Anybody else notice lately that the word “timeless” seems to be everywhere you look? Timeless style, timeless paint colors, timeless clothing – heck, even my vitamin C serum is from a company called Timeless (although in that case, “timeless” probably means “use this to not look old as dirt”, ha ha. Sidenote: it’s actually a really good vitamin C serum!)

I digress.

Anyway, I’ve noticed the term timeless being used especially in the interior design industry, which I find really exciting and I’ll tell you why in just a minute.

But First, What Is A Timeless Kitchen?

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of timeless is “not restricted to a particular time or date.”

So if we’re talking about timeless kitchens, that’s means that if the kitchen is timeless you couldn’t look at it and say “Dang, check out those oak cabinets- That kitchen was obviously designed in the 90s!”

If it was a timeless kitchen, you’d be thinking to yourself, “Was that kitchen installed yesterday? Or 30 years ago?” and scratching your head.

So in other words, a timeless kitchen is one that can't be tied to any particular period in time.

Shown Above: Bloom Handmade Tile in Cream Crackle

Examples of Timeless Kitchens

The Nancy Meyer’s kitchen from Something’s Gotta Give is a great example of this. If you didn’t know how old the movie was, you probably couldn’t tell if the kitchen was 20 years old or brand new. (Hint, the film came out in 2003!). If you’re not familiar with what that kitchen looks like, this Today show article shows some photos and also talks about Nancy Meyer’s actual kitchen and how similar it is to the one from the film.

Speaking of which, apparently the kitchen in the film wasn’t an actual kitchen but just one that Nancy Meyer designed as a set! Sad. I wanted to eat ice cream in that kitchen while having effortlessly chic hair like Diane Keaton.

Here’s another example of a timeless kitchen, this one designed by the absurdly talented Melissa Haynes. I fell deeply in love with this kitchen on Pinterest many moons ago. I pinned it to my kitchen board and when my husband, Pete, and I decided to do a kitchen renovation a couple years ago, I loved it just as much as when I had pinned it 10 years earlier. In fact, it was the main inspiration for our new kitchen – Which reminds me, I need to do a blog post to show you how our kitchen renovation turned out! Stay tuned on that one.

The Rise Of The Timeless Kitchen

Anyway, the reason why I find the popularity of timeless interiors exciting is not just because I find timeless styles beautiful, but also because they’re lasting. In a society that’s so quick to throw things away as soon as a newer, shinier version appears, it’s wonderful to see people being intentional about choosing things they know they’ll love (and not throw away) for a really long time.

This is especially great when it comes to kitchens because the sheer amount of material that goes into creating a kitchen (like cabinets, countertops, appliances) tends to be pretty substantial. Longer lasting kitchens = less waste in the landfills and less time spent hating your dated kitchen.

Kitchens, as I’m sure you know, also cost a pretty penny so designing them for longevity is a great way to keep your bank account from hemorrhaging money every 10-15 years for a kitchen update. Whoop!

Shown Above: Bloom Handmade Tile in Cream Crackle

How To Design A Timeless Kitchen

So, how do we design a timeless kitchen? What does it look like? Is a modern style kitchen timeless?? Can we never buy anything trendy again???

All great questions, so let’s dive in.

In my opinion, designing a timeless kitchen means you follow 3 principles:

PRINCIPLE #1: A timeless kitchen is one that’s well-designed.

In other words, good design is timeless. You could have alllll the timeless finishes in the world and unless you know how to pull together the right ones in the right way, your kitchen likely won’t be the ageless beauty you want it to be.

But the great thing is that good design is also not hard to learn.

I used to think that to be good at design, you had to go to a fancy interior design school or simply be born a magical unicorn that instinctively knows how to pull a room together (we all have that friend, right?).

I, sadly, was not born a magical interior design unicorn but happily, I’ve learned over the years that while formal education and natural skill help, they’re by no means the only way to be a good designer. In my opinion, there’s a simple formula of design rules that apply to all timeless kitchens – and when you follow that formula, it gets you 90% of the way there in terms of creating a beautiful kitchen.

PRINCIPLE #2: A timeless kitchen fits the style of the house. Modern, traditional, or otherwise.

If you’re thinking, “But wait, I thought only traditional kitchens were timeless?”, let me explain.

Traditional kitchens are indeed timeless and are the correct choice for a traditional style house.

But what if you have a mid-century modern style house? Is a mid-century modern style kitchen timeless? You betcha. In fact, a traditional kitchen would probably stick out like a sore thumb in a modern house!

The moral of the story is, choose the style of kitchen that best suits that style of your house. You can bend this rule a little bit and add, say, modern touches to a traditional kitchen, but I’d only inject other styles in small doses.

PRINCIPLE #3. A timeless kitchen is one that avoids trends, especially in the main hard finishes.

Why?

A couple reasons. First, your main hard finishes (i.e. your cabinets, countertops, backsplash & flooring) are much harder and more expensive to change than, say, a dish towel or cabinet hardware. It makes sense to keep the hard finishes as timeless as possible and then you can change out the small stuff later if you feel it’s dated.

And second, your hard finishes also have a bigger visual impact on how the kitchen appears. If the majority of them are timeless, then your kitchen is more likely to have a general appearance of timelessness.

Shown Above: Cobham Handmade Tile in New Satin White (similar here). Photo: Black Goose Design

But Which Kitchen Finishes Are Trendy and Which Ones Are Timeless?

This is a great question and one that I’ve found inspires a lot of debate on the interwebs!

In my opinion, if a kitchen finish is timeless it means that it’s lasting. It’s sustained popularity and relevance over a long period of time.

Marble countertops, for example, have been around for at least 100 years, with marble being used as a building material for several thousand years. I’d say that’s pretty lasting! What’s the countertop everyone drools over to this day? You guessed it: Marble. What are all the quartz manufacturers trying to get their quartz to look like? Marble.

On the other hand, the black faucets and plumbing fixtures you see everywhere lately have only been around for, say, 5-10 years. According to my rule of timeless being lasting, then technically I would classify black faucets as “trendy.”

If the lifecycle of an interior design trend is around 10 years, does that mean black faucets will soon look dated? My gut instinct says yes but the truth is, we won’t know for sure until they’ve been around longer. And that’s the gamble with new trends – maybe a few will become lasting classics like marble but I’d venture to say that over time the majority of new trends will become dated.

But hey, a black faucet is, well, just a faucet that can be swapped out relatively easily. The trouble comes when your metaphorical “black faucet” is actually a kitchen full of trendy cabinets or trendy countertops – this is when you’ll be kicking yourself in 10 years for choosing them!

A Timeless Kitchen Masterclass

So without going to a fancy interior design school or being born again as a magical unicorn with innate interior design powers, how do you learn all the ins and outs of how to create a well-designed, timeless kitchen? Do you need to learn everything you possibly can about the subject for 14 years like I have? Luckily, no!

I’m actually working on something brand new – an online course that nerds out bigtime on timeless kitchens. It takes my 14 years of experience and distills it into bitesize, manageable pieces. If you want to be the first to know about it and learn how you, too, can nerd out on timeless kitchens, you can sign up for our waitlist below.

In the meantime, hooray for the rise of timeless kitchens!

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