Design Dilemma: 5 Ways to Add Personality in a Kitchen | Home Design Find
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Design Dilemma: 5 Ways to Add Personality in a Kitchen

contemporary kitchen how to tips advice
Kitchens can be difficult. Somehow, they all look alike. But there are ways to inject a little personal style into your kitchen. The secret comes in adding a few unexpected elements. That could be in the colors you use, the materials you use, playing around with configurations  and fixtures. Here are five easy ways to inject some personality into  your kitchen.
1) Dispense with upper cabinets.
The traditional kitchen look involves both upper and lower cabinets. You can get a whole new look, sleek and modern, by dispensing altogether with upper cabinets, allowing the space that would be dominated by cabinets to shine instead with artwork, interesting wall materials, windows, etc.

Below is a traditional kitchen that appears fresh, open and modern, simply because there are no upper cabinets but lots and lots of windows instead.

Kitchen and Island looking west toward drivecourt

And here we see a more modern look. The owners used the empty wall for sleek tiles and a television.

contemporary kitchen how to tips advice

Empty walls in the kitchen below was the opportunity to hang a dramatic piece of art.

Rustic Kitchen

2. Experiment with open shelving.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have open shelving. Open shelves have their supporters and detractors. Some argue they are too impractical, inviting dust and a chaotic, messy look in the kitchen. Others say that open shelving can open up a space, making it appear larger and livelier, depending on what you fill your shelves with. We can see the merits of arguments on both sides. But one thing you can say for sure is that open shelving is an opportunity to give your home personality that would otherwise be hidden by bland cabinetry. Take a look:

Twickenham Green Home

In the kitchen above, open shelves are an opportunity to add color and decorative objects, including plants, for a cozy, homey look.

Tremlett Grove N19

In this London kitchen, open shelves provide an opportunity to display beautiful pottery and a collection of vintage kitchen canisters. In fact, canisters like these are necessary to making this work, as they protect food from dust and keep shelves looking more uniform and tidy.

3. Play with texture and materials.

Industrial Chic kitchen

Bring new, unexpected textures into the kitchen including rough stone, raw wood and steel. Above, rough stone walls pack a huge punch in a casual, farmstyle kitchen. And look how texture transforms a plain white kitchen into something truly cosmopolitan, below.

Trousdale Residence

Below, concrete, wood and metal up the cool factor in a loft kitchen.

Modern Bamboo Kitchen in Eclectic Oakland Loft (front view)

And here, textured metal as a backsplash.

West Coast Fusion

And below, textured cabinets add a note of refinement to an elegantly modern kitchen.

57th Street Residence

4. Add a cool backsplash.

One sure-fire way to add personality to any kitchen is to pep things up with a snappy backsplash. Here are a few examples.

The traditional kitchen below would look utterly run of the mill, except for the colorful tile backsplash.

Traditional Kitchen

This patterned tile backsplash is a beauty and again the focal point in an all-white kitchen.

transitional kitchen how to tips advice

And below, a metal backsplash is unexpected and fresh.

California Style Kitchen

5. Add color.

There’s no more powerful way to inject a dose of personality than to emboldened your kitchen with color. Take a look at the examples below:

Modern Federation
Fun and Funky Mudjimba Beech House
Woodland Residence

And this:

Kitchen

The message is clear. If you want more personality in your kitchen you can have it!

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