Kitchen Remodel Trends of 2025: What’s Hot and What’s Not According to Houzz Kitchen Trends Study

When it comes to gathering together with family or friends, the kitchen is the heart of the home. And with how much time you spend in the kitchen, you deserve to have it be a space that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing to you–not a space that feels drab, deteriorated, or dated, which is all too often the case. So, if the wear and tear of normal use, changing trends, or any of the other reasons in the graph below have you searching for kitchen remodel ideas, look no further.

As you work with a professional kitchen renovator to plan your kitchen makeover, here are some of the top kitchen remodel trends to consider for 2025, thanks to the 2025 U.S. Houzz Kitchen Trends Study, a survey of 1,620 U.S. homeowners regarding their recent or planned kitchen renovation projects.

Overall Style

First Place: Holding steady as the leading style of choice (favored by 25% of renovating homeowners) is transitional style, characterized by neutral color palettes, subtle patterns, mixed materials, and a combination of the clean lines of contemporary or modern styles with the timeless elegance of classic and traditional styles. It has a comfortable, if not slightly eclectic feel. 

Second Place: Traditional style is the rising star of 2025, increasing from 9% to 14% of homeowners choosing to renovate in this style. Traditional style differs from transitional style in that traditional style focuses on creating a rich and decadent feeling, like that of old European wealth. With rich, bold colors, luxurious materials, and ornate details, traditional style is about creating a sense of drama and grandeur. 

Third Place: Coming in at 12% popularity is modern style, the slightly warmer, more organic feeling cousin of contemporary style (which is characterized by simplicity, stark minimalism, neutral color,s and clean lines, and which nearly tied for third with 11% popularity). 

Of Note: Farmhouse style continued to fall in the rankings this year, coming in at only 7% popularity. It’s a perfectly acceptable style choice for those who enjoy it, but as far as trends go, it is on its way out. 

Flooring

First Place: With hardwood floors trending down by 3% from last year, the new leader in flooring material (by a very narrow margin) is vinyl/resilient flooring with 22% popularity.

Second Place: Hardwood (stained or unstained) is still a steady contender with 21% popularity, making it a solid second-place favorite.

Third Place: Ceramic or porcelain tile holds its own with 20% popularity. With such similar popularity levels, you can’t go wrong with any of these kitchen remodel trends in flooring material.

Of Note: Natural stone has dropped in ranking for the second year in a row. It’s still a good option for those who prefer its aesthetic, but it currently accounts for only 5% of flooring upgrade selections during kitchen renovations.

Lighting

First Place: With only a 2% lead, recessed lighting was the most popular lighting choice among kitchen renovators (73% popularity).

Second Place: In a close second with 71% popularity is undercabinet lighting, which includes lighting under lower island cabinets–a trend sometimes referred to as unde

r-glow lighting.

Third Place: Pendant lights came in a respectable third place with 57% popularity. 

Of Note: While pendant lights ranked third overall, they are the overwhelming top choice for lighting above kitchen islands, with 65% popularity, often serving to make the kitchen island the focal point and statement piece of the kitchen.

Countertops

First place: Holding strong in first place for over a decade, (despite a 7% decrease in popularity from last year), the most popular countertop material in kitchen remodels is engineered quartz (with 39% popularity). Square edges and a veined pattern also topped the list of kitchen remodel trends for countertops (with popularities of 38% and 74%, respectively).

Second place: Granite also maintained its rank from last year, despite a slight decrease in popularity. It earned second place with a popularity of 19%. Second place for countertop edges (30% popularity) went to eased edges, which look nearly identical to square by maintaining the flat sides, but also have a slight rounding to the edge. Speckled and Uniform tied for second place in the countertop pattern category with 13% popularity each. 

Third Place: Natural quartzite was the third most popular countertop material (11% popularity) while beveled took third in the edge shape category (12% popularity).

Of Note: The aesthetics of kitchen remodel trends are only one factor to consider when planning your kitchen remodel. See our guide to choosing the right countertop material for more considerations.

Backsplashes

First place: When it comes to tile shapes, the competition isn’t even close. An overwhelming majority of 68% of renovating homeowners choose rectangular tiles for their backsplashes. The leading pattern for backsplash tiles is horizontal brick, with 40% of renovating homeowners preferring it. And the top choice for color, with 35% popularity, is white.

Second place: Hexagonal tiles came in (a very distant) second place, with 4% popularity. Horizontal stack won second in the pattern category with 15% popularity, and off-white came in second with a popularity of 22%.

Third Place: Coming in at 3%, diamond-shaped tiles were nearly as popular as hexagonal (though that isn’t saying much). As for tile patterns, third place was a tie between vertical stack and herringbone (both with 7%). Straying from the trend of light, neutral colors, blue claimed third place in backsplash color popularity, with 8% of kitchen renovators opting for it.

