Mid Century Modern Kitchen Ideas For 2021

Mid-century style is coming back in a big way, and it’s not going away any time soon. In the kitchen of tomorrow, you’ll find clean lines, low profiles, high gloss finishes, and plenty of glass cabinets with open shelving. So join us as we take a look at some great mid century modern kitchen ideas for your next remodel!

Reasons to Remodel Your Kitchen in 2021

The kitchen is the heart of the home and is often the first room people renovate when they buy a new home or tackle their first DIY project. It’s a room that needs to be as functional as it is beautiful, so a combination is ideal.

Benefits of Remodeling Your Kitchen Include:

• Making your kitchen space more functional—putting working surfaces closer to the stove or moving the fridge away from the center of the kitchen can make it much easier to move around and navigate while cooking meals.
• Increasing the value of your home with a sleek, modern, timeless design. Homes with outdated kitchens will sell slower and for less money.
• Utilizing a design that reflects your personal style. The kitchen is where we do most of our entertaining, so having something that feels like home can make it even more welcoming to guests.
• Keeping up with ever-changing trends and colors. Mid-century modern is a design that has continued through all decades as a timeless style that combats shifting trends.
• Increasing your kitchen’s longevity with scratch-resistant countertops and appliances. Newer surfaces, hardware, and appliances are built to last.
• Increase energy efficiency—older appliances likely suck up more energy use than newer, more energy-saving models.
• Make your home safer by removing older cabinets, and you are also ensuring there was never mold growth or other hazards in the original kitchen.

Elements of Mid-Century Modern Designs

There are some elements that make up the staples of mid-century modern design that make it stand out against other designs and styles. When you think of mid-century modern, you probably imagine styles stemming from the 60s, but the styles actually draw inspiration going all the way back to the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Post-war, there was a shift away from heavy, dark, mundane home furnishings and rather colorful, light, and unique pieces that could quickly and easily fill quick-build homes.

The main features of mid-century modern include clean lines, organic curves, and varying materials and textures with splashes of color. Of course, these elements can cross over to other styles. Still, mid-century modern focuses explicitly on a few differentiating features such as form as function, geometric forms, de-cluttered spaces, minimalist design, and juxtaposing very different or contrasting materials.

Mid-Century Modern Kitchens to Draw Inspiration

Here are a few of our favorite mid-century modern kitchen remodels we’ve seen in recent years that just make us giddy to do our own! Draw some inspo from these gorgeous homes that have perfectly paired design and functionality.

Mid-Century Simplicity

This bright mid-century modern kitchen is giving us all the feels. We love to see an open concept kitchen like this that utilizes clean lines, natural light, and a wide-galley style that is ideal for those who love to cook. With the open shelving, extra-large countertops, and integrated sink on the island—this kitchen is highly functional for cooking meals with everything having a good flow, and it’s easy to navigate between the sink, fridge, and stove for an accessible cooking space. Plus, the sage green pendant lights go nearly undetected, hovering above the kitchen island and blend perfectly with the green backdrop outside.

Splashes of Blue

Dark blues have been trending pretty heavily as a choice color for both home exteriors and interiors. It’s a bold color, but not too harsh, and goes with just about anything. A big part of mid-century modern design is pairing clean whites with splashes of color, and this is a prime example of that. Plus, the gorgeous natural wood legs on the center island and interesting shelving designs draw the eye to many points across the kitchen. Plus, we love to see a dark subway tile backsplash. It breaks up the white kitchen cabinets and gives the space some gorgeous depth.

So Many Textures!

Earlier, we talked about the juxtaposition of contrasting materials, textures, and patterns being a key feature of midcentury modern design, and this is a perfect display of that. Some people may be afraid to use so many different textures, but it was absolutely a style that spanned many decades from the 50s through the 70s and even all the way through the 90s. And we love to see it!

You can see the kitchen above showcasing some wood laminate flooring, some glass display cabinets, simplistic countertops, and then the marble accent wall. The eyes almost don’t even know where to look. But we feel that when this kitchen is fully furnished with some splashes of color and full of family making a delicious dinner (maybe some fondue as an ode to the midcentury), it will really pull the space together.

Gorgeous Lines and Functionality

This midcentury kitchen is the perfect entertaining space with the built-in prep space on the kitchen island, the chic bar stools, and easy access to the dining area. The honeycomb backsplash couldn’t be more representative of the patterns used in the 50s and 60s. The white tile used also gives the feeling of texture without shrinking the space. Plus, it leaves these homeowners room to use the darker wood cabinet and splash of green paint on their ceiling overhang.

This space fits so naturally with the views of green outside their windows, and even with the dividing wall in the center, allows for plenty of natural light to come inside. And the vertical wood grain of the cabinets works so well with the lines on their wood plank ceiling—again showcasing a combination of different textures in one space.

Natural Light and Simple Forms

Can we just give this kitchen and dining room a round of applause? It’s stunning and is an absolute glimpse into the decades that inspired it. From the rounded credenza to the Swedish-style dining set, this kitchen possesses the ultimate mid-century vibe.

With the numerous styles of wood in this space, it was so smart to do simple white walls and ceiling plus the accent of the white chairs. You can also see the integrated dual stoves in the wall of cabinets and the beautiful chrome faucet in the center island. These are classic choices that are a natural fit with the midcentury backdrop.

Chrome Furniture and Color Accents

Now, this kitchen design is a little different than the rest as it moves away from all of the natural wood that we’ve seen in the others featured above. Instead, this kitchen is getting a little more modern with its white cabinets, laminate countertops, bold colors, and beautiful chrome accents in the counter stool set and cabinet handles. Plus the amazingly dated pendant light hanging over the breakfast nook.

Even though these kitchens don’t share quite the same look, they still share many of the same elements. Mid-century modern designs allow the homeowner to take their own liberties in the space but maintain similar elements. Those elements include using bold colors in wall paint, cabinet colors, and decor accents and putting it with clean lines, white walls, and open concept kitchens. In addition, placing modern conveniences like integrated lighting and high-tech appliances within the mid-century kitchen is becoming such a beautiful trend that we don’t see going away any time soon.

For more inspiration on kitchen design, schedule a time to visit our showroom! We have five fully functional kitchens in our showroom that showcase how gorgeous our Scandinavian cabinets would look when installed in your kitchen. We can’t wait to show you.