As the housing market continues to adjust, design and community strategy have become drivers of buyer preference, according to Jenni Nichols, vice president of design at John Burns Research and Consulting. In a recent New Home Insights podcast episode, she offered industry professionals a look at what modern buyers value most.
Exterior design
Buyers are increasingly receptive to simplified exteriors that still feel contemporary, with Nichols noting a “noticeable appetite” for modern design elements.It delivers cost savings without sacrificing what today’s buyers are looking for.
She highlights that this doesn’t mean abandoning regional authenticity.
“I would say we’re going to see authentic styles for the regions, and then we’re going to see other styles that come up in popularity like farmhouse, where it catches fire for one reason or another and spreads around the country,” Nichols said.
Inside the home, not all spaces carry equal weight with buyers. Nichols said the kitchen is “one of those places you have to get right.” While buyers may be flexible on exact finishes or materials, they want kitchens that are aesthetically pleasing. They also want plenty of storage and counter space.
Primary bathrooms are also high‑impact. Secondary baths, flooring (such as luxury vinyl plank) and other interior choices offer more flexibility for cost savings without significantly affecting buyer satisfaction.
Affordability and lifestyle preferences are major factors for buyers downsizing and preferring a low-maintenance home, Nichols said.
Density is also gaining traction as land costs rise. Nichols stresses that it’s not about cramming more units in but balancing density with outdoor and community space that enhances livability.
“Great master plans will oftentimes create a denser neighborhood, but then they’ll do things like have a really fantastic park that’s like right next door, two minutes walk away,” Nichols said.
And while kitchens are a hotspot for buyers, when it comes to density, Nichols points out that it still needs to “remain functional.” A kitchen that supports two people cooking, prepping, cleaning and other necessities will win over buyers.
Buyer preferences go beyond just what’s inside the home. According to Nichols, buyers are looking for mixed-used communities that “really give you that walkability and that sense of place.”
She also notes that massive central clubhouses are making their exit, and she is starting to see either two smaller clubhouses or one smaller clubhouse with more flexible use.
Cottage communities, featuring 800-1,200 square feet homes, are becoming a solution for buyers seeking this sense of space.
Adapting to these buyer preferences will be essential for standing out and closing sales in the evolving housing landscape of 2026.
With America’s industrial revolution in the rearview, the government begins promoting homemaking to young women as an exciting new science — “just as useful to maid as to mistress.”
Meanwhile, kitchens are adopting technology like mass-produced metal stoves, the early iterations of refrigerators (just iceboxes, at first) and electrification. The electric kitchen leads to the first generation of countertop tools including automatic toasters and stand mixers. A century later, these appliances have barely changed.
Female students prepare food in a home economics class at the University of Maryland in 1926.
“Is not housework as worthwhile studying as the shoveling of coal? Is not housekeeping the biggest, the most essential industry of all?”Bulletin of the American School of Home Economics, 1915
1920
The Hoosier Manufacturing Company publishes “The Kitchen Plan Book,” which offers readers 50blueprints for kitchens designed by “leading architects and architectural draughtsmen of America.” They incorporate the new technology of modular, mass-produced cabinetry. To this point, kitchen storage meant free-standing furniture, simple shelves, or cabinets built on-site by a carpenter, said Brent Hull, a Texas-based builder who specializes in the history of millwork, especially in the kitchen.
“The Kitchen Plan Book” presented some futuristic ideas for the room’s design, promising to “simplify the work which a woman must do in her kitchen.”
1926
Architects begin applying the lens of domestic science to the kitchen, with many inspired by the work of the famed Viennese architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky. Her compact, sleek, function-driven “Frankfurt Kitchen” feels like a forerunner of IKEA, said Alexis Barr, an expert in kitchen design history at the New York School of Interior Design.
“She’s actually labeling some of those drawers, so it’s sort of set out for the homeowner, like, “This is where you’re going to put your flour; this is where you’re going to put your bread,’” Ms. Barr said. “And she’s integrating that fitted kitchen and the components of it. And it’s all sort of predicated around the idea that you’re going to have this certain set of appliances.”
The Frankfurt Kitchen still captivates kitchen designers nearly a century later.
