Going into 2022, kitchen trends are reflecting a lot of our circumstances of the past two years. Cooking at home, buying new gadgets to make meals more interesting, and a growing desire to move away from minimalism and toward personal touches are all echoed in next year’s trends.
When you’re feeling restless with the style of your home and want to change it up, looking toward design trends can be exciting, but keep in mind that some trends leave as quickly as they came. Here are some of the 2022 kitchen design trends with examples of trends with staying power.
Color
Not just any color: green! Every major house paint brand released their 2022 Color of the Year in shades of green. Benjamin Moore’s October Mist, Sherwin-Williams’ Evergreen Fog, Dutch Boy’s Cypress Garden, and PPG’s Olive Sprig are all earthy, muted greens that act more as neutrals. Because these greens offer more of a neutral hue, you won’t feel the need to change your paint color quite as soon as if they were brighter.
You will see these colors on walls, furniture, and cabinets. In the kitchen, cabinet color trends extend to deeper blue hues as well. Matte midnight blue on the island cabinets, for example, and one of the neutral green hues on the perimeter cabinets will be a go-to application of these colors. Even the darker hued blues have a timeless feel that will remain to look fresh for years.
Some designers will instead opt for keeping the upper cabinets closer to white while adding color to the lowers ones. The goal is to break colors up to avoid large masses of one color throughout the kitchen. Applying color in this way makes the space a more personalized feel and less mass-produced. It’s one way the kitchen trends in 2022 are moving slightly away from the gray-scale minimalism from the last decade.
Why are these quiet, soothing shades so popular in 2022? Blues and greens incite calm. Greens especially offer the feeling of hope, optimism, and rejuvenation. The psychology of color is used in many industries. Going into 2022, the trend watchers knew we could all use a little calm and optimism.
Texture
Many homeowners and designers are beginning to deviate from minimalism and back to farmhouses, be it modern, coastal, or cottage. Each of these lean far more toward visual and physical textures and away from the stark solid white decor and styles of the last decade. In 2022, designers predict a rise in cottage style, which is the most textured of the farmhouse styles. Elements like latches on the cabinets, metal mesh on the upper cabinet doors instead of glass, and lots of light wood tones are beginning to show up in kitchens. Bold design choices like these, however, may leave you with regrets when finishes hinder function in favor of style.
A less dramatic way to add texture back into the kitchen that will have more staying power style-wise is open shelving. Replacing the upper cabinets with open shelves is nothing new, but the 2022 kitchen trends are showing an uptick in this storage choice. Using a darker stain on the wood shelves would complement any of the 2022 Colors of the Year beautifully.
Storage
People became more familiar with the functionality, or non-functionality, of their kitchens for the first time in decades. Without as much dependency on take-out and restaurants, and more time to cook and bake from scratch, the ways a kitchen isn’t working became apparent fast. Remember all of those new kitchen gadgets you collected, like the pasta maker and the stand-up mixer? Going into 2022, those gadgets are still around and need a proper storage place. Designers predict more custom storage that works with the unique ways people have been utilizing their kitchens.
Working with a designer to plan your custom cabinetry can bring your kitchen up to your new standards, making cooking at home that much more enjoyable. You will need to consider the scale of the job to know if you will need to hire either an architect, a contractor or a design-build firm. Additionally, if reworking your kitchen storage layout makes it a more functional space, it likely will be for prospective buyers, if you plan to sell down the road.
Countertops 
Keeping in line with the kitchen trend to break up colors and materials, designers are reporting that the kitchen trend for countertops is to top the island and the perimeter cabinets in different but complementary materials. For example, stainless steel on the island and quartz on the perimeter. Perhaps a chopping block on the island instead, although it requires much more maintenance. The 2022 kitchen trends are all about using more materials in the space in a highly strategic way. The materials you choose may depend on the colors available, budget, or maintenance. Work with your designer to learn more about different materials to choose what’s best for your home.
Whether you plan to replace your countertops, trade out the uppers with open shelves, or install completely new custom cabinetry, reach out to a design-build firm that can make these and other changes for you. It’s tempting to believe that these jobs are small enough to take care of on your own, but there are many unintended consequences and costs to DIY projects. Let Gilbert Design Build get the job done correctly and beautifully without the headache of a DIY job.