“Furniture piece islands, also known as worktables, have long been popular in French and English kitchens, and we love seeing [them] make their way into local kitchens, since they often add a warm wood element to it,” says Leyla Jaworski, founder and creative director of Design Shop Interiors (designshopinteriors.com) and The Shop by Design Shop Interiors (theshopbydsi.com). There’s no wrong choice when going the route of a furniture piece island, so long as it’s in scale with the kitchen. Some popular options include an antique buffet or farmhouse table. If your hunt for the perfect piece comes up short, design a “furniture-inspired” island by dressing up a standard island with adornments to mimic a piece of furniture—such as decorative legs and molding—then paint or stain it.

 

When styling a kitchen, many people linger over finishes, like countertops and hardware, and fly past cabinet selection. But budding trends show us that cabinets can be more than a blank slate to ground bold finishes. In fact, as the largest and most prominent component of a kitchen, they can drive the kitchen’s aesthetic. One way to do so is with the latest look: reeded cabinet doors.

Thanks to their rounded or scalloped profiles, they add texture and visual interest to a kitchen and make a serious statement. They’re typically featured as an inset cabinet door so that the texture is highlighted against the smooth frame in which it’s set. While you can dress the entire perimeter of your cabinets in the style, only using it on the bottom cabinets makes a balanced statement. You can also use reeded cabinet doors in specific areas you’d like to differentiate, like a coffee bar or kitchen island. A beautiful white oak is popular for reeded cabinet doors, but if you’d like to be extra chic, paint them a fashionable color like sage green or Behr’s 2024 Color of the Year: Cracked Pepper.

Join celebs like John Legend and Chrissy Teigen and jump on board the curved cabinetry trend. Jaworski foresees this up-and-coming look to become a hot commodity, thanks to their aesthetic appeal and how they enhance the flow between the kitchen and the rest of the home. “Most kitchens are at the center of the home and connect multiple spaces together for entertaining, cooking, and quality time together as a family,” says Lauren Jacobsen, owner and principal designer of Lauren Jacobsen Interiors (laurenjacobseninteriors.com). The soft curves of rounded cabinets create a smooth transition from the kitchen to connecting spaces in open-concept homes. The trend is particularly useful in galley-style kitchens that can veer toward feeling cave-like and sequestered from the living space. Rounded cabinets soften the flow and ease the transition into a galley kitchen, making it more open and inviting.

Curved cabinetry can be incorporated into a kitchen space in varying degrees. Go all in by installing rounded upper and bottom cabinets for a contemporary aesthetic; or incorporate book-end traditional shaker cabinets with rounded ones to soften their harsh, linear lines and thwart them from being too boxy.
Not all kitchens have the ideal shape and dimension, which makes installing cabinets tricky. That’s when curved cabinets are practical, as well as aesthetic. For example, a curved cabinet can be strategically installed between traditional boxed cabinets that are of varying depths due to the dimensions and layout of a kitchen. Doing so creates a graceful transition rather than an abrupt, awkward change, provides extra corner clearance, and eliminates a sharp edge protruding into the kitchen.

 

A hot and fresh feature you’ll soon see a lot more of is unique cabinet details. According to Jaworski, ingredients like door cutouts or foot details make a kitchen sizzle. They subtly emphasize cabinetry and add character to the kitchen. “Details elevate a kitchen design and emphasize the cabinets as an important layer in any kitchen,” she says.

One such detail is a decorative toe kick—the recessed space at the bottom of lower cabinets, commonly left as a simple niche. To spice up your cabinetry, opt for a garnished toe kick instead. Options include an arched valance—a decorative molding in a graceful arch—or adding individual feet, which Jaworski notes is popping up in trending kitchens. Both style choices give cabinetry the look of a furniture piece rather than stock cabinet installation.