Your kitchen design is undoubtedly the heart of the home, so you should invest in making it welcoming and stylish. Even if you don’t throw yourself into cooking or baking, you can adorn countertops and shelves with culinary objects that accentuate your room’s style. Put your favorite display pieces alongside more practical items.
There are many innovative storage solutions to suit your kitchen cabinets and lifestyle requirements, allowing you to keep clutter under control. This leaves more space available for you to accessorize and enhance your room’s style.
Go for unusual accessories to make an impression or co-ordinate colors and textures for a tailored look. Try a strong focal point with an oversized lighting fixture or vibrant range hood. Change up your display by using fresh flowers or fruit. Whatever you do, accessories should be well chosen and carefully placed, serving both functional and decorative purposes. Here are our top tips to accessorize your kitchen design.
1. Make a Plan
At the planning stage of your kitchen remodel, work with a kitchen design expert to decide on the layout and style you want. Once you’ve done this, other elements of your room’s style will fall into place, and you can more easily envision how you’d like your room to be accessorized.
If you’re working with an existing kitchen design, then remove as much as possible from your cabinets, drawers, and surfaces so you are starting with a clean slate. Once you’re faced with clean surfaces and empty cabinets, think about what you can store and what would look better on display. Organize accessories together with a common color, texture, or theme and before you know it, you’ll have a curated area of stylish accessories that elevate your kitchen design.
2. Accessorize Your Island
An island can make a visually appealing centerpiece that provides the perfect balance of functionality and style. Whether your island has a sink and cooktop or is purely a countertop for workspace and dining, it provides an opportunity to create a display.
Group items such as bottle openers, candles, or vases together on a tray or butcher’s block. Include some personal items like a framed photo, a favorite cookbook, or a holiday memento. Gather some bar essentials like a wine bottle holder or cocktail shaker with mixing spoons so you’re ready to entertain.
The functional items you buy should also be worthy of displaying, so always consider the aesthetic value of practical things. You can also utilize unusual containers but, as with everything, ensure that they complement your kitchen design by sticking to a chosen accent color or complementary textures. Also, keep your island’s accessories to a minimum to avoid a cluttered workspace.
3. Arrange The Contents of Your Shelving
Open shelving is an accessory in itself for a kitchen design. Try materials such as glass to reflect light or reclaimed boards and metal brackets to warm up an industrial design. Shelves maximize storage potential and make a strong design statement through their materials and contents. Try to ensure your shelving materials complement your kitchen cabinets’ hardware and other accessories throughout the room to tie everything together.
When arranging items in open storage, place them in a group where they have something in common. Color, texture, function, or style are all themes that work well. Group things together from front to back instead of lined up side by side. You can stack items such as horizontally placed books, to create more interest and depth. Place artwork on shelves as an alternative to hanging them.
Display dishes and cookware over your cooking area and invest in attractive options such as copper that provide a pleasing metallic accent to your kitchen design. Place plants and herb pots near natural light for some fresh greenery. Stylish canisters, jars, and bowls are all perfect for storage and display. Keep your open shelving clean, curated, and uncluttered for maximum impact.
4. Curate Countertops
Utilize your kitchen design countertop space for both functional and aesthetic items, and where possible, make sure your accessories serve both purposes. Invest in quality dishcloths and attractive soap dispensers that suit the style of your kitchen. Assess how each storage container works with your color scheme and overall look to maintain a high standard for your kitchen design.
Arrange your everyday items in a considered way. Why not stand cutting boards up against each other in order of size or at different angles? Create a space for a coffee machine, surrounded by coffee-making essentials in canisters and your favorite mugs. Your beverage bar can be expanded on to include more features like customized storage, a beverage refrigerator, or a separate dishwasher if you have space as this will enhance your kitchen’s efficiency and style.
Pick up on features in your design that can be emulated across the contents you want to arrange on your countertop. For example, an industrial style kitchen design with black metal faucets or shelf brackets could have a cookbook stand or wine rack made from the same material. Choose your favorite colors and textures throughout your kitchen remodel and it will be easy to create a cohesive style for your room.
