Kitchens, like people, come in many different shapes and sizes. Walking into someone's kitchen can tell you so much about that person (whether they like it or not). There are so many different styles of kitchens — do you think you can tell which one you are?
We've selected eight kitchens from previous kitchen tours to represent very different styles in kitchen design. These eight kitchens represent Sophisticated, Modern, Rustic, Simple, Historic, Industrial, Compact, and Traditional.
Personally, we see ourselves as Sophisticated — we're suckers for white subway tiles scaling the walls, the clean white lines that contrast so elegantly against the stainless steel appliances and black countertops. The stained floors add a warm, special finishing touch that envelopes the kitchen into a timeless, elegant space.
However, just because we fall under one specific category doesn't mean we don't appreciate the others. We love the starkness of a modern kitchen, the old world feeling of a Rustic, the focus-on-the-food Simple, this-is-how-our-mother-did-it Historic, shiny Industrial, intimate cooking Compact and the no-fuss Traditional as well.
&bull Katin & Brandon's Casual Kitchen by the Sea
&bull Pratt Designer Infused Kitchen
&bull Ann's Old World, Round-The-World Kitchen
&bull Kelly Moseley's Calming Austin Kitchen
&bull Michelle's Gracious Craftsman Kitchen
&bull Art & Chelsea's Delicious Kitchen Update
&bull Kittie's Precision Micro Kitchen
&bull Joanne Weir's Live/Work Laboratory
What kind of kitchen are you? Do you fall into one of these styles, or would you define your own style in a different way?
Related: What Kind of Kitchen Floors Do You Have?
(Images: Kayla Hicks, Jill Slater, Jill Slater, Kelly Moseley, Jeff Ong, Evan Thomas, Jill Slater, Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan)
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Mine's the "Western" (a/k/a the "John Wayne")... as in, "this kitchen ain't big enough for the both of us".
I just started getting to enjoy my new sophisticaed kitchen. It is slightly hollywood regency. White cabinets, grey quartz counters, mirror backsplash. I love it. I see other kitchens in other styles that i like to look at for a moment but I just won't want it for myself. Funny though that i love the sophisticated glam kitchens but that other side that i a drawn to is a pieced together kitchen - Like Julia's France kitchen. Just total functionality and warmth. I guess that i somewhat mixed the two styles a little because I added pegboard to the ends of my cabinets so that I can hang kitchen things on there.
I've lived in a few turn of the century homes which were built around the kitchens - enormous open spaces that served as the heart of the house. In the last one, you had to pass through the kitchen to get to any other room, it was like the center of a spoked wheel. I spent enormous amounts of time in these kitchens, and baked *constantly*. Now the last 2 places I've lived have had compact galley kitchens, and all I do is make tea in them. (Thankfully, my fiance cooks now). I hadn't realized what a huge behavioral difference a space could make!
i think i like a combination of rustic, historic and modern. i like my kitchen to be big as that is where my family spends our talking time. and i like it organized and clean. i like the open cabinets and the historic details, but i dont want it to look too cluttered by decor. something that says "you HAVE to cook something!!"
We've been asking ourselves this same question lately! We're in the process of planning our kitchen remodel (www.chezerbey.com) and I think we're trying to find the right balance between bright and warm, functional and playful, and quality and affordability!
I'm definitely somewhere in between rustic and historic, though depending on the apartment, the decor doesn't always lend itself to the image in my head.
I'm somewhere between simple and historic -- love retro (or retro-looking) appliances and cabinets, but love the calming aspect of a clean-lined kitchen with pops of color.
I prefer to think of my 1954-era kitchen with pink/burgundy tile, 1980's era refinished varnished plywood cabinets as a cross between historic and mongrel. Nice stainless Vent-A-Hood, black nuker, white refer, stainless Hot-Point Custom crafted electric stove/oven, and stainless dishwasher. Oh, and too much stuff on the counters. It works, and it is not my dream come-true, but the food gets cooked. I'd love a remodeled kitchen but retirement would be nice someday.
The "Casual Kitchen" is nice but a fantasy in my world.
We shoot for somewhere between simple and traditional, I think. I would like to be more sophisticated, but our kitchen is small, so we just spend our time trying to make it clean, well organized and functional. Would love to have enough space & budget to have a kitchen that looks like your sophisticated example!
All of these kitchens are far nicer than my own so I would happily cook in any of them. Right now we have white plastic vinyl cabinet doors with a strip of "wood" along the bottom. The vinyl is buckling and trying to peel off the particle board underneath, as well as chipping along the sides. They were all hung a little crooked so the doors overlap and scrape against one another. Our backsplash is just the regular wall painted an outrageous electric ochre colour. The countertop is also a white vinyl that stains horribly. The floor is covered in textured beige peel-and-stick tiles that have big chips out of them. Appliances are from the 1970's and are semi-functional.
We are renting, but have put some time and money into fixing up the rest of the apartment recently (painting, re-tiling the fireplace, and so on). We have been here for 2 years and plan to stay for a couple more. The kitchen is the one room that I have no hope for! We are willing to put energy and time into fixing it up, but don't have much of a budget. I've been looking at various options for DIY backsplashes from acrylic panels to tiling to new paint. I've also been checking this site for advice on painting old cabinetry. Our landlord doesn't want to put any money into this house, but is open to us improving it on our own.
My ideal kitchen right now is #1 on this list because it is simple, bright, and clean.
Traditional suburban meets retro.
My kitchen / breakfast area is kinda heart shaped. The kitchen portion forms a U with its counters in one lobe of the heart and then the breakfast area sits in the other lobe with a big bay window. It's different, which is why I like it. But it's got the suburban trappings of stock oak cabinets with white laminate countertops. If I had the money, I would open up the kitchen more with better cabinets extended into the breakfast area, quartz countertops, and possibly an island.
I painted the walls robin's egg blue and contrast with yellows and greens. Yellow & chrome formica top table. Green kitchenaid mixer and tea towels. I might throw in a few pops of red as well.
I'm vintage all the way. I'd love real linoleum floors, an old cast iron sink, and lots of vintage appliances! I love that look of a kitchen from the early 20th century that had minor updates mid century.
Mine, unfortunately, is stuck in the '80s. Sigh. I dream of a new kitchen.
I definitely lean toward traditional!
I keep wishing it would be reasonable to make Heywood Wakefield bookcases into kitchen cabinets - then with my colors, blue, aqua, green, purple - like that.