A kitchen at home has always occupied a special place for full cooking, conversation and cozy dining. As it is the most frequented area in the house, the styling becomes natural and it is important to keep it in sync with the home decoration. With a focus on functionality, kitchens are being furnished with a number of appliances and accompaniments. It is no wonder then that the most important part of your kitchen – the kitchen cabinets – should be designed to match your choice and show off your kitchen accompaniments.
Kitchen cabinet styles have come a long way from simple cupboards and shelves to a statement of your home’s interior feel. From traditional wooden cupboards to a more eclectic mix of materials, they now provide fashion and functionality for your kitchen.
With many categories of designs to choose from, Kitchen cabinet styles now have a wide variety of functionality, arrangement and fittings. You can choose traditional cabinets fitted by carpenters, ready to assemble cabinets or totally customized cabinets that can be suitable for your home decoration. Whether you choose traditional or more contemporary cabinet styles, functionality should be a priority as storage is the main purpose of these cabinets. A few tips may be useful while choosing your cabinets:
1. Traditional cabinet style: Beautiful, elegant and historic in its appearance, this style exudes class and elegance in the kitchen. With ornate woodwork designs, dark wood or a full off-white color palette used in the cabinets… this kitchen cabinet style is sure to make a striking statement. You can appropriately choose some of the cabinets to have a glass panel, in case your kitchen collection includes artifacts and exotic cutlery. In addition, the cabinet doors can have extensive wood carving designs and can be selected from a wide variety of designs.
Although this style of kitchen cabinet can be a bit on the expensive side in terms of the materials used (wood, metal handles etc.), design (complicated woodwork), accessories that complement (panel lights etc.) and maintenance, it can certainly add to the glamor quotient of your home.
For cabinet woodwork, you can again choose from a wide variety of themes for a traditional look eg. Rustic, Victorian, Country, Cottage or the French look.
2. Contemporary cabinet style: “Designer, spacious and simple” defines the contemporary look in the kitchen. Glass, metal, fiberglass or plastic are usually used for designing such cabinets. Neat spaces, minimal decoration, modern fittings (sink, faucets, chimneys and lamps) seem to give this style a technological edge. Contemporary cabinets have simple rectangular or square arrangements around the work surface and cooking areas. They do not have extensive exterior designs and are more affordable, low maintenance and can be selectively chosen for a neat and minimal look. With contemporary kitchen cabinet styles, you can be sure of storage in style.
3. Cabinet styles based on themes: Like everything these days, the kitchen is also being designed around themes. This style suits those who want everything in their home to show their personality. Kitchen cabinet styles based on a theme can be as eclectic as you want. From the materials to their arrangement around the worktop and the cooking area, the cabinets can be customized to a theme, for example there can be many cabinets and drawers in the dining table also to keep the cutlery handy while eating.
Whatever your style, cabinets need to do their job of storage effectively. Therefore, while combining them with the home decor, choose materials for the cabinets that are easy on the pocket and maintenance. As the cooking area has a lot of steam and heat, the cabinets near the cooking area should be chosen wisely with materials such as plastic or fiberglass – which are easy to clean and have higher visibility to keep kitchen tools close at hand and in sight. Another aspect is security. While deciding on the style of your kitchen cabinet, remember that the cabinets close to the cooking area must be safe in case of hot spills (oil or water).
While cabinet colors depend on your decorating sense, they should preferably be on the darker side to avoid stains or spills from showing e.g. an off-white themed cabinet arrangement exudes class and beauty but is on higher cleaning and maintenance in kitchens that have regular or heavy duty cooking. Therefore functionality, ease of use, easy cleaning, maintenance and cooking model are factors that should primarily dictate the choice of your kitchen cabinet style.
