Kitchen design trends, and which of them age well

A kitchen is replaced about once a generation, so anything fashionable it absorbs has to survive a decade of ordinary Tuesdays. Some of what is running through Melbourne now will still read as considered in ten years. Some of it is already halfway to dated.

Modern kitchens: handleless, matte & minimal

05 DIRECTIONS · 600 MODULE · 2340 TO CEILING

Five directions running through Melbourne kitchens now

None of these are inventions. Each is a reaction to the decade of white gloss and waterfall stone that came before it, and each behaves differently once it has to live with cooking oil, southern light and a household’s mess.

Colour and timber on the cabinetry

Deep green, clay, oxide and off-black fronts, usually paired with oak or ash veneer on an island or a tall bank. It works because the colour is carried by joinery that can be resprayed or replaced, not by a tiled surface that has to be demolished to change. See how cabinetry is built and finished.

Matte and textured fronts

Low-sheen two-pack, fine-grain melamine and textured laminate have all but replaced high gloss. They read quieter under downlights and hide fingerprints better. The trade is that a matte surface shows a scuff more readily than gloss hides one, so the grade of the door finish matters more than the colour on it.

Appliances built in and out of sight

Integrated fridges and dishwashers behind matching fronts, an appliance garage on the bench, a second working surface in the pantry. This ages well because it is a planning decision rather than a look — cabinetry sized around an appliance opening stays useful long after that appliance is replaced.

Curves, radii and fluted panels

Rounded island ends, radiused returns and reeded panels on the island face. Used once, on one element, it gives a flat room a focal point and softens a hard corner in a walkway. Used on every door in the kitchen it is the detail most likely to date this decade. Island sizing, seating and services.

Mixed materials in one room

A stone bench with a timber breakfast return, a steel shelf against a plaster-look splashback, brushed brass against off-black joinery. The mix reads as deliberate when the materials share an undertone and there are no more than three of them in eye-line at once. Beyond three, the room starts to look sampled rather than designed.

The safest place to spend a trend is the surface that costs the least to change: doors, hardware, stools, pendants. The riskiest is anything tiled, stoned or plumbed.

REFERENCE PHOTOGRAPH · Colour and timber working together: green island joinery, warm cabinetry above, and a patterned splashback carrying the scheme instead of the benchtop.

10 YEARS +

Ages well

A layout planned around how the household actually cooksTimber veneer and painted joinery frontsCabinetry sized around integrated appliance openingsQuiet-veined stone and a plain square edgeDrawers instead of doors in the base run

5 – 10 YEARS

Ages slowly

Matte black tapware and hardwareFull-height stone behind the cooktopHandleless fronts on a shadowline rather than a J-pullDeep saturated colour on one bank only

3 – 5 YEARS

Dates fastest

High-contrast patterned tile across a whole wallFluting repeated on every doorOpen shelving as the main storageThis season’s colour repeated on the floor

4 QUESTIONS · ASKED BEFORE THE DRAWING

Testing a trend before it goes into the plan

01 Which trade has to be paid to undo it?
Doors and handles are a cabinetmaker’s afternoon. A tiled wall is a tiler, a plasterer and a painter.02 Is it carried by joinery or by the building?
Anything held by the joinery leaves with the joinery. Anything cut into the slab, the wall or the services stays.03 Does it still read as deliberate without the styling?
Strip the bowl of lemons and the folded linen from the photograph. If the idea collapses, it was set dressing.04 How many surfaces does it touch?
One surface is a feature. Three is a theme, and themes are what people tire of first.

WHERE THE DECISION LANDS

Most of the choices above are made in the same fortnight — after the layout is fixed and before materials are ordered. That is the right time to be bold about a door colour and conservative about the splashback, because only one of the two is easy to revisit later.

Read next: benchtop materials compared and splashback ideas and materials.

1 LAYOUT · 3 MATERIALS · 13 STAGES

Turning a direction into a drawing

A trend only survives contact with a real Oakleigh kitchen once it is measured against the room — its clearances, its light and the way the household moves through it. Bring the images you have saved and we will work out which parts belong in the joinery and which belong in the styling. Questions can also go through the contact form.

05 Modern Kitchens: Handleless, Matte & Minimal06 Luxury Kitchens & Bespoke Joinery02 Custom Kitchen Design & Layout Planning All Kitchen Guides