Don’t get left behind in the world of kitchen design. Here are Caesarstone’s top 10 cooking space trends to help your kitchen revamp along. You’ll have the Joneses trying to keep up with you after they see your beautiful renovation.

Don’t fear the power of texture. Mixing and matching of patterns may be an eyesore when it comes to fashion (these days, actually, probable not), but when it comes to kitchen design, do it. Caesarstone suggests playing with textures across surfaces. Explore with stone, glass, steel, wood, or porcelain or a mix of these for kitchen countertops. Wallpaper and textured paint also can create contrast on walls.

Forget uniformity! Place your surfaces and shelves at unconventional heights and depths. A few examples include floating your shelves a foot above ground, installing floor-to-ceiling cabinets, or overlapping your countertops at slightly different heights.

If you liked the open plan trend, you’ll love open shelves. Go for tall, compartmentalised, ones at different heights. Caesarstone suggests having them built into cabinets or install free-standing or floating shelves. They’re great for adding an extra level of décor to a space.

Go neutral. Colour accents of this type are great to create warmth. Caesarstone advises starting with white and add classic colours grey and black or dark wood tones.

The ‘feature wall’ trend sees three walls in neutral colours, so that the fourth wall pops in a bold, complimentary colour. This can be reinterpreted into a mini-feature wall between the hob and cabinetry. Try using black chalkboard, tiles or stone cladding.

Caesarstone suggests switching up your surfaces’ thicknesses. Use a mix of thin, medium and thick surfaces for overlapping countertops of diverse materials. Sticking to rectangular shapes to bring a level of uniformity in.

Bevelling allows surfaces to retain a more squared off look. It also gave traditional Italian kitchens more voluptuous, classical edges.

How low are you willing to go with your hanging lights? Low-hanging feature lights are great for kitchen islands and over the hob and prep areas, says Caesarstone.

We all like keeping secrets. Stoves, hobs and refrigerators that go “SURPRISE!” are the best. Caesarstone suggests hiding these appliances behind sliding doors and soft-close drawers, or under a remote-operated, sliding countertop!

Cabinets with cladding provide a fun alternative to smooth paint finishes. Try Caesarstone’s stone-clad cabinets.

For more information on these kitchen trends, visit the Caesarstone website at www.caesarstone.co.za.