Mark Phillips/Alamy
American kitchens are also becoming more practically designed, with an ideal number of steps between the stove, sink and counters. Designers at the University of Illinois School of Architecture would refine this concept in the 1940s as a “work triangle,” a term still used by kitchen designers today.
The University of Illinois School of Architecture refined the concept of the kitchen “work triangle” in the 1940s. The term is still used to lay out kitchens today.
The University of Illinois Press
Your Ideal Kitchen
How connected should the kitchen be to the rest of the home?
1934
Kitchens are evolving, but most are still closed off from the rest of the home. Enter Frank Lloyd Wright, who designs what many believe to be the first open-concept kitchen for Malcolm and Nancy Willey, a middle-class couple in Minneapolis. Mrs. Willey wanted to cook and entertain at the same time, decades before the arrival of the open floor plan. The resulting room is still economical in terms of space and movement, but also sunlit and beautiful, connected by a half-wall and handsome picture windows to the home’s living spaces.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s open-concept design for a kitchen in Minneapolis, which allowed the homeowners to cook and entertain at the same time.
Hedrich Blessing Collection/Chicago History Museum, via Getty Images
1945
A rush of home-building and suburbanization emerges after World War II, as does the use of more processed design materials perfected in military applications. The company that makes Formica, for example, expands its line of kitchen countertops with new patterns and colors. Plywood manufacturing takes off.
Showing off our new purchases — “look at the latest convenience, look at my new stove” — becomes increasingly chic, said Mr. Hull. As a result, “the kitchen really transforms after 1950 into much more of a modern space.”
In the 1956 short film “Once Upon a Honeymoon, sponsored by Bell Telephone, a housewife serenades her dream kitchen.
“Just look under ‘plastics’ in the yellow-pages of your phone book for a nearby Formica fabricator. You can have beautiful Formica in your kitchen for only a few dollars a month.”1956 advertisement
1957
Amana unveils a bottom-freezer refrigerator, so owners no longer have to crouch all the way down to reach their produce drawers. The appliance brand, now owned by Whirlpool Corporation, had also invented the side-by-side refrigerator 10 years before. The new designs lead to new features, like through-the-door ice machines and French doors.
To this point, all fridges had come with the freezer on top, the simplest way to design a refrigerator, said Barry Burkan, a refrigerator expert and a dean at Apex Technical School in New York City. Top-freezer refrigerators benefit from warm air rising up to the freezer, where it gets cooled before sinking back down to cool the refrigerator. Move the freezer to the bottom or to the side, and things get more complicated.
Until the 1950s refrigerators came in just one style, with the freezer on top. Some models hid a door to the freezer inside the exterior door, to keep more cold air inside.
PhotoQuest, via Getty Images
Your Ideal Kitchen
I like the freezer of my refrigerator to be…
1963
Julia Child’s first TV show, “The French Chef,” introduces millions of Americans to French cooking, but also to her large, open, well-equipped, semiprofessional kitchen — including a massive Garland gas range, a peg board and Le Creuset pots and pans, all of which are now on view at the Smithsonian. Viewers don’t just want to cook like her, they want to own the products they see her use onscreen.
The show becomes such a fixture in the American imagination that it is still being parodied 15 years later by a bloody Dan Aykroyd on “Saturday Night Live.”
Julia Child became a household name after her TV show, “The French Chef,” made its debut in 1963. Her kitchen co-starred.
1978
General Electric Company manufactures an over-the-range microwave oven, freeing up counter space. It quickly becomes the visual centerpiece of many American kitchens.
In 1978, General Electric created the first over-the-range microwave, which combined a microwave and a range hood. The innovation altered the aesthetic of many American kitchens.
Harold M. Lambert/Getty Images
“Microwaves had gotten more and more popular, but everyone noticed they had gotten bigger and bigger, and taking up more and more counter space.”Jim Hoetker, a former industrial designer at G.E.
Your Ideal Kitchen
1983
What do personal computers have to do with kitchens? They become a regular presence in the “the command center,” the new kitchen-home-office combination sweeping the country, said Lauren Tolles, who founded the Michigan custom cabinetry company Maison Birmingham.
