Between cooking weeknight dinners, Sunday meal prep, and hosting friends, we tend to spend a lot of time in our kitchens. It's also one of the first rooms guests see, and it's at the heart of holiday gatherings. For all of these reasons, keeping our kitchens updated, stylish, and functional is perhaps more important than any other other room in the house. But kitchen design trends move fast. To keep up, we reached out to the kitchen trend experts at Houzz and Trulia to get their predictions for the top kitchen trends of 2019—as well as the trends that are officially out. Before you start painting your kitchen cabinets or upgrading your backsplash, check out the top trends below.
1. On Trend: The Backsplash Feature Wall
According to the home design pros on Houzz, kitchen backsplashes will make an even bigger statement in 2019, as designers are extending the tile all the way up to the ceiling. Rather than a pop of tile above the counter, stylish kitchen are featuring an entire wall of tile. This look adds texture and visual interest to any kitchen, as demonstrated in the flawless kitchen above by designer Nam Dang-Mitchell.
2. On Trend: Glass and Steel Room Dividers
While Houzz notes that glass-and-steel front doors and showers have been trending for several years now, the trend is also starting to pick up for interior room dividers. When used to separate a kitchen and living room, these transparent dividers can keep food smells and noise in the kitchen, while creating the visual effect of a large, open floor plan. If you aren't sold on an open floor plan, yet want to make your space feel connected, this is the solution. The transparent room divider looks stunning in the Parisian apartment above, featured on Cup of Jo.
3. On Trend: Moody Hues
All the experts agree on this one: Dark colors are making a big comeback in 2019. "Clients are starting to lean away from the trending gray of the past years and into the navy palette, especially paired with gold hardware and fixtures," explains Layne Brookshire, a Trulia Design Panel expert and founder of Ms. Placed Professional Organizing in Austin. In addition to navy, black and forest green will also be trendy kitchen paint colors in 2019, the design experts at Houzz report. Want some inspiration? Just check out the beautiful kitchen, above, by designer Christopher Peacock.
4. On Trend: Bench Seating in the Kitchen
Another top kitchen trend of 2019 will be bench seating. On Houzz, designers are opting for built-in bench seating used in dining nooks or the kitchen, while others are "hacking" the look of a built-in by introducing bench furniture pieces. "It turns almost any dining spot into more of a lounge area, and you can tuck a few storage baskets underneath for blankets, games, place settings, and more," the experts explain. Benches give the feeling of a banquette, but without the commitment (and cost) of a built-in. But if are planning a complete kitchen renovation, then the banquette above by Studio McGee is calling your name.
5. On Trend: Pink Kitchen Cabinets
Just when you think the blush pink trend may be on its way out, it manages to reinvent itself. In 2019, the pastel hue is showing up in a place we never expected: on kitchen cabinets. "Blush is taking over as the new neutral," says Brookshire. "It pairs beautifully with natural colors for calming spaces and couples well with bold colors and designs," she adds. This drop-dead-gorgeous kitchen by Neal Beckstedt is all the inspiration we need.
6. Officially Out: All-White-Everything in the Kitchen
As designers move toward moodier hues and pops of pink in the kitchen, the all-white-everything trend will become less popular in 2019. In fact, the remodeling and design pros at Houzz say that the moody-hue paint trend is likely a reaction to the white kitchen trend of recent years.
7. Officially Out: The Single Accent Wall
It used to be stylish to paint just one wall in a room an eye-catching accent color, but in 2019, homeowners aren't holding back. Expect to see all four walls—molding and trim, too—painted in bold hues, according to Houzz.
8. Officially Out: Open Shelving
"Open shelving in the kitchen is out!" Brookshire confirms. "It has finally been around long enough to convince everyone of its aesthetic appeals and its life-practicality fail." While open shelving will continue to look picture-perfect in 2019, this impractical design will become less popular in the year to come. As Etsy predicts that 2019 will be the year of "Being Real," design trends that look good but don't function well won't make the cut this year.