Modern Kitchen Door Style Rules for UK Homes

Redesigning your kitchen can increase its functionality, boost your enthusiasm for cooking, and even increase the value of your property, so it's no surprise that this is one of the most common property upgrades that homeowners in the UK want to make. However, kitchen renovations can also be disruptive and costs can very quickly start to spiral, so it's important to think carefully about the design decisions you're making to make sure that you're happy with the outcome.

Switching up your cabinets with new replacement kitchen doors is an affordable, sustainable and easy to achieve kitchen upgrade, so let's explore some of our top style rules to help you choose the right doors for your space.

Top Style Rules for Choosing Your Kitchen Doors

Smart Design Choices Can Create A Sense Of Balance

Cabinets are often one of the most significant elements in the majority of kitchens, as they provide much-needed storage for ingredients, cutlery, crockery, appliances, and more. Being strategic with your choice of replacement kitchen doors can enable you to establish a sense of balance, ensuring that you don't feel overwhelmed or hemmed in, whilst also making sure your kitchen is tidy and organised.

When you're looking for new kitchen doors, we recommend thinking about the proportions of your room and choosing doors accordingly. So, if you have a relatively compact kitchen, you might want to opt for a sleek handleless style to give the illusion of more space. Our Bella Chelsea doors are a great example of this style and feature a slightly curved recessed groove that makes opening and closing each door incredibly easy.

Alternatively, if you enjoy more traditional styles, something like our Waterford Slimline Shaker doors could be a great choice for you, as they feature slightly narrower panelling that aligns well with the proportions of smaller rooms.

Create Personality Through Colour

From calming neutrals to grounding earth tones and rich heritage inspired colours, playing with different hues and shades is a fun and straightforward way to give your kitchen a clear identity and personality.

Earthy tones, such as sage green, carat beige or rusty red can help to establish an authentic connection with the world outside, which is something that always works successfully in a kitchen. But there are an array of other colours to explore, including a refreshing Scandinavian blue, pretty dusky pink and fresh pistachio green.

Pro Tip: Choosing a dual-toned colour scheme for your cabinetry is a great way to infuse your kitchen with a sense of personality and character. It's also a brilliant way to make sure that your space retains a sense of airiness, as you can select a bolder colour for your base cabinets and a lighter tone for your wall-mounted cabinets.

Brighten A Dull Kitchen With Glossy Cabinet Doors

If your kitchen doesn't experience a lot of natural light and increasing the size of your windows just isn't an option right now, choosing a gloss finish for your cabinetry and installing some clever lighting can help to brighten even the darkest of corners.

Our Jayline Handleless doors are available in a selection of supergloss finishes, which are especially adept at reflecting light, including cashmere, light grey, and white. Our Zurfiz Gloss doors are also a great option to consider, which is another style that's available in an interesting range of neutral ultragloss colours, including glacier white and cashmere. But there are also a selection of colourways that offer an extra element of texture and personality to consider, including metallic blue, copperleaf and limestone.

Practicality Matters Too!

As well as thinking about how different finishes may look in your kitchen, it's also important to consider how easy your preferred doors will be to keep clean, because this will enable you to maintain a beautiful space that feels very elevated and put together. So, it's worth noting that kitchen doors with a gloss finish have a tendency to show streaks and fingerprints, while you're more likely to see grease residue on doors with a matt finish.

Pro Tip: Whichever finish you choose, taking a soft microfibre cloth and some diluted soapy water is all you'll need to keep your doors clean, however you may need to do a bit of extra buffing with a dry cloth on glossy doors to maintain its shine.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I incorporate two different styles of cabinet doors into my kitchen?

Absolutely! In fact, choosing a couple of different styles can be an excellent way to create a feature within your kitchen, as it's a clear way to differentiate a particular area from the rest of the room. For example, you could choose different cabinet doors for your pantry or concealed coffee station, or opt for glass-fronted wall-mounted cabinet doors to maximise the sense of space whilst simultaneously creating opportunities to display some of your favourite items.

What style of kitchen doors is best for a small kitchen?

Maximising the sense of space and light in a compact room is key, so we'd recommend taking a look at styles that have a sleek and seamless overall look. Handleless styles can work particularly well in a small space, particularly in a galley style kitchen where you don't want to be getting your clothing snagged on protruding handles.

But the great thing about interior design is that there aren't really any rules that you absolutely must follow. The most important thing is choosing features and colours that appeal to your sense of style.

Will Shaker kitchen cabinets still be in style in five years?

Shaker kitchens are now widely regarded as a timeless classic, which means they'll continue to look chic and be coveted by homeowners many years from now. If creating a kitchen that'll stand the test of time is something that's really important to you, avoid the myriad fleeting trends that pop up and then quickly disappear from social media feeds, and instead focus on incorporating elements that have an enduring appeal.