Not only does a modern kitchen need to be functional—but it should also look great. Today, luxury kitchen design is not about the most expensive materials or exotic wood cabinets; it’s about effective use of space and designing a functional kitchen with smart solutions for everyday use. While the phrase ‘high-end design’ may have specific connotations in terms of how it should look, in reality, this type of design varies greatly depending on individual preferences.
Whether you want a mid-century modern or a Scandinavian-styled kitchen, both are possible through a high-end kitchen design mindset.
Regardless of the theme, you want to accomplish with your design, here are some features that you need to include to create that luxury kitchen.
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1. A Seamlessly Built-In Refrigerator
A staple of every kitchen. It’s the appliance we turn to whether we’re cooking some lunch or need a midnight snack. There are so many different styles, colors, and shapes of refrigerators to choose from when it comes to luxury fridges.
Regardless of which fridge you choose, the important thing is to ensure your design allows for the appliance to be built in. Fridges that jut out take up space and can appear clunky. In fact, one facet of luxury kitchen design is including a kitchen that seamlessly integrates with the rest of the space.
Ask your Puustelli designer about how to integrate a panel ready fridge in your kitchen design.
2. An Open Layout For Cooking and Entertaining
While not always the case and highly dependent on the size of the home, modern kitchen designs incorporate enough space for cooking and guests. If you’re looking to host family holidays as well as friends and neighbors, then it’s important to consider an open layout while laying out the blueprints for your kitchen.
3. Hidden Trash and Recycling
Just like your refrigerator, your trash and recycling in your kitchen should also be out of the way. When trash and recycling bins are placed beside the kitchen island, it add bulky and unnecessary furniture to your kitchen design.
Your kitchen designer can show you where to integrate waste bins near the sink or as part of your kitchen island – hidden and out of the way but close and practical enough to make cleaning up in the kitchen a cinch.
4. Cabinets That Amaze
Your kitchen cabinets are going to be a central feature of your high-end kitchen design. When you think about it, the cabinets set the tone for the rest of the kitchen. This makes the selection of cabinets both in color, style, and material extremely important.
But, don’t stress out about making the right choice. Cabinet shopping should be a fun experience as you look for the perfect option that fits your functionality needs and your style and taste preferences.
Here at Puustelli, we take things one step further by offering cabinets that are functional and stunning in their modern, minimalist design and extremely sustainable.
Our Scandinavian kitchen cabinets embody everything great about Northern European design: warm tones, seamless design, earthy undertones, and sustainable materials.
5. Flooring That Holds Up
The flooring of your kitchen is something that will experience a lot of use. For this reason, not only should your high-end kitchen have flooring that looks great and pairs well with your cabinets, but it needs to be durable too.
Luckily, there is an abundance of quality flooring options that will hold up with regular use. For example, hardwood, or tile, or luxury vinyl flooring are all recognized within the home industry as being durable choices.
Overall, both flooring and cabinetry are two areas of your luxury kitchen design that are worth investing in to reduce repairs and complications down the road.
6. High-Performance Appliances
At the forefront of your kitchen in terms of functionality are the appliances you use. This is especially true for homeowners who plan on using their kitchen a lot for both entertaining and cooking.
For example, ranges, ovens, steam ovens, cooktops, and other accessories can all be included in your luxury kitchen to make cooking easier. Wine racks, Sonos speakers, coffee bars, and more can be included to make the area more welcoming to guests as well.
For inspiration and examples on high-performance appliances, check out Miele and Wolf, a couple of the top brands in the industry that we enjoy working with.
7. Impressive Countertops
Perhaps just as fun as choosing your cabinets is deciding which countertop to go with. Fortunately (or unfortunately, if you’re indecisive), there are a lot of fantastic, high-performance, luxury countertops on the market today.
Quartz countertops are certainly up there in terms of durability, traditional granite countertops offer a classic, high-end look, and wood countertops are warm and great for meal prep. As you can see, each countertop material has its unique benefits. The key for you is to decide which material best matches up with your needs.
For assistance in choosing the right countertop for your luxury kitchen, this helpful HGTV article breaks down some of the best options.
8. Smart-Home Features For Ease of Use
When you look at high-end kitchen designs of the past and compare them to modern luxury kitchens today, you’ll notice a lot of differences. One such difference is the use of technology. Luxury kitchens today embrace technological innovation to create a more functional space.