“Back then, you would have had your landline sitting on it. You would have a stack of mail, the kids’ homework,” Ms. Tolles said. “The concept was successful, because the mom didn’t have to be out of the kitchen and away from her family anywhere.”
Compact personal computers make their way into the kitchen, as seen in this 1977 ad for the Apple II. Interior designers respond with built-in office spaces nicknamed “the command center.”
Apple
1990
As suburbs and houses continue to grow, the term “McMansions” makes its way into the vernacular. Kitchens, a practical space up through the 1950s, morph into a “decorative space,” said Mr. Hull. Cabinets grow more luxurious, ceilings grow taller, and stoves with braggable brand names like Viking or Wolf become more mainstream. “That’s really when it becomes kind of the most expensive room in the house,” he said.
Your Ideal Kitchen
How do you feel about kitchen islands?
1999
The Manhattan restaurant Pastis, designed by Ian McPheely and the restaurateur Keith McNally, is slathered wall-to-wall in reclaimed, glazed white subway tiles. The tiles are there (and in subways) because they’re extremely durable, easy to apply in many patterns, and easy to clean, said Mr. McPheely, now a director at Paisley Design in New York City. But they also strike an emotional chord, one reason they are now ubiquitous in American kitchens: “It gives you an instant kind of sense of history,” he said.
The Manhattan restaurant Pastis, designed by Ian McPheely and Keith McNally, was clad both inside and out in reclaimed white subway tiles. Now they’re everywhere else, too.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Your Ideal Kitchen
2005
New homes with the most up-to-date kitchen plans — large, open to the rest of the home, and increasingly central — are emerging across the country, at the tail end of a housing building boom that began in the late 1990s.
“All of a sudden, it was like this open-concept kitchen where you just had, like, literally one room,” said Aurora Farewell, whose eponymous architecture and interior design firm is based in Connecticut. Even with renovations to older homes, she said, “almost always it’s a conversation about, ‘How do you make that kitchen feel central?’”
Today, most newer homes have kitchens that are fully open, and increasingly central.
Neil Podoll/Shutterstock
2011
“The Property Brothers” reality show, starring Jonathan and Drew Scott, becomes a breakout success for HGTV. The show, along with the advent of social media and affordable home-furnishing retailers like IKEA, has a huge impact on home renovations.
“They’ve really made design and kind of D.I.Y. projects accessible to the masses,” said Ms. Tolles. “And there’s so much information out there on TV, on the internet. You walk into the IKEA store, they have planners. They do make it easy to do.”
The grand opening of New York City’s first IKEA store in 2008, in Brooklyn. Ready-to-assemble cabinets and other D.I.Y. innovations made kitchen renovations more accessible and affordable.
Mark Lennihan/Associated Press
“Showing them that you can make a beautiful dream home well within your budget, you don’t always have to get a turnkey ready place — that’s the biggest thing about our show that people love.”Drew Scott, co-host of “Property Brothers,” September 2011
2012
Imported cabinets made from lighter-weight, affordable engineered wood — flat-packed and shipped ready to assemble — are taking off in the U.S. “The quality of a lot of those are not that great, but the price point is so reasonable,” said Ms. Viola. “If you watch any of those HGTV shows and you see someone that says, ‘Yeah, well, we got this complete kitchen done for $10,000,’ you know it’s because they spent $1,000 on that flat-pack cabinetry that’s going to last maybe a year.”
Your Ideal Kitchen
I want my kitchen storage …
2016
The Japanese clutter consultant Marie Kondo is so popular that her name becomes a verb. Across the country, companies that focus on organizing emerge to help us deal with the storage of too much stuff — one consequence of a kitchen that’s open to the rest of the house, said Ms. Tolles: “In a small house, it’s nice to have that openness. But then you literally have just lost like an entire wall of storage.”
One consequence of having a kitchen that’s open to the rest of the house is losing walls, which help provide more storage space.
Getty Images
Your Ideal Kitchen
I prefer a kitchen that is…
2020
As Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns begin in March, Americans are working from home, often in the kitchen. Children attend school online, often in the kitchen.
