From dark natural finishes to green color palettes, from the Shaker style to quartz materials, a newly issued survey identifies the hottest design trends in the kitchen and bath marketplace for 2011. More than 100 member designers of the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA) participated in the survey, which was intended to reflect trends across the U.S. and Canada. And, so far this year, anecdotally, The Paint Doctor is seeing these trends with its clients.
The trends include:
- Shaker style kitchens are displacing contemporary as the second most popular style used by NKBA members. Traditional remains the most popular kitchen style.
- Dark Finishes: Dark, natural finishes overtook medium natural, glazed and white painted finishes to become the most specified type of finish toward the end of 2010.
- Light natural and colored painted finishes remained fairly common, as each rose slightly from the previous year. Distressed finishes dropped significantly from a year ago, when they were used by 16% of designers, to just 5%.
- A Place for Wine: While the incorporation of wine refrigerators seems to be on the decline, unchilled wine storage is growing in popularity; 51% of designers incorporated wine storage at the end of 2010, up 12% from the end of 2009.
- Bonjour Réfrigérateur: The French door refrigerator has strengthened its position as the type specified most often by NKBA member designers. French door refrigerators were specified by 78%, a jump from 67% a year earlier.