The kitchen is the beating heart of every home – now more than ever thanks to the pandemic keeping us indoors. There’s never been a better time to revamp kitchens, and we’re here to inspire with these five phenomenal ideas.

Mitre 10's Principal Kitchens has a Hamptons range, all style and grace, the demand for a Hamptons kitchen makes sense when you realise there’s been quite an uptick in Hamptons style homes around Australia.

This kitchen variety is inspired by affluence and wealth, but it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Instead, it’s about bringing that laid-back coastal feel into the space through high ceilings, wide windows, a neutral palette of whites and pale sandy tones, and plain-white cabinetry that is sharp and glamorous.

Builders, designers and homeowners with a penchant for DIY are increasingly turning to modular kitchens. Not only is modular cabinetry easy to install and customisable to a range of different styles, but depending on the supplier you can get your order filled in just a couple of weeks, rather than installing a 2PAC kitchen which can take six to eight weeks. Mitre 10 has a high-quality Principal Kitchen range with styles to suit every type of home. The Shaker, for example, combines the best parts of simple kitchen design with striking contrasts. The Australian-made cabinets are built from HMR whiteboard with solid backs and are incredibly easy to install.

While not a complete kitchen style in itself, more and more homeowners are looking for ways to set their kitchens apart without reinventing the wheel. And since more light is always a good thing in home design, it’s no wonder we’ve seen a huge surge in ‘natural’ backsplash alternatives.

Enter, the humble window. Instead of a tiled backsplash to draw the eye, it’s glass that is stealing the show in modern kitchens. Whether it’s to let in more sunlight, highlight a feature garden or stunning vines, or simply act as a way to blend the outdoors with the indoors, we can’t get enough of the windowed kitchen. Tall, bold cabinetry above the window is a way to add even more class to this intriguing idea.

While country kitchens have been en vogue for decades – championing styles as diverse as Hamptons and French Provincial – there’s growing demand for a modern-country look that embraces practicality over tradition. A soft and neutral colour palette welcomes guests into the space, with highlight of a modern-country kitchen featuring including large farmhouse sinks, timber benchtops, ceramic fittings and open shelving. 

The living room is slowly being replaced by the kitchen as the home’s ‘activity hub’. When designed intelligently, it can act as both a cooking/dining area and a space to congregate.

Building the ideal entertainer’s kitchen will depend on what you need – as well as your budget. However, some top ideas include moving the dishwasher to the butler’s pantry (so cleaning doesn’t cause distractions), installing the cooktop in the island, making the island deep so people can sit there comfortably with plenty of legroom, and even replacing a wall with a servery window – to act as a go-between for the kitchen and alfresco dining space.