As we enter the holiday season and prepare to don our literal or figurative party hats, I can’t help but think about the center of it all: the kitchen. Kitchens represent the heart of the home, and one of the greatest changes in home interiors that we’ve seen in the past 50 years involves the kitchen.
Kitchens have gone from small, enclosed spaces to expansive, large, open-concept areas that are the focal point of entertaining. Most home renovation projects today involve knocking down walls between the kitchen and living room to create a great room, while large kitchen islands with spaces for family and friends to gather remain one of the most dominant features in new construction.
At the same time, the materials used in kitchen design continue to evolve. Over the past few decades, kitchen materials have cycled from heavy, dark woods and granite countertops to the all-white kitchen still popular today. In the past few years, we’ve seen a rise in “Organic Modern,” a modern-leaning design balanced by organic elements.