Of Note: With backsplashes, 67% of renovating homeowners choose full coverage up to the cabinets, but there is a growing trend (from 10% to 12% this year) of backsplash coverage extending all the way to the ceiling.

Islands

First Place: The predominant shape for added or upgraded islands remains rectangular, with a 78% popularity. In terms of length, 52% of kitchen islands were upgraded to be over 7’ long.

Second Place: While the competition isn’t close, L-shaped islands came in second place with 6% popularity.  The second most popular size for upgraded islands (29% popularity) is 6’-7’ in length.

Third Place: Square-shaped islands are nearly tied with L-shaped islands, with 5% popularity. Only 19% of upgraded islands were less than 6’ long. 

Of Note: 57% of renovating homeowners incorporate one or more kitchen appliances into their island. While microwaves (37%), dishwashers (29%), and garbage disposals (20%) remain popular, the latter two have dropped in popularity from last year. In contrast, incorporating cooktops into the kitchen island has become a rising trend, increasing from 13%-17% popularity this past year. 

Appliances

First Place: Good news to anyone who invested in stainless steel appliances over the last decade or two–the robust and modern silver material continues to dominate kitchen remodel trends with a whopping 74% popularity.

Second Place: White appliances are a distant second, with only 7% popularity. 

Third Place: Stainless steel doesn’t only come in its traditional silver color; black stainless steel is another option, and it was the third most popular choice for appliance colors.  

Of Note: The two large appliances most commonly purchased in conjunction with kitchen remodel are dishwashers (71%) and microwaves (70%).

Cabinet Colors

First Place: White continues this year as the top trending color in kitchen renovations, chosen by 33% of kitchen renovators.

Second Place: Wood colors claim second place with 23% of kitchen renovators selecting them. And if you’re curious about which wood colors are most popular, that 23% breaks down to 8% choosing light wood, 12% choosing medium tones, and only 3% choosing dark wood tones.

Third Place: And keeping with the white’s theme of light-colored cabinetry, in third place with 14% popularity was off-white.

Of Note: Dark colors such as brown and black were the least popular cabinet colors reported in the study. And while bold colors weren’t top contenders, among the non-neutral colors selected by kitchen renovators, green and blue were the most popular choices. 

Accent Cabinets

First Place: Over half (52%) of kitchen renovators chose to include an accent cabinet in their kitchen remodel design. The most popular door style for accent cabinets was a glass door, with a popularity of 36%.

Second Place: The second most popular accent cabinet door was a Shaker-style door, with 23% popularity. 

Third Place: Third place in the accent cabinet door category is to have no door. 16% of homeowners adding accent cabinets elected to give theirs an open-shelf look.

Of Note: Accent cabinets are often used to showcase special items, with the most popular being glassware (52%), decorative items (43%), dishware (34%) and cookbooks (23%).

Accessibility & Aging in Place

First Place: Over half of renovating homeowners incorporated features to address current or anticipated future special needs. The most popular accomodation remains pullout cabinets, with an increase in popularity from 58% to 62%. 

Second Place: 55% of homeowners who included accessibility accommodations in their kitchen renovation plans chose to install additional lighting as one of those accomodation, making it the second most popular accessibility feature.

Third Place: Wide drawer pulls came in third, with 50% of homeowners electing to include that accommodation feature. 

Of Note: Read our guide about accessibility and aging in place and see the graph below for additional kitchen remodel ideas that you may want to consider to address the future accessibility needs of those who live in your home. 

The Most Important Kitchen Remodeling Detail

First Place: While there are some small kitchen updates that are safe to DIY (if you have the right skills and tools), certain projects should only ever be completed by a licensed professional kitchen renovator. Always hire a professional for anything that involves electrical, plumbing, or ventilation systems, as well as structural changes or anything else requiring a permit. 

Second Place: While kitchen remodel trends offer ideas for redesigning or renovating your kitchen, (and increasing the resale value of your home), unless you plan to sell your home in the immediate future, the most important kitchen remodel decision you can make is to pick the things you enjoy. If your sense of style doesn’t match the majority of kitchen remodelers surveyed, who cares? This is your kitchen. Make it a space you love to spend time in. 

Third Place: Don’t pass up a free consultation. You don’t know what you don’t know, and as you run into those unforeseen details, what seemed like an easy DIY project can quickly become a headache that costs you more time and money than you ever could have saved by attempting it yourself. So before you begin any work or invest in any materials, contact a professional and let them guide you in your designing and planning. At Utah Home Remodel Experts, our consultations are always free, and we look forward to helping you make your dream kitchen a reality.