“It really was during Covid that people realized that the open concept is loud,” said Sarah Snouffer, the founder of Third Street Architecture in Washington, D.C. “It’s hard to find enough space. It’s hard to have multiple people working or learning in the same space.”
The Covid-19 pandemic forced us to rethink how we used our kitchens. For many, they became classrooms for home-schooling.
John Moore/Getty Images
“My kids are now teenagers, and with quarantine home-schooling in full effect, we’re once again all sitting around the same table at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with fate dishing out extra portions of frayed nerves and financial uncertainty.”Hugh Garvey, Sunset Magazine, April 2020
2023
The pandemic is easing, but pressure on usable space in the kitchen remains high. Shopping and cooking habits change, said Wendy Trunz, a partner in the New York City home organization company Jane’s Addiction. More people are buying in bulk and cooking at home. And many still don’t go to an office. “Some never really went back because they didn’t have to, and they kind of took over a little part of the kitchen, or a part of a dining room,” said Ms. Trunz.
Post-pandemic, many people still buy in bulk and cook more meals at home, requiring more space for storage.
Julia Gartland for The New York Times
2025
Kitchen designers are adapting, with warmer, more comfortable designs replacing sleek and streamlined. Kitchen islands expand, or multiply, as people want flexible all-day seating and places to plug in laptops and stash more cooking appliances and servingware.
Ms. Farewell is creating more privacy without closing off the room completely, through additions like pocket doors or framed openings that provide a sense of a separation as needed. “I do not necessarily think that the kitchen of the future, or necessarily even the kitchen of today, is an open kitchen,” she said.
Some time ago on Remodelista, we took a tour of A Low-Maintenance Lake House on Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula, a new-build project by two Mainers: Jocelyn O. Dickson Architecture and Heidi LaChapelle Interiors. Today we’re zeroing in on the outdoor living spaces—the wide cedar deck and custom outdoor kitchen—designed by Jocie for one of the homeowners, an avid cook. Here’s a breakdown of the elements (and where to find lookalikes).
Above: The house is clad in shou sugi ban and nestled beside a small lake. “The lot is extremely long and narrow,” says Jocie, “and the building site was only possible thanks to a variance granted by the town, which allowed us to build up to about 40 feet from the lake (typically the setback is 75 feet). So this made for a very special condition: to be literally right on the lake.”
The homeowners worked with a close friend, a landscape designer, to create a “minimal and low-maintenance” planting plan, says Jocie. “Because of our proximity to the lake, we were limited with our hardscape and plantings on the water side of the house, so this area was left mostly natural.” A wide cedar deck along one side of the house creates multiple outdoor living spaces: a lounge area, an outdoor kitchen and dining area, and a fire pit. Fortunately, Jocie notes, the deck was completed before the price of cedar skyrocketed during the pandemic.
Above: The custom outdoor kitchen was designed by Jocie and built by Shugart Builders.
Above: The Brice Medium Planter is $99 from Rejuvenation. Above: DeVOL’s Iron Hook Rack, $153, is suitable for hanging gardening tools and kitchen essentials alike.
For more Steal This Look posts, see:
N.B.: This post has been updated with new prices, products, and links. It was first published April 2022.
We want kitchen that have color, character, space and ease of use.
Design CityHomeCOLLECTIVE Photos Kerri Fukui
Our kitchens are not what they used to be. Once mere workspaces, they have become the rooms where families spend a majority of their time. No one knows this better than the Italian home appliance manufacturer founded in 1882 by Francesco Bertazzoni, which makes it the longest-standing family-owned appliance brand.
“One of the positive things about the pandemic is that people are experiencing the pleasure of more time at home,” says Nicola Bertazzoni, Bertazzoni Chief Operating Officer and sixth generation family member in the business. “Today, we see the kitchen as a source of joy and inspiration.”
“Here in California, you are what you drive,” adds Michael Rockstroh, who oversees operations in North America. “Now that is true for the kitchen.”
Bertazzoni has just released the results of its 2023 Kitchen Trend Report, which makes its debut at the end of the company’s 140th anniversary celebration. The survey was conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of Bertazzoni within the United States from October 6-11, 2022 among 2,029 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, among whom 1,408 are homeowners. Results show that, in 2023, the kitchen truly is the heart of the home, central to our daily lives and well-being.
