What’s big for kitchens in 2025 (and what should be)

Source: Lived In 365 Limited, Rabbit Hole Studios

Of all of the projects that we work on year to year, designing a client’s brand new kitchen is always one of my favourites. I’ve just done a rough calculation and found that I have designed more than 70 kitchens since I set up Lived In around 7 years ago and it’s lovely to think of all of those hard working kitchens long outliving the lifetime of our project, and sitting at the heart of so many family homes.

The best thing about kitchens for me is probably the same thing that clients find the hardest; so many many details to play with and to bring together in one cohesive whole. So many opportunities to make something really bespoke that works perfectly for how each individual family lives.

Looking back at those projects, the kitchens have been hugely varied but key trends still tend to stand out. Blue kitchens have been huge for a long while now but remain really popular. I would estimate that marble-style quartz goes into about 75% of the kitchens that we work on, such is its versatility and practicality. Ply kitchens have been much in demand over the last 5 years or so and natural wood cabinets have been a much bigger feature over the last 2 or 3.

So what’s next? For the purposes of this blog post I decided to split my thoughts into what I can see will be big this year and what I would like to be big this year. In truth, much of what has been popular over the last 5 years or so will likely remain so for a good while yet. Kitchen trends don’t move as quickly as magazines and kitchen companies would have you believe and most people choose something classic they know they won’t hate in a couple of year's time. But slowly slowly trends do move (so very many gloss kitchens gone to landfill) and a new order establishes itself, one Instagram post at a time.

So first a look at what I think will be big this year. This is based partly on the conversations that I’m having with clients and partly on what I see interior journalists predicting. I tend to take the latter with somewhat of a pinch of salt because there is always so much repetition (what green? again?) and because they’re often trying to fill column inches rather than truly interrogating the market but that said there are always glimmers of truth in there.

Skinny Shaker

In their look ahead at kitchens in 2025, Ideal Home predict that the Skinny Shaker will be a key trend, an update on the traditional shaker model which sees a slimmer frame on the shaker door for a more modern look. This is something that I’ve heard from clients a number of times over the last few years and, I think this twist on a design that has such enduring appeal is a clever way to update a kitchen scheme without losing the hallmarks of a design that doesn’t date. If you like the classic shaker look you can also look to update the style with more modern hardware as well as introducing unexpected colour ways to make your kitchen stand out from the Pinterest crowd.

Textures

Requests for textures such as reeded glass doors or slatted cabinet doors are also something that has been coming up in design briefs repeatedly over the last year or two. Adding elements of different textures are a great way of breaking up a design and stopping a kitchen feeling too blocky and, well, kitchen-like. In more traditional designs we are also seeing a big increase in demand for the use of fabric, whether this be a kitchen sink curtain to add softness and pattern or roman blinds to kitchen windows for a warmer alternative to more modern roller blinds.

Earthy Colours

In my previous blog post, 2025 in Colour, I wrote about the different predictions on colour from the big paint brands for the coming year. There was a pretty clear consensus (if we ignore Dulux’s bright yellow attempt to cheer us all up) that earthy colours are where the trend predictors expect us to go as we move towards creating cocooning homes that we all want to retreat back to at the end of the day. That’s not to say that I see dark blues and greens going anywhere anytime soon but I do see a lot more variation than used to be the case with reds and browns far higher up the agenda than before. Two-tone kitchens are also here to stay as, again, they give us the opportunity to break up a design with different shades and to create stand out areas with colour blocking.

Bolder Worktops

Bolder worktops, such as deeply veined marble-style quartz, are a design choice I often find myself secretly hoping a client will go for because it’s one I love myself. I understand the pull of a softer design too, however, as it does serve as such a great backdrop against whatever else you choose and you know you’re unlikely to find yourself detesting it a year or two down the line. That said, I have seen clients moving towards bolder choices in 3 of last year’s projects (2 of which yet to be photographed) which was exciting to see and something that I think will start to be reflected in the wider market this year.

Warmer Woods

And last but not least, natural wood has been used in kitchens in some guise or other for time immemorial. We see it repeatedly in worktops, floors, cabinets, shelving, the list goes on. Over the last decade or so I would say that lighter woods have been the flavour of the day, much influenced by the Scandinavian aesthetic which has dominated interiors in recent times. More recently, however, I have seen clients moving towards darker woods, whether that be a darker stained oak, walnut or teak, playing again into the earthier, moodier trend we see general in colour choices.

And what would I like to see? That’s a more difficult question to answer because I do like every kitchen to be completely unique and so there are so many different design details that I would like to include in my schemes in 2025. This is a very incomplete list of some of the things I would love to come up in a first consultation.

Stainless Steel

I love it. If I could have a complete stainless steel kitchen (offset with some warmer touches most likely) I would. I think they are a thing of beauty in their utilitarianism and, whilst they aren’t the easiest projects to deliver my heart sings when the idea comes up.

Low Silica Worktop Options

This is something that has been more on my radar over the last 6 months or so as we learn more about the potentially harmful effects for the installers of quartz worktops . I’m now focused on making clients more aware of this issue and on using low silica options which don’t contain crystalline silica, which can cause lung disease. I also find myself more drawn to natural stone like granite which has such a natural beauty and which actually works out cheaper than many quartz options.

Yellow

Whilst my least favourite prediction from the paint brands on colour for 2025 was Dulux’s bright yellow True Joy, I would like to put it on record that this does not mean that I don’t have love for a yellow. Quite the opposite in fact. I love yellow in my own house and have just recently repainted my staircase in Farrow & Ball Cord, an earthy yellow neutral. Whether muted or bright, you can’t beat a pop of yellow for making you smile and putting a skip in your step in the morning (ok that may be taking it too far).

I would also love to continue to see the increased use of vintage pieces to supplement the more traditional fitted kitchen for a more worn and homely look and for a more clever bespoke aesthetic to prevail so we see less cookie cutter kitchens than has been the case. 2025 could be the year that all of our kitchens become truly unique, can’t wait.