What Were the Most Popular Kitchen Benchtop Trends of 2021?

From kitchen facelifts to complete renovations, selecting your next marvellous kitchen benchtop is a tough decision. A kitchen benchtop is possibly the most distinguishing feature in the room and contributes to the “personality” your home is attempting to establish.

Most homeowners want to choose a timeless kitchen benchtop style that is not influenced by rapidly changing trends. To accomplish this everlasting aesthetic, it’s helpful to be aware of what and how the past year’s trends performed in the industry, as this helps formulate forecasting predictions for the following year. In a sense, looking back allows designers to look forward.

So, let’s look at the most popular kitchen benchtop trends for 2021 and see which ones are likely to sprinkle over to 2022 and which ones will stay behind.

Most Popular Material 2021: Porcelain Kitchen Benchtops

Porcelain stone really had its moment in 2021 kitchen designs, looking beautiful in any kitchen style whether it’s rural, contemporary, Hamptons, or otherwise. Porcelain kitchen benchtops are genuinely a timeless aesthetic and are likely to be a safe choice for 2022 kitchens and beyond.

A variety of textures can be created on the porcelain surface because of the fine particles used to manufacture the slab. This allows the surface to resemble natural materials such as wood, concrete, and natural stones.

In particular, porcelain benchtops with dark marble stone veining have made a massive entrance in the design world and have become synonymous with high-end luxury. Marble kitchen benchtops with naturally rich veining make a strong statement and provide textural contrast to other polished surfaces, metals, and woods in the space.

However, while porcelain stone brings definite opulence to a kitchen, whilst being extremely durable and resistant to liquids, porcelain is costly to purchase and install.

Most Popular Material 2021: Manufactured Stones

Manufactured stone is a popular alternative to natural stone and is offered in a wide range of colours and finishes, including numerous colours that approximate various marble stone appearances. The non-porous surface has the luxurious appearance and feels of genuine marble stone, but the surface is more durable, doesn’t need to be sealed, is stain-resistant, heat-resistant, and scratch-resistant.

Quartz is typically the most popular manufactured stone material and was once considered a “special” commodity. But in 2021, this contemporary manufactured stone became the standard and is predicted to be a safe material choice for many years to come.

What Were the Most Popular Benchtop Colours in 2021?

While for many years, the materials used in kitchens have leaned towards cold colour pallets, such as grey stone slabs, ceramic tiles, crisp white cabinetry, and chrome fixtures. There was a shift towards warmer colour palettes and more natural aesthetics in 2021, evolving from sleek and cool to cosy and elegant.

Some designers have suggested that the Covid-19 pandemic influenced the move towards soft and earth-toned colours in 2021. As homeowners have been spending unprecedented amounts of time at home and, as a result, want to create a happier and brighter atmosphere to spend time in as a refuge from our world that has been flipped upside down.

Such organic colours are laid-back and homey to live with, and they go well with other common materials like wood and brass. Consider vivid whites, which captures the elegance of white marble to give your kitchen a clean and contemporary aesthetic. Or choose the earthy whites with subtle veining that gives your kitchen a softly textured impression.

In terms of popular marble stone patterning, the industry will continue to see strong veining and patterns emerge in 2022 kitchen benchtop trends. Marble stones with noticeable veining in gentle grey tones mixed with exquisite copper accents were stunning designs that got industry people excited this year.

Not only are kitchen materials getting more organic, with elements of wood grains and manufactured stones, but the stone applications match! As curving kitchen islands and walls made a massive splash in the 2021 kitchen benchtop design trends.

What Were the Most Popular Benchtop Application Trends 2021?

Again, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, kitchens have become a space to work, home-school, study, play, socialise, eat and most importantly, a place to feel safe.

Therefore, the spatial layout is critical to kitchen benchtop applications, aiming to maximise the spacious and engaging atmosphere of the area. As a result, the kitchen becomes more of a design moment, while all messy cooking and prep work can be done in the butler’s pantry.

The urge to build multi-purpose areas within our homes where we may work and study will undoubtedly continue until 2022 and perhaps beyond as a long-term side effect of Covid-19. When designing a kitchen layout, we must address the realities of working from home, providing ‘double duty’ locations within the house.

Here are two ideas for making your kitchen benchtop more interactive for 2022:

• Increase the depth of your island to provide plenty of legroom and prep area.
• Include a desk zone in your kitchen design so that your children can complete their schoolwork, or adults may conduct administrative tasks.

In addition, aesthetic uniformity within a home was also a big trend, as many homeowners opted to use the same benchtop material throughout the home. Extending the kitchen benchtop material to the bathroom vanity, laundry, and built-in storage in your living room.

In addition, some manufactured stones are now appropriate for outdoor usage, which allowed homeowners to extend their interior designs to their outside gathering spaces.

As for slab thickness, it’s essentially a “go big or go home” situation. There was no in-between for kitchen designs in 2021, kitchen benchtops either went extremely thin or super thick.

It was also popular to utilise both benchtop thicknesses in one space. For instance, an 80mm marble stone on your island may be offset with a thinner 40mm marble kitchen benchtop along the wall.

Source Your 2022 Kitchen Benchtop from a Reputable Stonemason!

From kitchen benchtops, butler pantries to warm-coloured manufactured stones, that concludes our kitchen benchtop predictions for 2022 as we look back at 2021 trends! Looking ahead, we can’t wait to see what trends come to life, and we hope you appreciated our perspective on what’s in store.

If you need advice on installing a new stone benchtop, stone suppliers are excellent resources for homeowners and contractors looking for a suitable stone for their projects. Stone suppliers are not biased to one brand and offer tailored solutions ideal for any need.

Whether you need a stone installation for your kitchen benchtop, bathroom vanity top, bar, outdoor barbecue area, fireplace, and any application in between, stone suppliers are available to assist you. Customers have a plethora of stone selections since stone suppliers have large warehouses packed with hundreds of natural and manufactured stone possibilities.