Homeowners Are Prioritizing Kitchens
According to the survey, three out of four homeowners (75%) say they use the kitchen more than any other room in their home. Now, despite forecasts for a cooling housing market, state-of-the-art, large kitchens are in high demand. Whether looking for a refresh, a complete renovation, or a new house — homeowners will likely prioritize investing in kitchens.
A Connection To Nature And Induction Cooking
According to the survey, as we continue to spend more time at home, consumers are craving a sense of sanctuary: they are drawn to spaces that support rest and providing a source of joy and inspiration. For many, this is created by fostering a connection to nature. And while biophilic design has been on the rise for years, it’s now manifesting not only through the use of nature-inspired elements like wood and earth-toned color schemes, but through eco-conscious materials. Today’s homeowners are taking environmental considerations as well as aesthetics into account in their spaces.
“Appliances engineered for sustainability are now a must,” says Nicola Bertazzoni. “This is fostering a shift to induction cooking. In central and northern Europe, the shift has been growing for both economic and environmental reasons. In the United States, the trend is moving from the coasts inward.”
Bertazzoni says that “Going from gas to induction is like going from a tube TV to a flat-screen model.”
The study showed that 84% of US homeowners say that they want to purchase sustainable products for their home.
The Case For Two Kitchens
“Back kitchens” or “prep kitchens” are one of the hottest new premium kitchen trends: 42% of US homeowners say they would want a second kitchen in their home if money were no object. This jumps to 61% among those aged 18 – 44.
According to Bertazzoni’s survey, many homeowners aspire to have a second kitchen to create a separate, discrete space for food preparation. Offering the best of both worlds, homes with back kitchens allow an open, “front of house” entertaining space to host guests with an adjacent space to keep food prep and used dishware out of sight. For high-end homes, back kitchens create space for Instagram-worthy entertaining with friends and family.
We love mixed metals for their sophisticated accent.
Collezione Metalli_Gold_Heritage Series
Mixed Metals Are In Demand
Nearly three in four U.S. homeowners (74%) are open to mixing metals within their home’s decorative finishes, demonstrating an appetite for sophisticated contrast and personality.
“This is an opportunity to personalize appliances,” says Nicola Bertazzoni. “It allows for more personality.
“At the same time, because kitchen appliances are a long-term investment, homeowners want timeless elegance”
Bertazzoni’s recently introduced Collezione Metalli collection has become a top-seller, with over 70% of Heritage Series Range purchases including corresponding metallic accents. These jewelry-inspired knob and handle elements bring refined, decorative details to the kitchen, with the company’s growing portfolio of high-end finishes like real gold, copper, and black nickel-plated finishes — which can be referred to as “truth in material” — creating high-quality design statements.
White kitchens are out: we want personality, as well as environmentally friendly products.
Designer Ginger Curtis, Urbanology Designs Photographer Mike Davello
“White Out”: Kitchens with Character are Coming Back
The advent of the highly personal kitchen is on the rise, particularly among consumers and homeowners who already embrace color in their personal style, and who tend to be more open to colorful kitchens with high-impact personalities. The survey found that only 19% of Americans find all-white kitchens appealing.
“People have an emotional response to color,” says Nicola Bertazzoni. “They venture into more expressive designs through colorful cabinetry, bold surfacing and appliances that provide a more personalized aesthetic.”
No More Open Shelving
Open shelving is officially out, with a whopping 83% of U.S. homeowners confirming they don’t find open shelving appealing. Instead, homeowners are embracing more sleek, integrated styles like enclosed cabinets and built-in or flush-to-cabinet appliances, which 54% of U.S. homeowners find enticing. These more functional options allow seamless, custom style with limited maintenance.
Two Tone Cabinets Are Too Much
Less than a quarter of U.S. homeowners (23%) say that contrasting colors or finishes, like blue lower cabinets and white upper cabinets, are of interest, making this once-buzzy trend officially on its way out.
Instead, designers and homeowners want to create contrast through eye-catching appliances, which can serve as the focal point of the kitchen without overwhelming the space.
