Home Design Essentials: How to Style a Beautiful Kitchen
Keep tops clear, but include all your personal items on the walls and on shelves.
The kitchen is the heart of the home and probably my favourite room in the house. It copes with the chaos of the mornings and it’s where the kids debrief their school day while I fumble around with dinner. It’s where I sit with friends after a long work day and open a bottle of something lovely to share and where we extend our table to welcome in our family and friends. So many memories are created in the kitchen and with careful styling its really easy to make it look and feel that little bit more special. So here goes with my very best kitchen styling ideas to style a beautiful kitchen in your home.
Removing clutter
Being an interior designer has taught me the importance of creating a functional space. When we’re designing a kitchen, the most important thing is making the kitchen functional and the same goes for the styling. First stop; remove any clutter from the worktops. Got any juicers, mixers or air fryers you don't use as often? Store them away in a cupboard or a garage. If you have a smaller kitchen, you want to clear away as much as possible to get the maximum amount of space.
Then carefully think about what to add back in. Can you keep your toaster in a cupboard? You could add a hot tap instead of a kettle to free up the space on the worktop. A small collection of oils and seasoning that you use all the time can look lovely next to the hob but keep it neat. Put them on a little board to make sure they don’t spill over. For more affordable tips and tricks to upgrade your kitchen, check out our kitchen blog on How to upgrade your kitchen on a budget.
Adding textures to shiny new kitchens.
Herbs always look great.
Wooden is a great material to balance out cold, hard surfaces.
But what about all the stuff that you do want to keep? Open shelves are a great way to not only get things off that worktop but also to add a personal touch. Add your cookery books, herbs, plants or photos from your kids or family holidays or adventures you’ve been on. Anything that helps to make your kitchen unique to you. People often don’t think about adding frames or lamps into a kitchen but why not? It makes them feel more homely and less clinical. Keeping things up higher still gives you your practical space and a lovely clear surface.
Too much to clear away? Consider a pantry cupboard. This way you can store all your excess items away for when you need them. We added a walk in pantry to our Wren kitchen and I love it. It created more storage whilst taking up less space. If you want to see more on how we designed our kitchen click here.
Colours & Patterns
Keeping the worktops tidy goes hand in hand with the design scheme of the kitchen. If you use a busy patterned wallpaper on the walls, keep everything else quite minimal so it doesn’t look that busy. On the other hand if you feel like your kitchen looks too sterile, a fresh wallpaper is a great way of making it feel like home. If there’s already a lot of items on the worktops, consider choosing a light or plain colour for the walls. As a kitchen designer, my advice is to be brave with your colour choices and choose a colour scheme that speaks to you the most. Don’t worry about trends or what the neighbours have, do what you love and what makes you happy. Paint is so good now consider painting your cupboards. When we’re designing kitchens here at the Sussex Home Stylist, we do a lot of work on function and getting the space right before layering the ‘pretty’ elements of design to create the kitchen you always dreamed of.
All the blues. Here the wood and fabric bar stools are adding texture in contrast to the white shiny work top.
Nothing stark about the kitchen in our Lewes Crescent Project.
Textures
Adding different textures to the kitchen will help to balance out those harsh lines of the cupboards and sharp corners of the countertops. If you have hard looking tops, you can add elements around the kitchen to soften them such as a soft blind or curtain at the window. Choose mirrors that are round, plants that are full and dainty or soft fresh flowers. It's all about the balance.
When you first install a kitchen, it's all shiny and new but can often look quite cold and unwelcoming. I would recommend adding some old fashioned pieces to take the attention away from those harsh lines, for example old fashioned weighing sales or even an old milking stool for the kids to stand on. Something with some experience! You can contrast the shiny surfaces by using wicker or stone pieces to create some texture. Play around with metals, and don’t always stick with the same one - it can give quite a flat look. Play around with cabinet handles - maybe go for something different like wood or leather. Play around and do something different on the top and bottom cabinets or change out the island to make it a bit different. A good way of adding some texture is by displaying your wooden chopping boards on the countertops. They can look great. Continue adding texture with wooden utensils in a nice jug by your hob and some lovely tea towels.
Colour, texture & different shapes add interest.
A much softer approach using black features and softening with a stylish rattan shade. Notice the top cupboards are a different colour to the bottom.
Adding texture is all about softening the hard corners of a kitchen. Another way to do this is by adding a rug. I would suggest a washable rug which are becoming increasingly available, just in case there’s any spills. Not only are these rugs easy to clean, they make the kitchen look cosy and really soften the overall look and feel of the kitchen design. I recommend taking a look at Ruggable.com
Going back to what I mentioned earlier about busy surfaces, it's good to have decorative and functional pieces such as fruit bowls, cookery books or weighing scales on shelves that can add texture, interest and a personal touch.
Lighting
It’s all about lighting. I’m always banging on about how important it is. Using different types of lighting can be a great way of adding a wow factor to your kitchen design and it means you can switch up the mood of your space depending on how you use it.
The lighting you choose needs to be functional making sure that areas where you prepare food are well lit. Adding lighting under the units can be really cheap to do with LED strips. I like to use warm white bulbs which give a lovely warm glow and adding pendant lights can look really stylish.
Things always look great in odd numbers, so if you have the space go for three and if you don’t, one statement piece can look great. Pendant lights look beautiful hung over breakfast bars or kitchen islands. And don’t forget adding a cheeky lamp in a dark corner works wonders. Give it a go.
Flowers & Plants
Both are a must in my book. And I’m talking about the real deal here no pretend ones. Most people are in their kitchen for one reason or another a fair bit so there’s no excuse to let anything die. If you’re a serial killer like me then keep it easy. Go for some fresh herbs. Basil is quite hardy. Herbs look lovely next to the hob and are easy and cheap to replace if you do mess up. Seasonal flowers always look lovely on a windowsill or on the table but if not grab some greenery from the garden. Pretty much anything will do and you’ll be surprised what a difference something real adds to the space. For shelves that are higher up you can knock yourself out with a faux, but they’re always better out of touching distance. It’s all about adding some personality to your home, find out more here.
For more kitchen styling ideas, why not visit our projects page. You can also gain some inspiration from when we designed our own Modern Country kitchen. If you need help styling your kitchen or any area in your home, give us a call we’ll be happy to discuss how we can help.