Kitchen trends for 2024

Centered around the buzzwords streamlined, mindful, sustainable and convivial, kitchen trends for 2024 are all about building a space for wellness and relaxing. They’re a place to unwind, get creative, connect with nature or entertain.

Organic and natural elements feature highly, from warm wood cabinetry to bespoke backsplashes. Surfaces are getting an upgrade with eco-friendly porcelain and technology is here to help us. From smart induction hobs that monitor air quality and come with a powerful extractor fan, to vacuum storage that keeps track of your food waste. We’re set to become more aware of improving our habits.

1. Alternative islands

Evolving from a room that was traditionally cloistered away and hidden from the guests, kitchens are now a space that welcomes them. Communal kitchens are on the rise, as places for friends and family to relax, hang out, chat and eat, and kitchen islands provide the perfect area to congregate around.

Although, the large, block island style is losing favour slightly, with alternative islands coming in. Take this statement island from Naked Kitchens, made from a single slab of dark marble on a rich walnut trestle frame. It makes the kitchen feel lighter and airier than a solid structure would. Bonus points for the open plan shelving.

2. Feature backsplashes

Use your kitchen as a canvas with a feature print in place of traditional tiling. Nat Maks is Natascha Maksimovic, a Kent-based wallpaper maker who uses the ancient art form of ‘Suminagashi’ marbling, which means ‘floating ink’.

Listed as an endangered craft by the Heritage Crafts Association, Natasha creates her organic marbling process by dropping colours onto the water surface, then placing paper directly on the water surface. Each piece is unique and can be transformed into anything from headboards to backsplashes. Tick off two kitchen trends for 2024 and extend your backsplash from behind the sink and run it along the whole counter top.

3. Porcelain worktops

If you want to step out of the quartz vs granite debate, porcelain worktops are one of the hottest and most luxurious kitchen trends for 2024. Cue Laminam, a global leader in using new innovations and advances in sustainability to create large sized ceramic surfaces.

Laminam’s R&D Director, Claudio Corniola explains that “slabs made with porcelain are richer and more design-led, making it the material of choice for the kitchens of 2024”. Porcelain worktops will not just bring an elegant look to your kitchen, they’re practical. Some of their main benefits are that they’re non-porous, waterproof, hygienic, durable, hardwearing, UV, stain and scratch resistant, plus they’re easy to clean.

Porcelain is also one of the more eco-friendly worktop material options and has one of the lowest carbon footprints. “Laminam surfaces contain up to 60% recycled materials, while 100% of the water used is fed back into its production and 95% of its raw waste is recovered”. All of the pieces are made in Italy.

4. Reduced food waste

The World Counts states that “roughly a third of the world’s food is wasted. That’s about 1.3 billion tonnes a year”. And this is across the whole life cycle, from production to consumption. “35% of the wasted food is simply thrown out by supermarkets, shops, and households. Much of it is still perfectly fit for eating”.

Less of a kitchen trend of 2024 and more of an imperative need, we must look at ways to reduce food waste within our homes. As well as simple checks like setting your fridge between 0-5 degrees Celsius, getting savvy with planning and efficiently using your freezer for batch cooking, you can turn to tech to help.

Zwilling has created a food storage system with vacuum technology and smart inventory tracking called Fresh & Save. So, how does it work? You get a series of (well-designed) food storage containers in different shapes and sizes that come with a cordless vacuum pump, which Zwilling says “keeps food fresh for up to five times longer”. Stackable, they’re a great choice for small kitchens, too.

The containers come with a QR code you can scan and connect to its free app to track your food’s shelf life and its Best Before or Use By date. Constantly calculating how long the vacuum sealed foods can be kept, you’ll get reminders to your phone for when things need to be eaten.

5. Warm wood

While in some ways kitchen trends are flipping to become communal spaces, in others they’re reverting back to more traditional times as the warm cosy hub of the house with copper pans on display on hooks, mixed materials, and plenty of warm-hued natural wood.

As we use our homes to tap into all our senses to relax, cosiness is key. Think rich textures, maximalism, where nothing is hidden away and an old table and chairs to pitch up at. In 2024, wood will see a big comeback and the more lived-in, the better. Kitchens are the workhorse of the house, and this style means wear and tear will add character, rather than look scruffy. Search & Rescued has beautiful one-off pieces to get you started.

6. Sustainable cabinetry

In 2024 sustainable choices are essential, for both the environment and to reduce toxins within your home. Given that cabinetry makes up so much of your kitchen, it’s a good place to start. The Symphony Group uses recycled material in many of its collections, with some cabinet doors built from 100% recycled board.

It’s thinking creatively in its finishes too, with the newly launched Ocean range of handles made from recycled plastic, like fishing nets and foil surfaces made from recycled plastic bottles. Paint to order colours are water-based, which means low VOCs (volatile organic compounds), which release fewer pollutants into the atmosphere.

7. Access to nature

According to some of the key themes from the NKBA (National Kitchen and Bathroom Association) on kitchen trends for 2024, we’ll see a “connection to the outdoors” and “a place for wellness and nutrition”.

In much the same way bathrooms have been turned into spathrooms, kitchens are getting the Zen treatment with biophilic design, living herb walls and the space to be able truly relax and cook mindfully. Think about opening up as many window walls in the kitchen as you can to flood in as much light as possible and seamlessly blend the indoor and outdoor spaces.

8. Induction hobs and clean air technology

Induction hobs are already a mainstay in professional kitchens but the kitchen trends for 2024 sees them becoming increasingly popular in domestic kitchens. First up it’s far safer than gas and more eco-friendly. Induction hobs work by heating the pan not the hob, by passing an alternate electric current through copper coils, the electro magnets heat the cookware. You do have to make sure you have conductive cookware for it to work.

With an induction hob you can more easily control the heat, enabling more precise cooking. The uber innovation Novy creates cutting-edge induction technology. Examples like the Panorama PRO 120 from its award-winning Panorama collection come with many features, including five cooking zones and a Stop&Go pause function and timers for each one and a special grill function. Plus, a powerful extractor fan which retracts into the hob’s surface when you’ve finished cooking. What really sets it apart from the rest? The fact you can control it with the Novy app from your smartphone to monitor the air quality in the room.

9. Integrated air fryers

If you’ve been swept up in air fryer mania in 2023 (apparently Google searches for ‘Best Air Fryer 2023’ were up 1, 600% over 12 months), you’ll be interested in Miele’s Oven with AirFry tray, which is set to launch in February 2024.

Taking it off your counter tops and saving much-needed space, the AirFry tray is perforated, meaning it optimises air circulation for low-fat cooking by using hot air not fat. It’s also got a non-stick finish for easy cleaning.

10. Double dishwasher drawers

Modern life is busy and anything that eases that is a win. Hence seeing an uptick in the trend for double dishwasher. However, this trend isn’t just a fad to be flash, it actually makes a lot of sense. Think dishwasher drawer, rather than two full dishwashers side by side.

Fisher & Paykel has a great version, which is stacked on top of each other, so won’t take up more space than a regular dishwasher. It does however mean you can wash one drawer while you load the other. They have the depth to fit full-size dinner plates, meaning you won’t actually need to unload the clean load back into your cupboards, you could just use it in constant rotation.

They run very quietly, use less water and have six settings to wash anything from fine crystal to heavy pans at the touch of a button.