We define luxury as the state of great comfort and extravagant living. Luxury is also defined as the condition of abundance or great ease and comfort. But when it comes to the design of our home - our safe harbor from the unpredictable world and life’s difficulties - luxury looks different for everyone.
What Is a Luxury Kitchen?
A luxury kitchen is carefully designed down to every last detail. Luxury kitchens are created with thorough and proper space planning, have only the newest, top-tier appliances, are filled with the most innovative technologies, the lighting is always perfect, and so much more. They’re everything you hope they would be.
When we hear “luxury kitchen,” many of us imagine modern design, stainless steel appliances, beautiful white lighting, and a very generous kitchen island (with a breakfast bar, of course). Oh, and don’t forget about the beautiful Dutch Oven, sitting perfectly on the marble countertop as an accent piece. Maybe this sounds like your dream kitchen, or perhaps it doesn’t. A “luxury kitchen” looks different for everyone.
Luxury Kitchen Ideas
Many of these ideas are expected, but hey, things are timeless for a good reason. We hope these luxury kitchen ideas inspire you and spark creativity. Designing your dream kitchen is supposed to be fun, so remember to enjoy it! Without further ado, let’s get imagining.
Beautiful Cookware
Everything in any luxurious kitchen is the best of the best, all details considered. All things must be good-looking (of course), but we can also tell you about clean cooking.
What if we told you that 95% of non-stick pots and pans are made with harsh, toxic chemicals? Then what if we told you it only takes two and a half minutes at high heat (500° Fahrenheit) for the very same cookware to begin leaching its chemicals into the food we’re cooking? And then, when you’re scrubbing off all of that food, you’re also scrubbing and loosening the chemicals from your pan - the same chemicals that were released into your home and the food that you just ate a few minutes ago.
There’s nothing luxurious about eating chemical-infused scrambled eggs, even if you’re sitting at a massive marble top kitchen island. Teflon® - formally named tetrafluoroethylene - is a synthetic chemical used for coating traditional non-stick cookware. According to Cancer.org, one of Teflon®’s main ingredients is recognized as a “forever chemical,” meaning it stays in the body forever once ingested, no matter how small the amount.
A truly luxurious kitchen has beautiful, clean cooking cookware. Cue a new Cookware Set, complete with everything you’ll need. This Cookware Set includes a Fry Pan (perfect for eggs, flipping pancakes, and sautéing veggies), Sauce Pan (for risotto, mac and cheese, soups, and sauces), Sauté Pan (your go-to pan for dinner parties, stir-fries, and dishes with stock), and Dutch Oven (your best friend for pasta, stews, and all one-pot wonders).
These five subtle, sophisticated colors of Cream, Gray, Perracotta, Sage, and Navy, prove that clean cookware is beautiful, inside and out.
Open Layout
More and more modern kitchen designs are incorporating an open concept layout, and when done correctly, it’s oh so luxurious. An open layout design likely extends the kitchen area to neighboring rooms like the dining room, living room, family room, morning coffee nook, or other communal areas. This connected and free-flowing setup should be as close to seamless as possible with very few points of distinction or separation.
Open kitchens expand the livable space of a home, contributing an additional sense of size to even objectively small spaces. An open layout kitchen ensures a perfect gathering area, suitable for small get-togethers and big holiday parties alike. When everything is somewhat “connected” with an open concept layout, creating a unified design for the entire floor is easier, too. Decide on one color scheme or design and simply apply it throughout.
An open layout is also one of the easiest ways to maximize natural light and efficient use of space. They have a general flow that supports airflow and sunlight (and good vibes) as they make their way throughout your home with ease. If you’re wondering about storage issues due to an open layout’s lack of walls, don’t you worry, we’re getting to this next.
Storage-Centric Island
Every luxury kitchen has an island. And not just a regular island; a huge, marvelous, and storage-centric kitchen island.
Luxury is smart, right? Right. The island should have plenty of smart storage space, utilizing drawers and cabinets. And of course, there needs to be a sizeable cutout underneath the island to create a seating area.
Open-face shelving within the island is another clever and creative storage idea we absolutely love. Fill these shelves with woven baskets for Tea Towels, cutlery sets, and other kitchen Linens. Another design idea to use the small shelving within the island for books; this will be perfect for keeping magazines on hand, ready to grab for your afternoon coffee break.
Of course, not all of us have the room (or finances) for a massive island. For those of us that are more economical with our space or who prefer the minimalist lifestyle, look for a cookware set that comes with its own storage solution. A complimentary Canvas Lid Holder (the perfect resting spot for all three lids, keeping them within arm’s reach) and Magnetic Pan Racks (modular racks housing each pot for easy access) allow you to save extra counter space for those beautiful sunflowers from the farmer’s market.
Best of the Best Appliances
The best of the best appliances are those with the latest innovations, exceptional performance, versatile yet timeless design, and of course, a gorgeous exterior.
Now, kitchen appliances are a category that people are pretty particular about. We all have distinct preferences, different needs, and unique style choices. There is no one size fits all for the best kitchen appliances because different brands and products are better suited to different homes. When on the hunt for the best appliances for you and your kitchen, keep your features checklist top-of-mind and bring along a friend or two for a second opinion on style and design.