5. Look at Your Wall Space
The current trend of replacing upper kitchen cabinets with open shelving gives you more wall space and means you have to think about how you’ll cover this surface to enhance your room’s style. Try paint or wallpaper to complement or contrast with the shelving material.
Backsplashes are a great way of adding a dramatic focal point to a kitchen design. There are so many options when it comes to backsplash material and you can add extra drama by extending it from counter to ceiling, if desired. Copper, glass that’s tinted or protecting wallpaper, stainless steel, and natural stone are some gorgeous choices that work for different kitchen design styles and budgets.
Tiles are an ever-popular choice and are becoming more interesting with new sizes, shapes, colors, patterns, and textures. Go for a darker grout if you find your cooking area collects dirt easily. If you choose a white backsplash, position a sleek peg rail on it to break up the expanse and hang cookware and herbs from it.
Hang art around your kitchen for interest and to express your personality. Mirrors are also an excellent way of bouncing light around any room and making a space feel larger. Wall decor can inject character and warmth into a kitchen remodel without taking up valuable floor or workspace.
6. Spice Up a White Kitchen Design
A white kitchen design is a timeless classic that also lends itself to updating with accessories in an accent color or texture at any time. You can employ vibrant pieces to invigorate the space, mixing bright hues and highly patterned objects on open shelving. Introduce warmth with on-trend gem colors like coral, orange, deep green, or rich red. Navy and white are still popular as a two-tone cabinet color scheme, especially in coastal kitchen designs.
Black is always an elegant accompaniment to white, so black matte metal is perfect as it encompasses the metallic trend. This looks stylish on faucets, shelving, and hardware contrasted against white kitchen cabinets. White kitchen remodels can embrace the latest organic look by layering with neutral tones, emphasizing their different textures. This calm and sophisticated design style favors accessories made from wicker, wood, and fabric, bringing warmth to your kitchen. Solid blocks of color are ideal for delineating your kitchen design zones such as a dining area vs. a cooking area.
7. Accentuate a Kitchen Design with Lighting
Lighting is a practical requirement but the type of lighting you choose can transform your kitchen design. While discreet spotlights or utilitarian pendants are functional, don’t be afraid to embrace this year’s penchant for big, bold lighting fixtures. Statement lighting like oversized pendants and super-dramatic wall-mounted lights accessorize your kitchen design with flair. You can hang one giant pendant light over an island or dining area or increase this to two or three if you want to surround the space in light. Large chandeliers are another popular option and bring instant glamor to any kitchen remodel.
The organic trend is growing and sees lighting fixtures focused more on their material’s texture rather than shape or color. The metallic look is huge in hardware and can be emulated in your lighting choice. Matte black is a go-to as well as the increasingly popular brass. Metal can be as structured or intricate as you like to suit your style. Dimmer switches let you control how bright you want your lighting to be at any one time. Plan your lighting scheme at the beginning of your kitchen design so you can decide what areas you want to highlight or where to create ambience. Your lighting design can illuminate your accessories as well as being an accessory itself.
8. Inject Personality
As kitchen remodels become sleeker and more streamlined, it can be more difficult to put your own stamp on them.
- Custom storage is the best way to reduce clutter and maintain the look of your kitchen design, but freestanding furniture can introduce more character.
- Using reclaimed furniture, such as repurposed islands or shelving units, means you are increasing functionality and making a personal design statement.
- The clean lines of shutters or blinds work with a minimalist kitchen design leaving you free to incorporate your choice of color, texture, or pattern.
- Upholstered seating and table decor easily bring a wow factor to any kitchen remodel.
Whatever items you choose to express your personality should be chosen with care, well-crafted and positioned in a considered way. You don’t want to overwhelm your kitchen design with clutter or detract from your chosen style.
It’s not hard to take your kitchen from basic to stunning. Choosing accessories to complement your style and space should be enjoyable and possible to change around whenever you like. Keep a common theme to unify everything and give your kitchen a pulled-together look. You’ll want to cook, relax, and entertain in this functional space that is low maintenance and expresses your style perfectly. Contact us at McDaniels Kitchen and Bath to talk about transforming your kitchen design.
