The kitchen trends that will turn your friends green with envy

The kitchen might always have been the heart of the home, but exactly what makes it desirable has long been a matter of debate.

Remember the linoleum floors of the 1950s? What about the floral wallpaper in acid-brights of the 1960s?

These days, your middle-class kitchen is all washed up if you haven’t got two of everything — oven, sink, washing machine, tumble dryer. If you’ve really arrived you might even have two kitchens: one ‘for show’ and one where all the cooking actually gets done.

So what are the other features that define your kitchen status?

These days, your middle-class kitchen is all washed up if you haven’t got two of everything — oven, sink, washing machine, tumble dryer

Larder Love

Why bother ramming the cornflakes into the same overflowing cupboard when you can channel your inner Downton Abbey matriarch and have your very own walk-in larder?

Long a staple among those in the kitchen know, it really took off in the mid-2010s (Kirstie Allsopp is a fan).

And demand shows no sign of abating: online searches for ‘dream pantry’ are reportedly up this year by 100 per cent.

Why bother ramming the cornflakes into the same overflowing cupboard when you can channel your inner Downton Abbey matriarch and have your very own walk-in larder

Take it outdoors 

These days the marker of kitchen success is not what is going on inside, but what has been installed outside.

Forget the bog-standard barbie, having an outdoor kitchen — with built-in grills, sink, fridge and storage — is top of the list when it comes to impressing the neighbours.

Rather than order in, you can make your own margherita in a £1,799 Gozney Dome outdoor pizza oven. If that’s a bit steep, try the £399 Gozney Roccbox.

Forget the bog-standard barbie, having an outdoor kitchen is top of the list when it comes to impressing the neighbours (Pictured: Gozney Roccbox outdoor pizza oven)

In hot water 

The humble kitchen tap has had several incarnations — first it was hot and cold, then came the mixer, then double sinks took off and it was all change again. Then came the additional tap for filtered drinking water.

Now it seems the only tap worth talking about is the instant boiling water one.

Quooker first brought its version to the UK two decades ago, but it wasn’t until 2020 that sales really exploded. At a starting price of £1,200, that’s one pricey instant cuppa.

Quooker first brought its version to the UK two decades ago, but it wasn’t until 2020 that sales really exploded

Multiplying ovens 

The Aga was once seen as a kitchen status symbol. These days, much like dishwashers, it’s not about the brand but the quantity. The icing on the cake of the desirable kitchen is a wall-mounted bank of three or more ovens covering every cooking function from microwave and steamer to slow cooker, all operated by digital touchscreen.

The Aga was once seen as a kitchen status symbol (Pictured: Emma Bridgewater for Aga dot design)

The coolest fridge 

If you want to score highly in the kitchen style stakes, you will need a Sub Zero & Wolf designer fridge (chefs Gordon Ramsay and James Martin have them, as does Madonna).

The U.S. company also makes ‘smart fridges’ that interact with home assistants such as Alexa, and will even design bespoke drawers to slot into any part of your integrated kitchen.

The really smart money, however, is on the brand’s newly launched Classic French Door refrigerator-freezer. It features Nasa-inspired air purification technology and an automatic ice-maker — a snip at £23,868.

If you want to score highly in the kitchen style stakes, you will need a Sub Zero & Wolf designer

…and cool tipples 

While a modest wine fridge is a popular kitchen add-on, in 2023 if you really want to be a cut above the rest, then splash out on a floor-to-ceiling wall cooler; or go underground and build a wine cellar.

A spiral staircase down to a high-tech cellar big enough to stash a couple of thousand bottles at a constant temperature is all the rage.

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