While curbside appeal, beautiful bathrooms, and living rooms sell, the heart of every home (and the one that likely makes the property in demand in the market) is the kitchen. According to Moving.com, you can recoup over 75 percent of the total cost of a kitchen upgrade.
This is even better if your property is in a hot seller’s market. A kitchen with stainless steel appliances, smart technology, and perhaps a breakfast nook will make your home stand out more among potential home buyers.
You can even make it more salable if you use gorgeous quartz countertops. In fact, the demand for this material could reach over $110 billion by 2026. Many homeowners want it because of its durability, beautiful finish, and ability to resist stain better than granite or marble.
But have you ever thought about how kitchens might have looked like over the years? Perhaps by looking back, you can get more creative to help your space appeal even better in the market.
Flexible, Dynamic Designs in the 2000s
The word that may define the kitchen designs of the 2000s is versatility. In the past few years, kitchen cabinets featured dark colors like black or dark blue.
These colors often went well with the shades of quartz, marble, or granite countertops. However, in the early 2000s, a typical kitchen actually featured softer colors, such as light yellow and lime green.
Moreover, American homes are shrinking. In 2017, the average size of a residence was less than 2,500. Let’s not forget the growing popularity of tiny house movements and van life. Kitchens, therefore, need to be smaller but also more flexible.
Thus, today’s kitchens may feature open shelving and pantries that cover only one part of the wall. This way, the space can appear bigger without compromising function. To make it even more attractive, adding a pop of color like a red wall or brightly colored kitchen appliances and decors has become a trend.
Bringing the Country in the 1990s
If colors and stainless steel make up the kitchen of the 2000s, it’s oak in the 1990s. Many kitchen spaces in this decade took a hint from country cabins. Hence, the cabinetry featured durable, dependable wood products like oak.
Homeowners then paired these wood-paneled cabinets with wallpapers that bore floral designs or anything light colored. The point was to create a contrast between the mentioned kitchen elements.
The countertops, though, were far different from the ones you’ll find today. The hottest-selling choice back then was tiles. Not only were they abundant, but they were also incredibly cheap. Of course, nowadays, some may already find them tacky.
Going Big and Bold in the Eighties
Do you remember the eighties? It might as well have been the period of boldness, creativity, and innovation. During this time, technological products, such as cassette players, became even more available. Girls sported big hair to go with their big shoulder pads.
The kitchen then was also a reflection of the time. The period was also inspired by countryside kitchens. The only difference is that homeowners seemed to have gone all out with oak wood. Cabinet doors came with golden or silver handles or knobs as well.
Homeowners also weren’t scared to experiment with shapes. These include the wooden beams that can adorn or protrude from the ceilings, as well as the S-shaped seat that helped build a breakfast nook or a corner dining area.
Wild Kitchens in the Seventies
Apartment Therapy has an excellent lookback on the kitchens in the 1970s. The overall theme was “wild.” Kitchen cabinets continued where the sixties’ design left off—that is, cabinets also featured little drawers or storage spaces called aptly as cabinettes.
Kitchens during this time already featured wood (although the look wasn’t as heavily designed as in the 1980s), but homeowners often paired this with brightly colored paint, such as yellow, red, and orange. Backsplashes were tiled, while countertops were laminated.
Colorful Kitchen Spaces in the Sixties
If you’re ever wondering why kitchens in the 1970s and even the 1980s were filled with colors, you can just take a step back 10 years before in the 1960s.
Apartment Therapy describes the kitchen spaces of the decade as “cheerful.” However, they can also stimulate a feeling of clutter for some homeowners today.
Think of yellow refrigerators, and pink ovens, electric mixers, and coffee makers. On the walls were various patterns or mixtures of colors to go with mosaic backsplashes.
No kitchen design feels perfect, but you can use some of the elements that became popular through the decades to make yours stand out.
