Kitchen Trends for 2018

I thought I would stray from the norm for my first real estate blog of 2018. A lot of people use the first month of the year to forget about the year past and making changes for the New Year. Let me draw your attention to some trends that are getting attention and give you some great ideas for some home renovation projects!

This week Houzz released the results of its 2018 Kitchen Trends study and the following are some of the findings that I thought were interesting. The study revealed that homeowners are obsessed with clutter-free countertops (75 percent), ingenious storage options (66 percent) and easy recycling (49 percent).

Sixty-three percent of homeowners asked said ample storage solutions were the most important feature in a kitchen, followed by the need for space to easily work, play and live (38 percent), entertain (32 percent) and clean (32 percent).

Home owners want to create their dream kitchens, homeowners are spending as much as $42,000 to install pull-out waste or recycling baskets (67 percent), cookie sheet/tray organizers (58 percent), revolving corner trays (44 percent), deep drawer organizers (42 percent) trays and shelves that pull out or swing out (42 percent).

Homeowners are also being carful in choosing their countertops; which is the most common upgrade (94 percent) and is often the item renovators are willing to spend a little extra cash on (42 percent) When it comes to the material homeowners are choosing for their new, shiny countertops, granite is falling out of favor for a 3^rd straight year (45, 41 and 34 percent in 2016, 2017 and 2018 studies, respectively).  Now, homeowners are turning their attention to engineered quartz (43 percent).

In the past year, 87 percent of homeowners decided to change their kitchen decor style, with transitional (25 percent) and contemporary (17 percent). Moreover, 50 percent of remodelers adjusted their kitchen layout, with L-shape countertops (35 percent) outperforming the U-shape (26 percent).

Other must have kitchen trends?

• Tech in the kitchen: It seems that the demand for TVs in the kitchen has fallen for the past three years (64 percent) since homeowners are gravitating toward home assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home (22 percent) and wireless and voice-controlled kitchen appliances, which have been on the rise since 2016.
• White kitchens still top:White is the predominant color for backsplashes (36 percent), countertops (27 percent) and wall finishes (24 percent), with each feature growing in popularity six percentage points year-over-year.
• No hardwood, no problem – Thanks to engineered wood:For the 73 percent of homeowners updating their flooring, 53 percent chose hardwood or wood-like materials. Although hardwood was the most popular (29 percent), its popularity has been on a downward slope since 2016. Meanwhile, the popularity of wood-like flooring, such as engineered wood or laminate, is on the rise (19, 21 and 24 percent, respectively).
• Shaky Cabinets: Fifty-seven percent of homeowners chose shaker-style cabinets, followed by flat-panel (18 percent) and raised-panel (17 percent) cabinets.

You can pop into any home store these days and build exactly what you want in terms of your space. You can build kitchens on websites like IKEA’s. Or, there is always the old fashioned way, call a designer to come to your home and help you out. Whichever path you take you are not wrong, as long as you are happy with the end result, it will all be worth it!

If you have questions or would like me to blog about something in particular, please email me and of course always check back to read and pass along my blogs!

Peter Fourlas – Regina Realtor®
Real Estate Agency
3889 Arcola Ave, Regina, SK S4V 1P5
Phone: (306) 529-0009
Web: www.brandonw343.sg-host.com
Email: Peter@pfourlas.ca