertaining space.  More than 57 percent of designers say their clients prefer an eat-in kitchen area instead of a formal dining room and 48 percent identified large islands as a top priority for serving and dining.

2. Whisper Quiet. By eliminating noisy appliances and banging cabinet doors, designers are making the kitchen environment even more suitable for everything from entertaining and eating to work and learning. Sixty-five percent of designers said their clients want ultra-quiet dishwashers and 41 percent are ditching noisy trash compactors in favor of standard pull-out receptacles.

3. Environmentally Conscious. Sustainability continues to be top-of-mind for both designers and homeowners, with a focus on:

• Reduce: 51 percent are selecting long-lasting products to reduce the need for replacement.
• Reuse: 44 percent say they donate old kitchen cabinets, while 37 percent donate old appliances.
• Recycle: 53 percent allocate kitchen storage for recycling and 23 percent are creating kitchen storage for composting.

4. Well-Curated Lighting. In addition to incorporating lots of natural light into their kitchen designs, designers say they’re using multiple layers of lighting to support different functions: ambient lighting to create various moods (85 percent), decorative statement lighting to showcase design elements (80 percent), and nighttime lighting for safety and aesthetics (69 percent). Light sensing, motion sensing, voice activation and programmable control options all play a key role in enhancing the functionality of kitchen lighting.

5. A Place for Wellness and Nutrition. Kitchen design is focused on nutrition and healthy eating.​ Seventy-eight percent of designers say homeowners want more refrigeration space with better flexibility (e.g., columns, drawers, convertible) to accommodate healthy lifestyles, and 68 percent want appliances with integrated cooking functions like air frying and steam cooking.

To download the full 2024 Kitchen Trends Report, go here.