Originally Published on Seattletimes.com on November 8, 2018 By Natalie Ivashkina

When making design changes to your kitchen, pair your finish choices with intelligent organization systems. Some pull-out shelves offer practical glass fronts, making it easy to see what is stored inside. (MBAKS)

The kitchen is the hub of the home and remodels are a big investment, so getting your design right is important.

Q: I’m interested in remodeling my kitchen. What are the current trends?

A: The kitchen is the hub of the home and remodels are a big investment, so getting your design right is important. There’s no universal answer on how best to live and cook in a given space or which trends to adopt and which to pass on, but if you take care to balance aesthetic appeal and practicality, you’ll be happier with the end result over the life of your new kitchen.

Concentrate on the essentials that have first-class convenience; design should always follow function. You can tailor your space to your needs, but don’t have to go overboard with gadgets.

Keeping that general guidance in mind, here are the top kitchen design trends for 2019.

Open kitchen and living room space

The transition from kitchen to living room has become more fluid, with living rooms more open. Open layouts are great for social and family life. By bringing the cooking process out of isolation, family members and guests can interact and participate — and not just when dinner’s served. Opening the kitchen towards the rest of the living space unifies not only your home’s design, but the lives of the people living there, as well.

Colors, textures, and ‘smart’ materials

Gray and matte will continue to be big in 2019. The color gray creates an atmosphere of luxury, harmony, and serenity, while textured cabinet doors add a unique, sophisticated spin in the kitchen. Try Supermatt nanotech doors from Fenix in Fierro black gold for a trendy, ceramic-like texture. Nanotech materials have low light reflectivity, are stainless and resistant to fingerprints, and are pleasantly soft to the touch.

Another smart pairing is SmartGlass in matte sand-gray with marble-patterned real ceramic door fronts. SmartGlass is a polymer glass used in the automotive and building industries, as well as the kitchen. Instead of the hard, cold feeling of traditional stone, these modern materials leave a silky or velvety impression. Ceramic door fronts in concrete satin or black basalt look sharp when combined with wood, too, and won’t go out of style any time soon.

Maximizing space

Pair your finish choices with intelligent organization systems. The TakeAway system, for instance, offers pull-outs that can each be removed and used anywhere in the room. Some pull-out shelves even offer practical glass fronts, making it easy to see inside. Specialized corner cabinet units are another great way to utilize every inch of available space; carousel shelves from LeMans fully swing out, so there’s no needed to stretch to reach the back of a corner cabinet.

Designing with light

One main room light is almost always never enough for a kitchen work space. Create a zone of bright, even light on your countertops with LED strips mounted under cabinet wall units. These strips can also be placed in pull-out cabinets and under shelves for more visibility. Mount them under base cabinets for a fun, trendy hanging cabinet illusion. Depending on the lighting manufacturer, these light strips may even offer remote controls, variable color temperature, and other smart features if you really want to get fancy. Proper lighting not only makes your kitchen more functional, it makes it look good.

Remember: trends are just suggestions. The most important rule for designing a kitchen you’ll be happy with for years to come is to follow your true self.

Natalie Ivashkina is the general manager at Eco German Kitchens and a member of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (MBAKS). If you have a home improvement, remodeling or residential homebuilding question you’d like answered by one of the MBAKS’s nearly 3,000 members, write to homework@mbaks.com.