Have you noticed that lots of retro styles have started to creep their way back into our modern lives? You may have spotted shoulder pads making their comeback on the catwalk, and kitchen design is no different. The sleek, simple modern kitchen we all know and love may be under threat – so, what retro kitchen design trends should you be looking out for this year?
The multitasking kitchen desk
Cast your mind back to the kitchen designs of 10-20 years ago, and you may remember the phenomenon of kitchen desks. Designed to revolutionise your home admin, these kitchen desks were usually built into your kitchen design using small alcoves.
Whilst they were designed to create more order in the home, kitchen desks usually created the opposite – messy chaos. These desks became a dumping ground for laundry, shopping, receipts, PE kits and everything else that magically found its way to the kitchen. This left most kitchen desks feeling abandoned and forgotten.
Enter the COVID-19 pandemic. Suddenly a purpose-built desk in the kitchen is a god-send. Whilst today’s kitchen desks may not be identical in style, their purpose remains the same – providing a quiet, isolated space that is specifically designed to provide an alternative workspace within the home.
As so many of us are now working from home, kitchen desks are becoming increasingly popular – whether that’s through rejuvenating old desks, repurposing a dining table, or introducing a completely new desk. Regardless of the method, desks in the kitchen are back, and they’re probably here to stay a while.
Also read: Granite and quartz worktops
Bring on the pastel kitchens
Thanks to popular television series, like the current Disney+ Marvel Studios series WandaVision, we are granted another insight into the world of retro kitchen designs. In Marvel’s show, we see Wanda’s kitchen changing throughout the years. One staple feature? The pastel colours in her kitchen.
Today’s kitchen’s are the equivalent of a little black dress – they work, but everyone else has one quite similar. To set your kitchen style apart, why not take advantage of the returning pastel kitchen trend? Yellow is a popular retro colour, but green, blue and red all work well too.
What you’ll probably find is that the introduction of a pastel colour into your kitchen design opens the room up, and creates a liveable space rather than a show-kitchen.
So, if you’re looking to add some life into your kitchen, why not show your kitchen walls some love with a dash of pastel paint?
All about the tiled worktops
One element that really makes a kitchen feel homely is a tiled worktop. Providing farmhouse kitchen vibes, this retro kitchen design trend is more suited to traditional or rustic kitchen styles. However, tiles will work with virtually any kitchen design – it just depends on the tile!
These tiles faded from kitchen designs in favour of metal or continuous stone worktops. Magnet UK found that tile worktops were often hard to maintain and upkeep. With today’s modern designs, this can easily be rectified thanks to look-alike materials and personalised designs.
Tiled worktops actually make life in the kitchen much simpler. If you’ve just had a new kitchen fitted, you’re constantly worrying about burning or marking the worktops. Tiles are heat resistant, which means you don’t have to waste money on fancy cooling gadgets – just use your worktop!
Make way for veneer trimmed kitchens
As we mentioned earlier, current kitchens tend to favour the minimalist kitchen design. This includes conspicuous storage solutions, hiding all of your kitchen appliances behind sleek cupboards and drawers.
In the 80s, kitchen designs favoured the complete opposite! Veneer trimmed kitchens featured lots of prominent features that would be classed as quirky rather than sleek.
One of the most popular features of veneer trimmed kitchens is the use of open storage shelves. This style once again emanates the traditional farmhouse style kitchen designs, creating an open, usable space. With kitchen appliances easily accessible, open shelving units present an active, busy kitchen.
Whilst the inverted handles and the veneer trimming isn’t dominating the kitchen design world, the open shelving units are becoming increasingly popular. If you like to bake, or show off your culinary skills, introducing open storage shelves with that natural trimming into your kitchen design might just be the right retro touch for your kitchen..
Enter the walk in larder
If you’d have lived in the Victorian era, a walk in larder would have been a perfectly normal part of your kitchen design. Used alongside the pantry, the larder was a great way to store food at room temperature without clogging up the kitchen cabinets.
Fast forward to the 20th Century, and fridges made larders obsolete – people didn’t need a larder when a fridge could maintain the correct temperature and keep food for longer.
Thanks to the pop culture of today, walk in larders and pantries have made a shocking return to the kitchen design scene. With period dramas like Downton Abbey and Bridgerton and cooking reality shows like The Great British Bake Off dominating our down time, our kitchens have started to take note.
Traditional baking and cooking is making a return, which means that we require more space in our kitchens for ingredient storage – enter the walk in larder. Celebrity chefs like Nigella Lawson love to show off their personal larders, although today’s modern larders combine the old pantries with the traditional larders too.
So if you’re constantly struggling to close the cabinets, maybe it’s time you considered going retro and introducing a walk-in larder to your kitchen design.
Whether you’re looking for extra space, a brighter room, or a place to get some work done, retro kitchen design ideas will help you get the most out of your kitchen.