Are you ready to give your home a facelift? One room that deserves your attention right away is the kitchen. The stovetop is falling apart (only two of the burners work at the moment anyway), the refrigerator no longer regulates the temperature properly so your ice cream is rock solid and your lettuce is wilted, and your cabinet doors have certainly seen better days. It is time to revitalize the room in which your family loves to spend time! Whether it is making fun pancake shapes on the griddle during the weekends or decorating sugar cookies during Christmas time, everyone loves hanging out in the kitchen.

Older kitchens are not designed to be rooms in which everyone can spend time together. These rooms were often small and inconvenient. In the efforts to make sure that the refrigerator, sink, and stove were close by to one another (creating the triangle design), counter space disappeared. This design makes meal preparation much more difficult than it should be. The crowded, cramped kitchen is no longer “in”! It is time to open up that kitchen and enjoy using this space to its full potential! Here are the latest trends in kitchen design.

Let in the light! The more light a room has, the more open it feels. Large windows behind the sink and counters and even a skylight gives more life to this usually darkened room.

If possible, open up one wall of the room in order to make the kitchen an L or a G shape that is at least 100 square feet. This kitchen shape and size will then allow you to install a kitchen island! A permanent kitchen island should be at least 12 square feet and you need to leave three or more feet between the island and the counter around the edge of the kitchen. Install an extra cook-top or kitchen sink; both are incredibly helpful!
Add a few kitchen bar stools to one side of your island and you have a fantastic dining area.

Avoid dark colors throughout the entire room. Try to follow the 60-30-10 rule. Choose a lighter, neutral color for the majority of the kitchen, such as the kitchen cabinets and the walls, a different color for the floor, and a more eye-catching color for the counter-tops. It will create a beautiful effect and bring a fresh look to your kitchen design!