Redefining Timeless Kitchen Design

What Does Timeless Mean?

Timeless kitchen design, in the true definition, refers to not being affected by the passage of time or changes in fashion. In reality, it’s nearly impossible to design a new kitchen for the modern family that will forever look ‘in fashion’. What most homeowners are looking for is an appropriate kitchen design that will look stylish for as long as possible.

What Would a Timeless Kitchen Look Like?

A timeless kitchen would be a space designed where you couldn’t tell in what time period it was built. There would be no clues to when it was built nor leave any trace of finishes that would reflect a specific fashion–and that would be boring! It would be too easy to a kitchen to give away a time period or fashion trend.

What’s the Actual Goal of Designing a Timeless Kitchen?

A kitchen in an American Craftsman-style, a design period beginning in the last years of the 19th century, will look much different than one in a mid-century modern home for obvious reasons. The designer’s goal would be to design each of those kitchens to feel original, yet completely functional and stylish for each of those periods. The goal is to design kitchens that are timeless for that period, so it doesn’t actually make it timeless now, does it?

Is “Timeless” Even The Right Term to Use in Design?

The term ‘timeless’ has become used in the wrong sense, or rather is nearly impossible to achieve if we end up using anything materials that can be identified to a specific time. For example, if a Shaker cabinet is used, we instantly know we’re talking about mid-1700s. One could argue that Shaker is timeless, but trends have changed, and taste for this look was affected by fashion and various design movements.

Timeless vs Test of Time in Kitchen Design

If you want a your kitchen design to stand the test of time, it’s best to use materials and styles used for the original era of the home. A kitchen can still feel new, stylish, and functional for at least a decade if done properly.

Key Factors to Consider for a Timeless Kitchen

A kitchen design that goes out of fashion quickly is something that happens all too often. The desire to choose trendy styles or finishes when wowed at a showroom is all too tempting, so below is a guide to help you along your journey to find the best balance that’ll keep your kitchen design true to lasting form.

Relevant Materials

For mid-century modern homes, you can consider the types of materials used in the 50s and often find them translated into modern versions. For example, if you’re shopping for flooring ideas, you can come up with a list of flooring options that were commonly used in that era.

At the time, mid-century flooring options were often Terrazzo, cork, and linoleum. The modern take on Terrazzo is now large format Terrazzo tile, which can be less expensive than pouring all new Terrazzo.

Cork is also still being sold in many modern finishes in various colors. It’s warm on the feet, has sound dampening factors, but is much less durable.

Linoleum was originally made from asbestos, so the modern version you could opt for is VCT (Vinyl Composite Tile), offered in various flavors of LVT (Luxury Vinyl Tile) or SVT (Solid Vinyl Tile). No longer would you think of it as elementary school classroom flooring, as it has come a long way with finishes that can be used for luxury applications.

Backsplashes were often tiled back in the day, and it’s great to consider famous artists from the time that still offer collections that are still trendy today, yet still work perfectly. Heath Ceramics was founded during the mid-century modern movement and still offers fabulous tile options today. While you might think it’s trendy, the dimensional Oval and Crease lines were designed a while ago and stands the test of time.

You may see a lot of wood finishes and think it’s a trendy item of today, but many homes from the mid-century modern movement featured Walnut and Mahogany finishes, redwood structural framing, concrete, and steel. Home decor during the time introduced the use of fiberglass, concrete, and steel.

Appropriate Styles

Cabinets are usually a dead giveaway to the era of a home, but if you wanted to use something that was original yet still trendy today, you could consider some of the styles originally used like flat slab panels, sliding doors, Walnut finishes, and pops of color.

One modern take on these cabinets can be had from Kerf, who offers customized colors, sliding doors, and cutouts instead of additional hardware pulls. One of the ornaments in a kitchen are the pulls, which can date a kitchen pretty quickly, so a trick is to have milled openings for doors and panels so you won’t need to add additional hardware that can wear over time.

Straight set brick and tile design was another mid-century modern style that can easily be reused in today’s kitchens and homes. Right angles, square finishes and clean lines were also a style, along with geometric patterns.

Colors of The Era

There are the wonderful colors of an era, and for mid-century modern there were various color palates that weren’t exclusive, but often embraced.

Some of these colors were chartreuse, turquoise, pink, grey, and a handful of other choices that were used as accents in a design.