Ideas for Creating a Stylish Kitchen

Ready to redo your kitchen? From sleek and chic to retro and nostalgic, these ten popular kitchen design themes are sure to inspire your room makeover.

Tuscan

Bring the rich flavor of Italy's region of Tuscany into your kitchen. For your flooring, choose a durable material like tile or tumbled stone. Tuscan walls are characterized with faux finishes and sun-drenched colors in shades of terra cotta, orange and yellow. Aged wood and open cabinets create an unstructured look, so complement the woodwork with rustic, handcrafted hardware.

Tropical

You don't have to live on the beach to create a laid-back tropical kitchen. Combine a bright and breezy color palette of citrus shades and oceanlike blues with natural elements like rattan and bamboo. Tile backsplashes or countertops are the perfect places to add bold color, and bring the outdoors inside by incorporating botanical prints or artwork.

Rustic

Inspired by a mountain lodge, the rustic kitchen evokes a cozy, cabin-style ambiance, but it can easily blend into a modern home. Organic materials, like timber and stone, are combined with polished tile and glass. If you live in an older home, highlight the original architecture to bring personality and a timeworn quality to the space.

Modern

Make a statement with a modern kitchen. Keep it simple with clean, straight lines, and use industrial materials like concrete or stainless steel for countertops and backsplashes. For your color palette, stick with black and white or choose one bold color to use throughout the space.

French Country

The French country kitchen serves up a warm, comfortable gathering place for family and friends. A color palette of blues, reds, greens and yellows echo nature, and walls and cabinets often feature a distressed, Old World look. Antique furniture, colorful fabrics and interesting textures (think hand-blown glass bottles and oversized baskets) add the perfect touches.

English Country

Casual and cozy, the English country kitchen combines traditional style with some farmhouse flair. A crisp, clean color palette and vintage furniture are simple ways to add the style to your kitchen. If you're making major changes, stick with easy-to-care-for surfaces, like subway tile and stone countertops.

Mediterranean

A Mediterranean kitchen is vibrant, but combined with aged texture and warmth. The style is characterized by architectural details, such as arches and recessed nooks, and uses a color palette of soft yellows, wheats, oranges and reds. A big family table is a must for gatherings, so be thoughtful about food prep and seating areas. Add Old World character to the walls, and use rustic hardware on distressed cabinet doors.

Cottage

The cottage kitchen is all about simplicity. Relaxed and informal, this easygoing style is perfect for a relaxed look. Look for cabinetry and furniture in light woods or paint your existing pieces in a low-sheen white.

Asian

If you're looking for a style that brings harmony and balance to your kitchen, consider a serene Asian interior. Natural elements, like bamboo flooring, are combined with clean architectural lines. Keep the color palette simple, and add appliances that blend into the overall design.

Colorful Kitchens

Bored with your pure white kitchen? Try adding a dose of light — or bright — color to liven up your favorite room.

Traditional Decor , Fantastic Vent Hoods

Vent hoods are vital with today's high-powered ranges and cooktops, pulling hot air and odors out of your kitchen. They also can play a major style role, serving as a room's stunning focal point or defining a cooking zone.

Basically a ventilation system uses a powerful fan to deliver hot air, moisture, odors, and carbon monoxide to the outdoors via a duct, making your kitchen a safer and more pleasant place to be. Most systems have removable filters that catch grease and particles that could build up in a duct system and lead to fires. A hood should be at least the same width as your cooking surface, according to the Home Ventilating Institute, and mounted 18 to 30 inches above the burners.

Now that you know practical fan basics, take a look at some custom and semicustom hood designs that are simply fantastic.

Traditional Decor , Green design can be beautiful

Traditional Decor Green design can be beautiful, and designers Vasi Ypsilanti and Margreet Cevasco proved the point when they chose earth-friendly products for a showhouse in Long Island, New York. "You don't have to compromise on quality and good design because a product is green," Vasi says. Even if only a handful of products in a building project are from sustainable sources that's a start, she adds. "If 70 percent of the products are green, what a difference that makes in how you live and in what manufacturers produce." Vasi and Margreet designed the kitchen, a wine room, and a breakfast room in a designer showhouse at Caumsett State Historic Park in Long Island.

Kitchen Designed for Comfort

Bridgehampton builder George Gavalas laid the groundwork, constructing a new house with a spacious rectangular kitchen rich in architectural details. His white wood cabinets with recessed panel doors are accented by pilasters, carved corbels, a plate rack, and a glass-fronted china cabinet. Carrara marble perimeter countertops and a marble mosaic backsplash are sophisticated, while bin-style pulls and a beadboard ceiling keep the mood informal. The white cabinets and marble are warmed by the toast-colored Australian cypress floor and a dark mahogany countertop on the large center island.

Gavalas designed the kitchen so traffic flows easily around the island, and a dining area at one end of the room makes it ideal for entertaining. Two sinks and ample work surfaces accommodate multiple cooks and others who just like to hang out.




To create an inviting eating area, Denyse brought in a large wood table--inspired by an English antique--that can extend to seat 12 people. The table also works as a serving area for buffets or as a place for children to do homework, she says.

Comfort was the mantra for seating, with a pair of upholstered wing chairs bookending the table. "The armchairs give the kitchen more of a family-room feeling," Denyse says. A Swedish country settee backing up to a large window is softened with colorful blue and pink pillows ("colors the vibrant skies of the Hamptons are known for"). Antique wicker chairs across from the bench are casually slipcovered in a cozy plaid fabric.

A reproduction of an antique chandelier hangs above the table, and a striped cotton area rug provides warmth and softness underfoot while helping to define the dining area.




The lure of a kitchen is undeniable. No matter the occasion or time of day--from tempting aromas of coffee in the morning to fresh-baked bruschetta before a dinner party--it's the room that seems to have a magnetic pull. And while attracting people may be no problem, interior designer Denyse Rinfret prefers to create kitchens where people will linger. That motivation drove her interior design for the Hampton Designer Showhouse in Bridgehampton, New York. "I wanted a kitchen where people would gather and stay, not just a place to grab a bite and leave," says the Manhasset, New York, designer. "I like the kitchen to be a communal room where people sit with family and friends to eat, converse, read, or just relax."




A decorative plate rack, pilasters flanking the farmhouse sink, brushed nickel fixtures, and marble tops and mosaic backsplash give the new kitchen vintage character.