How to Find Your Kitchen Style
If you’re planning to renovate your kitchen, here’s how to find inspiration and start narrowing down your choices
When most homeowners embark on a kitchen renovation, they spend endless hours collecting inspiring images of kitchens. But this doesn’t necessarily help a person figure out what they want, and it can even cause confusion. The tough part of the process is learning to narrow down the options and home in on what you want your dream kitchen to look like.
Don’t edit yourself (yet). Don’t make yourself bonkers from the get-go by trying to edit images as you collect them. I believe in collecting with reckless abandon first and editing later. Editing yourself while you gather inspiration can be challenging and stifling for creativity.
Find a kitchen designer and renovator near you on Houzz, see images of their work and read reviews
Find a kitchen designer and renovator near you on Houzz, see images of their work and read reviews
Organise (but only if you want to). It’s fine to be disorganised and even a little messy with your photo categorisation. If, however, you prefer to organise your images in your ideabook, then you’re a step ahead of us, but for those who don’t, there’s no need to sweat about it. There will be time to go back to your photos and label them later.
Start looking for a pro. This can be a great time to start noting the professionals who are responsible for the images you like, and looking for a kitchen design professional you might be interested to arrange a consultation with.
For some homeowners, the right thing to do is to hire a professional from the very beginning and have him or her help you through this inspiration-gathering phase. Some homeowners even delegate this phase completely to a designer, seeing it as their job to listen, interpret and collect inspiration for the client and bring it back for approval.
For some homeowners, the right thing to do is to hire a professional from the very beginning and have him or her help you through this inspiration-gathering phase. Some homeowners even delegate this phase completely to a designer, seeing it as their job to listen, interpret and collect inspiration for the client and bring it back for approval.
Categorise your images
Once you have a fair number of inspirational images to work with, go back through them and sort them into loose categories.
You can categorise by style: maybe you seem to fall on the fence between country style and modern. Or maybe you find that you have a bunch of images of kitchens with blue accents.
You can create a collection dedicated completely to kitchen island lighting or kitchens with a peninsula layout. Consider creating one ideabook for cabinet style, one for wallpaper, another for benchtops, and any other details you’d like to single out.
For now, don’t think about why you like certain images, just recognise that you do or don’t.
Once you have a fair number of inspirational images to work with, go back through them and sort them into loose categories.
You can categorise by style: maybe you seem to fall on the fence between country style and modern. Or maybe you find that you have a bunch of images of kitchens with blue accents.
You can create a collection dedicated completely to kitchen island lighting or kitchens with a peninsula layout. Consider creating one ideabook for cabinet style, one for wallpaper, another for benchtops, and any other details you’d like to single out.
For now, don’t think about why you like certain images, just recognise that you do or don’t.
Edit your selections
Go back through your ideabooks and see if you still respond emotionally to the images you’ve saved. If it’s been a while since you started gathering inspiration and you’ve looks at hundreds of other spaces, your taste might have changed without you even realising.
Ruthless editing can really help clarify things. You may look at a room and wonder, “Why on earth did I save that photo?” If you can’t remember and if the image no longer speaks to you, ditch it. See how easy that was?
Go back through your ideabooks and see if you still respond emotionally to the images you’ve saved. If it’s been a while since you started gathering inspiration and you’ve looks at hundreds of other spaces, your taste might have changed without you even realising.
Ruthless editing can really help clarify things. You may look at a room and wonder, “Why on earth did I save that photo?” If you can’t remember and if the image no longer speaks to you, ditch it. See how easy that was?
Collect images with intention
Now that you’ve collected at random, categorised and edited, go back through all your saved photos and review images for specific items. Look only for glass-front cabinets, industrial range hoods or island lighting, for example, not at the image as a whole. You might not like all features of a room, but one element could be exactly what you want.
When working with a client – often more than once during a project – I pull inspirational images and say, “Don’t look at the wall colour or the cabinet style; just look at the range hood,” or, “Look at the way the crown moulding transitions around the beam and range hood”. Be specific and make a note beneath a photo with the element you like, then edit your photos again.
Now that you’ve collected at random, categorised and edited, go back through all your saved photos and review images for specific items. Look only for glass-front cabinets, industrial range hoods or island lighting, for example, not at the image as a whole. You might not like all features of a room, but one element could be exactly what you want.
When working with a client – often more than once during a project – I pull inspirational images and say, “Don’t look at the wall colour or the cabinet style; just look at the range hood,” or, “Look at the way the crown moulding transitions around the beam and range hood”. Be specific and make a note beneath a photo with the element you like, then edit your photos again.
Your turn
Did you find this story useful? Tell us in the Comments below, save your favourite images, like this story and join the conversation.
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Craving more design inspiration? Don’t miss 6 Colours to Consider for Your Kitchen Benchtops
Did you find this story useful? Tell us in the Comments below, save your favourite images, like this story and join the conversation.
More
Craving more design inspiration? Don’t miss 6 Colours to Consider for Your Kitchen Benchtops
Collect images. Start a Houzz ideabook and in it, save any kitchen images that appeal to you. You may not be able to see it at first, but a pattern will reveal itself. You may find that a whole bunch of your kitchen inspiration images may need to be added to another ideabook for a future farmhouse-inspired project or weekend getaway, but don’t skip over them just because they may not relate to this project – save them for later.