Why you need to know your Style before you Embark on an IKEA Kitchen Renovation

Choosing the Right IKEA Kitchen Design: Navigating Traditional, Modern, and Farmhouse Styles

If you’re anything like us, you’ve probably read an article (or a thousand) in your life about “defining your style” (French girl chic, anyone?). It’s one thing to miss the mark when you’re shopping for clothing or smaller decorative items for your home, but you want to be confident in your design decisions with a big investment like an IKEA kitchen renovation.

Most people take on a full kitchen renovation about every 10-15 years because of a variety of factors, including cost and the (many) logistics of pulling it off. SO – if the thought of staring at cabinetry you really dislike for a decade or more makes you cringe, read on to get a handle on the three major, archetypal kitchen styles and what details differentiate each.

Defining the Traditional IKEA Kitchen: Elegant & Timeless

Traditional style remains one of the most popular styles for home design, characterized by a combination of both comfort and elegance. Warm wood hues, rich colors, and classic–but not overly-ornate–carvings on cabinetry all add character to traditional homes, delivering a welcoming environment for family and friends to gather.

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It can be tough with a traditional-style kitchen to balance the more formal feeling with family-friendly details that mesh with modern living. We recommend keeping a simpler cabinetry style with a Shaker-style and leaving the more “fancy” finishes to hardware and lighting. These things are easier to swap out than cabinets, after all!

Here are the top details of a traditional kitchen style:

• Furniture-Style Cabinets: Cabinets are the most prominent element in a kitchen and typically what people look at when defining a kitchen’s “style.”
• Natural stone countertops or engineered stone in natural hues
• Luxe metal hardware
• Formal(ish) light fixtures
• Carved moldings and trim

We really like the LERHYTTAN and SEKTION series from IKEA for a traditional look. Check out some of our favorite IKEA designs in the traditional style here and here.

Modern vs. Minimalist IKEA Kitchens: What’s the Difference?

IKEA – and Scandinavian style in general – can often be synonymous with a modern or minimalist vibe. Many people think minimalist design is interchangeable with modern design, but the truth is that while they can be the same, they can also be very different. In a minimalist kitchen, you might decide to incorporate details – sparingly – that are more reminiscent of a traditional kitchen design but pared down.

Minimalism can look like white subway tile, white countertops, brass faucets and hardware, uncluttered surfaces, and very little to break up the line of sight. It’s not so much a style as it is a mentality of only including the essentials in a design and choosing things with great care.

A modern design is a defined “style” that can feel post-industrial or mid-century modern – also with clean lines, flat surfaces and very little clutter – but you will usually see some similar threads running through the design including:

• Frameless cabinetry with little or no hardware
• Decorative accents such as the Eames molded plastic or Bertoia metal bar stools
• Colors – either monochromatic or mid-century tones such aqua or orange in selected spaces
• Little or no moldings or trim

Check out some of our favorite IKEA kitchen renovation designs in the modern/minimalist style here and here.

Creating the Farmhouse Look with IKEA: Rustic Meets Modern

Farmhouse style is defined by a simple, almost utilitarian aesthetic inspired by rural architecture. Despite drawing its inspiration from the past, today’s Farmhouse style often exudes a more modern feel thanks to clean lines and minimal adornment – creating a look that feels stylish, yet casual and welcoming.

We love the Farmhouse style when designing IKEA kitchens because we see it as a somewhat happy medium between the more formal “traditional” style kitchen and a minimal design. However, there are some details that make a kitchen a “farmhouse” style. Here’s what you should look for:

• A utilitarian center island or butcher block
• Apron sinks
• Lots of natural wood throughout
• Decorative items that are also useful such as vintage wooden cutting boards and vessels for fruits and citrus
• Pot racks to show off that vintage copper cookware collection

Some of our favorite farmhouse kitchens we’ve designed with IKEA cabinetry bases can be seen here.

Make Your Kitchen Design Your Own

The takeaway: While there are certainly endless combinations of styles, and you can truly make any kitchen design your own, we find that it’s helpful to start with one of the basic design archetypes and then add your own personal touches like fun tile designs for backsplashes or a color palette you love and work from there. We think mood boards are great, too. Check out IKD’s Instagram and Pinterest for more design inspiration – and you’ll be defining your kitchen style in no time!

Get custom design plans for (almost) every room in your home, starting at $395.