There are loads of fantastic smart-home features to implement in your kitchen, including the Instant Pot, the Automatic Pan Stirrer with Timer, and this awesome GeniCan—which allows you to scan barcodes of items you’re throwing out and automatically adds them to your shopping list.
9. Functional Kitchen Islands
The kitchen island is a staple feature in luxury kitchens. It’s the place you can find everyone hanging out at a party or just making dinner with the family—it’s the room’s focal point. And utilizing the kitchen island as not only added counter space but also a functional workspace is vital to bringing your luxury kitchen to that next level.
To make your kitchen island more functional, add a sink or stovetop to it. You can cook on one side and chat with your friends sitting on the stools on the other side. People also utilize their kitchen islands to place small wine fridges or pot and pan storage that they may otherwise never have room for.
And you know what they say, two islands are better than one! In larger luxury kitchens, two kitchen islands are actually quite common. You can have it for storage and cooking, while the other (with your mini wine fridge) becomes one for entertaining, eating, and drinking. Plus, adding appliances into your kitchen islands opens up more storage space in your kitchen cabinets on the walls.
10. Stowed Away Appliances
Hidden appliances are all the rage in custom luxury kitchens. Homeowners may want a completely seamless look to their cabinets and will build specialized cabinets that allow the fridge and microwave to blend in perfectly with the cabinets. It’s odd to see someone open up a cabinet door to find the refrigerator, but it’s an incredibly cool and modern feature that makes for a truly seamless look.
You can also utilize cabinet drawers to hide your toaster, microwave, blenders, mixers, and other appliances. In fact, customized drawers within the cabinets can even be built to pull out and then up into a workspace where you don’t have to haul your giant mixer onto the counter; you can use the custom shelf you pull out from your cabinets. It’s an amazing and functional way to stow away your rarely used appliances but still be able to use them at will super easily.
11. Integrated Lighting
Let’s be honest, kitchens often have some of the worst overhead lighting in the whole house. And you may find yourself cooking at the stove by the light of the range hood light, which is almost way too bright. That’s where integrated lighting comes in. Integrated lighting is built directly into your cabinets and kitchen space that makes it less harsh and you can actually see what you’re doing.
Integrated lighting could be LED strips adhered underneath your cabinets so that they’re out of sight when you don’t need them, but give the perfect glow to chop your vegetables on the kitchen counter when you need it.
You can even install LED lights that change colors at the push of a button and give your kitchen a fun ambiance for dinner time (or bright flashing colors for a party). You can even install lighting within your kitchen cabinets and drawers that only trigger when the drawer is opened. No more fumbling around in the dark cabinet to find that one casserole dish in the back!
12. Purposeful Storage
Customizing your storage solutions to suit the exact needs of your things is a very luxurious touch to your kitchen. For example, take a corner shelving area and turn your doors into a slide-in feature that, when opened and pushed back, reveals a perfect coffee and tea nook with mugs, cream, sugar, a coffee maker, and hot water kettle. This helps hide the clutter of those things but makes it highly accessible when you need it every morning.
Another example of purposeful storage is the hidden storage we talked about for small appliances. You can level up and actually get custom-made drawers that hold each and every utensil in its perfectly sized compartment. The same goes for spice racks in pull-out drawers but with tiered rows that keep them organized and easily visible.
Even garbage cans and cleaning products under the sink deserve their own purposeful storage with pull-out drawers on wheels underneath your sink. All of these storage solutions not only help you stay clean and tidy but save your back from having to bend over and dig through a ton of junk to find what you need.
13. Signature Sinks
Your kitchen sink is undoubtedly the most used appliance in the entire kitchen. You use it to wash your hands, the dishes, rinse food and other things, and even bathe your babies. So the sink should be something to showcase and make it a focal point of the kitchen. There are dozens of types of sinks you can install for a more modern, luxury look.
Large farmhouse basin sinks are super popular in luxury kitchens. They sit perfectly in your cabinets and can even be utilized as a workstation with cutting boards and racks that sit across the top, leaving plenty of room over the sink. You can also get large stainless steel drop-in sinks like the professional kitchens have and live out all of your chef dreams in the comfort of your own home kitchen.
When it comes to cooking in a high-end kitchen, it’s all about working smarter, not harder.
If you’re looking to design your own luxury kitchen, don’t forget to stop by our showroom for design help!
