What Is Your Favorite Kitchen Style? | Jack Home Construction Blog

When thinking about redesigning your kitchen, it can be helpful to understand what your style is. Then you can narrow your search for kitchen elements to be within the category that you know you like.

There are three basic categories of kitchen design: traditional, transitional, and modern. We will explore these three categories, and give you some examples of each so you can get a better idea of what kitchen style you like the most.

Traditional

This kitchen style is based on the western architectural design of the 18th through 20th centuries and has a timeless and elegant look. The label of traditional kitchen includes specific subcategories, such as Old World, Mediterranean, and others, but all traditional kitchens share some basic factors. These factors include ornamental details like wainscoting, detailed craftsmanship in the cabinetry and crown molding, and decorative lighting. Traditional style is accessorized, and layers elements together to create interest. Another characteristic of this style is natural flooring like stone, wood, or tile. Imperfections in these natural materials are embraced as beautiful. Traditional style usually has a neutral color palette, but leans more towards warm colors, and is often considered very formal.

Here are some examples of traditional style kitchens below:

Source: Design Idea

Source: Avantela

Source: Kitchen Magic

Source: Stock Cabinet Express

Transitional

If you have an appreciation for modernism, but feel like it can be a bit too cold, a transitional style kitchen might be the style for you. This style rests between traditional and modern and is extremely popular. Transitional kitchens have less ornamentation than traditional kitchens and focus more on practicality. Some may feel that this style gives them more room for a personalized style, giving them the ability to combine different elements that they love together.

Transitional kitchens have clean lines. The cabinets will be simple, and the crown molding will have a lot less detail, if there is crown molding at all. This style usually has a mixture of natural and industrial materials, and aims for a light and airy effect, while incorporating earth tones. Transitional kitchens are often more casual. Using wood flooring, white countertops (such as marble or quartz), white cabinets, and stainless steel appliances are some of the most popular ways to achieve a transitional look. Details such as hardware, seating, or backsplashes is where you can get creative in this style and add interest. In fact, with this style, people often choose one area of the room, like the sink, to be a statement piece, keeping the rest simple to really make the statement piece stand out.

Here are some examples of transitional style kitchens:

Source: Renovate Happy

source: Redfin

Source: Wellbornforest

Source: Apartment Therapy

Modern

The modern kitchen style uses elements that were designed around World War I and is specific to early to mid 20th century design. Core elements of this style are minimalism, smooth features, open floor plans, and man-made materials such as concrete or stainless steel. This style can be described as extreme and bold and keeps a consistently clean look in lighting, chairs, and hardware. Modern kitchen styles emphasize light and space with reflective surfaces and little to no ornamentation. Cabinets are smooth and frameless, with what is sometimes called slab doors. Modern kitchens focus on the beauty of the materials used over any added decoration and can often have creative designs and shapes not found in any other style of kitchen. These kitchens focus on cool tones most often and any color added is heavily saturated and pure.

Here are examples of modern style kitchens: