Kitchen Beyond Kitchen Equipment

January 9, 2024

Anurag Yadav

The softer aspects of luxury are adding a new edge to kitchen design.

An understated luxury without in-your-face embellishments is steadily turning into the focus of modern design preferences. This is also about staying in step with the quiet statements that modern design seems to prefer the world over.

The Indian market, supposedly on a roll, seems to have hit an air pocket. The uncertainties of the real estate business following global developments is alone not responsible for the market tremor. Many can say that it’s a mere seasonal corrective sentiment. For the kitchen design business, it is a sort of settling down into some sort of realism. The trends of kitchen design, therefore, continue to play safe and sure.

Going beyond material for surfaces and fixtures, other factors and elements seem to be finally finding their place in the kitchenscape. The emphasis was definitely on kitchen ergonomics, equipment, layout and cabinet design. More subtleties are now bringing an edge to the design.

Emphasis on unique lighting is finally getting its due and the interest in making light design an integral part of kitchen design is steadily growing into a separate section, even in the niche space of kitchen design. Lighting plays an important role as cooking and storage areas must be clearly in focus as a well-lit space. The attention to ambient lighting was usually reserved for the living room or even the washrooms. With kitchens fusing into the living rooms lighting design is a significant factor today.

"A luxury kitchen isn’t well-defined. In the sense that expensive surfaces, high-end modular units and even top-of-the-line gadgets in themselves do not make anything luxurious, out-of-the-box design elements make a bigger difference."

Anurag Yadav

Consulting Editor

Kitchen Ideas

While kitchen counters in marble, granite and other stone materials continue to be the top favourites for surfaces, wood or its qualitative imitation is a preferred material worldwide, and India has so far not taken to wooden counters in any great measure.

The trend of bringing in more organic influences into the kitchen is graduating from simply inviting the outdoors into the living space but also into the more ‘work-orientated’ kitchen area.

A luxury kitchen isn’t well-defined. In the sense that expensive surfaces, high-end modular units and even top-of-the-line gadgets in themselves do not make anything luxurious, out-of-the-box design elements make a bigger difference.

While quality and durability do come at a price, the shift in luxury’s definition as far as the kitchen is concerned has now started including the ‘ambience’ in equal measure as actual kitchen equipment, surfaces and cabinets. The role of cabinetry is enhanced hugely. Fully powered with smart storage options, manufacturers of storage solutions have risen to the occasion and the need.

The challenge for designers gets keener as making statements that are quiet and yet emphatic is the new normal.

Kitchen Beyond Kitchen Equipment

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