Are Textures Important to your Kitchen Design?

What tops your list of priorities when planning a kitchen renovation?  Perhaps you are excited to replace your kitchen cabinets with furniture style cabinetry and storage accessories designed to clear the clutter from your countertop.  You may be looking forward to transforming your traditional kitchen into a sleeker transitional style design. Maybe you cannot wait to update your appliances and replace your worn out floor with a durable tile that stands up to all the activity.  The kitchen is at the center of family life, and your design must reflect this role and accommodate the practical requirements of the household.

While it is important to consider the practical elements, the kitchen design process is also about creating a space that inspires you.  Your home style reflects your personality and impacts the senses through the use of colors, textures, patterns, and more.  Adding textures to your design is a great way to incorporate both the tactile and visual senses and bring an interesting contrast to any style design.  Textured materials also serve as a focal point in your design, such as a textured tile backsplash or a range hood made out of contrasting materials.  Different surfaces have unique textures and color variations, particularly natural materials, which work together to create a visually interesting and unified design.

There are many ways to incorporate textures into your new kitchen, including textured tiles, smooth surfaces like glass, natural materials like stone, metal, or wood, and much more.  Here are a few ideas to help you find the best way to incorporate textures into your next kitchen remodeling project:

Make it Shine: Stainless steel creates a focal point in the kitchen pictured at the right, when it is used for both the hood and as a quilted stainless steel backsplash.  The smooth surface and shine of the material make a striking contrast to the cherry veneer cabinetry.

Create a Focal Point: The glass tile backsplash pictured below adds a textured design that stands out against the white cabinetry and hood.  The unique textured pattern of the tile creates an element of visual and tactile interest, and the tile inset behind the range adds a contrasting texture that provides a distinct focal point in this kitchen.

A Natural Approach: Natural materials have normal texture and color variations that make an interesting addition to any design.  A stone wall with an arched niche for the range adds a dramatic and sophisticated edge to the beautiful kitchen pictured below.  The storage niches inside the arched area use a different tile, which introduces additional color and texture variation to the design. 

Incorporating wood into your design, particularly reclaimed or repurposed wood, is another great way to bring the unique texture of natural materials to your kitchen.

Add a Contrast: Make your design more interesting by adding contrasting textures, such as the design pictured below left that includes cabinets in three different finishes, as well as glass-front cabinets.  The hood pictured below right also adds an element of visual interest by using two different textures, with the custom wood hood accented by metal strapping.

Contrasting materials in the kitchen island help to create distinct zones for food preparation and dining.  The island pictured below left uses a quartz countertop with a wooden tabletop, and the design below right uses a wood countertop at one end with a granite tabletop at the other.

The materials you select for your kitchen are important from both a practical and design standpoint, and using a range of different materials creates a visually pleasing environment that helps to stimulate the senses.  Choosing the right materials can be a daunting task but your kitchen design professional can help you determine which materials are best suited to your requirements.  Contact us today to find out more!