Once you’ve found your perfect set of appliances, consider integrating them within your kitchen to achieve a sleek, sophisticated, and streamlined look. This includes design ideas like in-cabinet microwaves, over-the-range microwaves, in-island wine coolers, and under-the-counter pull-out refrigerators. We love an intentional space.
Pops of Color
White, black, and gray are alright, but a kitchen rocking some pops of color? Now that’s an aesthetic we can get behind. It’s a fine line between a luxurious pop of color here and there and a tacky, cheap-looking explosion of the rainbow. Adding color is a bold move that will earn your kitchen the most respect from neighbors and guests, but only if the execution is perfect.
It’s easy to get way too excited about a pop of color. Remember, “pop” is more of a suggestion than an assault. Use color strategically for maximum impact.
There are a few different ways to go about adding a pop of color that are the hardest to mess up and always look good. One of these ways is painting an accent wall. Suppose there is a “main wall,” one that, if any, is center stage for your main floor. Consider this wall becoming the main focal point and paint it the color of your choice. With one wall painted, you can then build the rest of your kitchen decor around it. For example, if you choose to paint a wall a pastel baby blue, you can go on to find matching cookware, kitchen linens, and other small accessories to match.
Unsure about what color to pick? DM us a picture of your kitchen on Instagram, and we can make a perfect recommendation.
Luxurious Lighting
We love gorgeous lighting for being gorgeous lighting, but the right lighting will also work to highlight the rest of your luxurious kitchen and all of the amazing items in it. There are so many different ways to do lighting, leaving you with plenty of options for what will be best suited for the rest of your decor.
Recessed lighting is integrated lighting installed directly inside a ceiling, wall, or other surfaces and fixtures. Recessed lighting always keeps the electrical connections hidden and never creates a harsh, direct source of light. This lighting style is usually styled secretly within floorboards, behind cabinetry, somewhere in the stove fixture, behind the TV screen, and other out-of-sight locations.
Mirrors are another tool that can enhance any lighting setup and make the kitchen feel both bigger and brighter. This being said, mirrors are another design feature that can go terribly wrong all too easily; one must proceed with caution. But just like with adding a splash of color, your kitchen will be highly impressive and far from basic with the proper execution.
A mirror backsplash behind a cooktop will enhance the natural lighting, help the cook feel more involved in the conversation going on behind them, and can help keep an eye on small children playing in the living room, too. Installing a mirror behind the kitchen area is another great option supporting socializing while cooking and helping the space feel more spacious.
And, of course, choosing cool light fixtures is one of the most fun decisions when designing a luxury kitchen. Grand chandelier fixtures, hanging bar pendants, sculptural lights, and linear suspension lights are just a few of the many options we have to choose from.
Beautiful Backsplash
The creativity that goes into choosing backsplash largely depends on the rest of your kitchen’s design. For example, if you’ve selected a baby blue accent wall and matching accessories, you probably don’t want a loud backsplash.
Variations of white, black, and gray tiles for backsplash will always be there for you and is an excellent option for almost any kitchen design. Backsplashes that can complement both light and dark cabinetry is always a pleasure because it allows more flexibility for other design choices. When working with white, black, or gray backsplash, you can add some personality through shapes, textures, and further details. Linear, subway, and hexagon are all popular shapes that are proving to be timeless.
Aside from visual design, you’ll also want to choose a texture that is easy to clean and maintain because nothing dirty is ever luxurious.
Comfortable Seating
It doesn’t matter how pretty or perfect it is if it isn’t comfortable. There’s nothing more disappointing than spotting intriguing seating and eagerly making your way over to snag the spot, only to be met with a terribly uncomfortable design. Luxury kitchens need luxuriously comfortable seating.
Nothing says luxurious seating quite like a banquette does. Banquettes have a magical way of reminding us of cute cafés, the trendiest speakeasies, and Michelin-star restaurants all at once. Consider a banquette nestled in a corner beside a big window, accompanied by a study, structured coffee table, and equally beautiful matching pillows. We’ve also seen kitchen islands that feature banquette seating, and let us tell you, these designs are so conversation-worthy, your kitchen will be the talk of the town.
Aside from banquettes, all chairs, bar stools, loungers, and sofas must be very comfortable and not just acceptable for a one-minute sit-down. A good comfiness test is if you can’t tell whether the seating is comfortable or not within two seconds of sitting down: it isn’t. With the best and genuinely comfortable seating, you’ll know within moments of taking a seat, and you won’t want to get back up.
The best seating sucks you in and makes standing back up seem like a dreadful chore; don’t settle for anything less.
Live Life Luxuriously
Even if your dream kitchen design isn’t quite a tangible idea yet, remember to always live life luxuriously. Romanticize everyday life because why not? Don’t spend your days waiting for the day you can afford to build your dream kitchen; life is now.
Go buy your favorite bottle of wine. Whip out your new Sauce Pan and make some pasta. Set out a nice blanket on your living room floor and have a date night for yourself. You don’t need a “luxurious kitchen” to live an extraordinary life. Cheers.