By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR(R) Magazine

Winner of NKBA’s 2013 Best Kitchen design competition: Wendy F. Johnson, Designs for Living, Manchester, Vt. The kitchen featured a “curved LED-lit glass bar overlooking art glass on panels in the cooking and entertaining centers.”
Shades of gray, quartz finishes, and energy efficiency are all growing in popularity in kitchens and baths this year, according to a National Kitchen & Bath Association survey of 2013 design trends.
NKBA reports that home owners this year are spending, on average, $47,308 on making over their kitchens, and $18,538 in bathrooms.
Here are the top 10 trends emerging from this year’s report for kitchens and bathrooms:
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR(R) Magazine
Kitchens are a popular spot that home shoppers judge in a home. So what are the trends in the kitchen for 2013? HomeThangs.com, a home improvement superstore, offers up some of the following kitchen design predictions for the New Year:
1. Modern style: Kitchens are getting more modern in style, boasting simplified lines and offering up big, open spaces perfect for entertaining.
2. Tucked-away appliances: Appliances designed to blend in with the rest of the kitchen, like with the same wood of the cabinets, are becoming more popular. Also, some appliances, like undercounter or mini refrigerators or trash compactors, are being tucked away into a kitchen island.
3. Lots of lights: Great lighting in the kitchen is becoming more important, with lighting being layered with a mixture of task lighting and ambient lighting. Under-cabinet LED lights are becoming more commonplace.
4. Supersized kitchen islands: “2013 kitchen design trends are moving away from dining rooms and toward eating, drinking, and interacting in the kitchen itself, and a large kitchen island complete with bar stools is the perfect way to make this happen,” according to HomeThangs.com. this helps to create “a nice open-air feeling – especially if one can be used to bridge kitchen and living areas, another major 2013 kitchen design trend.” Continue reading »
Kitchens are blending more into the rest of home interiors. A recent blog post from Home Design Find highlights some of the recent trends popping up in more kitchens this year:
1. Unmatched cabinets: Cabinet colors and materials are being mixed, such as darker colors for the base cabinets and lighter colors being used for upper cabinets to “provide a sense of openness,” according to the blog.
2. Downsized kitchen islands: While bigger used to be better with kitchen islands, more home owners are finding they can make do with a smaller kitchen island that doesn’t take up as much space.
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
More home owners want more space in their kitchens and are expanding the kitchen’s use for more than just cooking, according to the latest findings from the American Institute of Architects’ quarterly Home Design Trends Survey. The survey, conducted in the fourth quarter of 2011, focused on kitchens and bathrooms.
“Kitchens seem to be regaining their function as the home’s ‘nerve center,’” says AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker.
During the housing downturn, kitchen design fell as a priority for home owners, Baker notes. But as the market has picked up, Americans’ interest in kitchens has been renewed.
“The last few years have seen kitchens take on new functions with dedicated computer areas and recharging stations,” Baker notes.
The kitchen products and features growing the most in popularity, according to the survey of architects, are:
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
Kitchens are going dark, LED lighting is gaining steam, and trash is getting more attention–all are trends in kitchen designs this year, according to the National Kitchen & Bath Association, which surveyed 100 designers at the end of 2010 to reveal the hottest kitchen trends. (Last week, we highlighted NKBA’s 4 Bathroom Trends to Watch.)
The following is a list of what’s cooking in kitchen trends for 2011, based on NKBA survey results of which kitchen designs are increasing in demand and which are losing favor.

Maple kitchen; Photo credit: Courtesy of KraftMaid Cabinetry
1. Cabinetry
Gaining steam: Maple cabinetry
Losing steam: Cherry cabinetry (Cherry dominated kitchens in early 2010 but was overtaken by maple cabinetry this year)

Kitchen cabinets in Sonoma Maple, Midnight with Bristol Maple, Pebble; Photo credit: Wellborn Cabinet Inc.
2. Kitchen finishes
Gaining steam: Dark natural finishes; light natural and colored painted finishes also remained fairly common, inching up slightly in use.
Losing steam: Medium natural, glazed, and white painted finishes are on the decline and the use of distressed finishes has dropped significantly in the last year.

Photo credit: Miro Dvorscak
3. Color
Gaining steam: Grays, beiges, and bones
Losing steam: Brown tones, whites, and off-whites
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
Kitchens are losing their image as just a place for cooking. They’ve also become a place to gather with family, entertain, and even work, which is influencing how buyers are perceiving the possibilities of the space. As such, more home owners are trying to make it feel less like a kitchen and more as an almost second living room.
For example, some home owners are opting to hide their appliances, such as with undercounter refrigerator drawers and dishwashers-in-a-drawer, a trend that the National Kitchen & Bath Association noted earlier this year.
Another trend catching on: Fewer upper cabinets. A kitchen filled with cabinetry is a hard look, says Susan Serra, a home designer in Huntington, N.Y., who specializes in kitchens. Less kitchen cabinets make a kitchen feel more open and allow the walls, windows, and light to show through. Continue reading »
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR Magazine
So what’s cooking in the kitchen this year? The National Kitchen & Bath Association surveyed designers to reveal the top design trends for 2010.
Among the trends gaining popularity this year: Hide your appliances in kitchen drawers, whether dishwashers-in-a-drawer or undercounter refrigeration (drawers being used as refrigerators). More home owners are opting to tuck their appliances away so they don’t interfere with the design.
Also part of the appeal to dishwashers-in-a-drawer is their convenience with the capability of washing small loads of dishes in each drawer, which saves water and electricity.
Here are some of the other top kitchen trends for 2010:
Color: Shades of white and off-whites are the most common kitchen colors, followed by brown, beige, and bone hues.
Cabinetry: The most popular wood for kitchen cabinetry remains cherry, followed by maple. In the decline: Painted cabinetry and light natural finishes and distressed finishes.
Design style: Traditional is the most popular kitchen design with contemporary following closely behind. Continue reading »
By Barbara Ballinger
ATLANTA—Want to let your buyers and sellers know what kitchen and bathroom trends today are apt to wow them soon in showrooms and homes? See what David Alderman, vice president of the National Kitchen & Bath Association, discovered in touring the floor today at the NKBA’s annual convention here, which opens tomorrow to the trade.
Green. With the green wave spreading, manufacturers are bringing out more products like stainless steel and glass that can be reused when life cycles are up. Plus, growing in popularity are more products that save energy, conserve water, and are made locally.
Beyond granite. Granite countertops may still reign because they’re practical, but glass, stainless steel, and mahogany are gaining a foothold.
Black and white kitchens. The all-white kitchen is being tweaked with crisp black. One example: white cabinets on the perimeter, black on the island.
Faster, healthier. Steam ovens will captivate health-conscious buyers who also desire moist food cooked quickly.
Less space. With many people now opting to downsize, manufacturers are debuting smaller 15” refrigerators and 18” dishwashers. Less space also means fewer multiples—one instead of two sinks. Mirrored backsplashes and higher vaulted ceilings also help to magnify space. Continue reading »



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