10 Smart Ideas for a Personality-Packed Kitchen
These quirky little details, unexpected ingredients and smart styling will give your kitchen a unique sense of identity
One of our favourite spaces in the house, the kitchen can also be one of the most familiar. After all, it typically contains some benchtop space, a few appliances and lots of storage. But a little imagination and some inventive styling can softly steer this room away from the predictable, boosting its personality and creating a unique look. These smart details – some of them integral to the space, some simply added on – bring a fresh, original feel to this much-loved room.
Seek alternative handles
Metal, wood and ceramic are familiar materials for drawer and door handles and knobs, but by sourcing something a little more unusual, you can give your kitchen its own original style. Here, leather strap handles tone in beautifully with the wooden worktop, but it’s the element of surprise that they carry that really captures the eye and the imagination.
Metal, wood and ceramic are familiar materials for drawer and door handles and knobs, but by sourcing something a little more unusual, you can give your kitchen its own original style. Here, leather strap handles tone in beautifully with the wooden worktop, but it’s the element of surprise that they carry that really captures the eye and the imagination.
Light it up
Kitchens often feature integrated spotlights and task lighting, but adding a more decorative table lamp to a work surface or sideboard can instantly give a very different feel to the room.
Kitchens often feature integrated spotlights and task lighting, but adding a more decorative table lamp to a work surface or sideboard can instantly give a very different feel to the room.
Soften stainless steel
Stainless steel is a great material for a worktop, and much-used in professional kitchens. This kitchen shows how it can be made to look soft and neat, rather than seriously industrial, by being framed by the plywood trim of the cabinets.
Find your ideal kitchen benchtop
Stainless steel is a great material for a worktop, and much-used in professional kitchens. This kitchen shows how it can be made to look soft and neat, rather than seriously industrial, by being framed by the plywood trim of the cabinets.
Find your ideal kitchen benchtop
Hang some art
In the quest to make a kitchen practical, we sometimes forget to style it like any other room. Hanging art in a kitchen, close to units and equipment, extends the style found in other areas of the house into this very practical space. This framed painting beautifully matches the cabinets and splashback, too.
In the quest to make a kitchen practical, we sometimes forget to style it like any other room. Hanging art in a kitchen, close to units and equipment, extends the style found in other areas of the house into this very practical space. This framed painting beautifully matches the cabinets and splashback, too.
Make it mirrored
Antiqued mirrored glass brings a softly reflective element to a room and makes a wonderful material for a splashback. It’s practical and easy to wipe down, but it also boosts the feeling of space and creates depth.
8 sensational splashback materials
Antiqued mirrored glass brings a softly reflective element to a room and makes a wonderful material for a splashback. It’s practical and easy to wipe down, but it also boosts the feeling of space and creates depth.
8 sensational splashback materials
Work with paint
A painted kitchen with panelled walls is the perfect canvas for a creative paint job. Use paint to create the illusion of a splashback or deep upstand, running around the whole room. You can even continue this line to include the bottom section of any cabinets that are hung across it, as shown here.
A painted kitchen with panelled walls is the perfect canvas for a creative paint job. Use paint to create the illusion of a splashback or deep upstand, running around the whole room. You can even continue this line to include the bottom section of any cabinets that are hung across it, as shown here.
Create a cool kickboard
Kickboards can be something of an afterthought and generally match the cabinets above, but they don’t have to. Here, a stainless-steel kickboard creates a reflective, almost glowing strip at the base of these wooden units. It’s a nice, but very subtle, contrast of materials.
Kickboards can be something of an afterthought and generally match the cabinets above, but they don’t have to. Here, a stainless-steel kickboard creates a reflective, almost glowing strip at the base of these wooden units. It’s a nice, but very subtle, contrast of materials.
Add a vintage piece
Teaming contemporary and vintage pieces is a mix-and-match approach that works brilliantly in other rooms, but is not often used in a kitchen. Hanging a vintage display case in a kitchen to supplement built-in contemporary storage brings masses of personality, and lovely visual variety too.
Add vintage nostalgia to your kitchen
Teaming contemporary and vintage pieces is a mix-and-match approach that works brilliantly in other rooms, but is not often used in a kitchen. Hanging a vintage display case in a kitchen to supplement built-in contemporary storage brings masses of personality, and lovely visual variety too.
Add vintage nostalgia to your kitchen
Integrate herb storage
Pots of fresh herbs cluttering up your windowsill? Who says they always need to be be stored there? A clever alternative is to design an integrated trough into a benchtop for fresh herbs to sit neatly in. A simple open rack, hung on the wall, would make another good alternative.
TELL US
Share your clever kitchen design tips in the Comments below.
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Pots of fresh herbs cluttering up your windowsill? Who says they always need to be be stored there? A clever alternative is to design an integrated trough into a benchtop for fresh herbs to sit neatly in. A simple open rack, hung on the wall, would make another good alternative.
TELL US
Share your clever kitchen design tips in the Comments below.
MORE
6 Tactics to Help You Discover Your Personal Decorating Style
Cooking With Character: 13 Personality-Packed Kitchens
Adopt a Little Eccentricity … Just for the Fun of It
Copper is a hugely on-trend material, with a long history of use in the kitchen. Usually it’s made into pots, but here it has been fashioned into an aesthetically pleasing double sink. More humble than marble and nicely artisanal in feel, a copper sink is an unusual, stylish addition.