The Invisible Kitchen Design Trend
BWS Marketing • January 14, 2022

Kitchen remodeling has always followed interesting year-on-year trends. Eco-friendly kitchens are on the rise along with darker paint colors and mixed metals. There are many stylish ways to upgrade your kitchen and improve its functional flow. But our favorite kitchen trend this year is the invisible kitchen. Inspired by hotel rooms, tiny houses, and studio apartments; kitchens are getting smaller – even pocket-sized. Combined with the latest in hidden door and no-seam cabinetry techniques, you can design an entire luxury kitchen – and then hide it in a beautiful open-plan room.

 

The Invisible Kitchen Trend

Invisible kitchens combine sleek cutting-edge kitchen technology with blending interior design. Kitchens are built into nooks and streamlined to take up minimal space. Surfaces and appliances fold out of hidden-handle cabinetry. One-wall kitchens can even be folded away behind a sliding door, making your kitchen truly invisible. With small appliances and a glass-top stove built into the cabinetry, you can build an entire kitchen into your open-plan home without dominating half the family space. In fact, your kitchen can completely disappear.

This trend embraces open-plan living in a new way that provides luxury cooking but doesn’t center life around the kitchen itself. Invisible kitchens can fold away and their entire floor space can be used for other aspects of life.

Invisible kitchen design is also a hot trend in commercial break room design, providing amenities without cluttering decor with a sprawling kitchen space.

 

Fold-Away and Camouflaged Kitchens

There are two ways to disappear a kitchen. The first is to camouflage the kitchen-like elements. Make the cabinets look like wood paneling and the stovetop to appear as a simple decorative counter. Conceal the kitchen elements, and the kitchen disappears into a well-decorated nook. The other method is a fold-away kitchen, which can be done when a one-wall kitchen is covered by a long sliding door.

 

Closing the Kitchen Into Cabinets

One popular option is to close your kitchen into cabinetry, turning the space into a craft or dining room more easily. Kitchens can ‘Disappear” behind tall and slide-away cabinet doors.  While your kitchen takes up the same amount of space, it no longer dominates the room. This is a great transition for open-plan homes and studio spaces where the kitchen’s floorspace is valuable for other activities. Dancers might fold away their kitchen to safely clear the floor. A folded kitchen makes a more formal open dining room. A kitchen hidden behind cabinetry also makes a better Zoom backdrop for multi-purpose modern homes.

 

Drawing a Curtain

Instead of cabinets, you can hang a long custom curtain around the countertop space of your kitchen, or even just along the bottom of the lower cabinets to hide the counters. This is a great way to make your kitchen a multi-purpose space without the extra carpentry. You can measure your kitchen for drapes and have custom curtains made from elegant yet washable material.

 

Countertop Covers for Sink and Stove top

Disappear your kitchen into an elegant sideboard by covering the sink and stove top with elegant blending tops. You can use countertop remnants to make subtle matching tops or you can use polished butcher block for a lovely natural-looking riser. Both can be effective in disguising your sink and stovetop as a simple sideboard countertop. In an office setting, leave the sink open but cover the stovetop during non-meal hours.

 

Seamless Kitchen Cabinet Design

Cabinet design can be done in many ways. One of the most popular right now is the seamless cabinets that appear to be wood paneling. The handles are indents hidden along the edge or underside of each cabinet door. This makes it easy to blend your cabinets into the hallway design around or create a smooth facade that barely appears to be cabinetry for a kitchen.

 

Window Treatments for Multi-Space Design

Kitchen windows and open living spaces often have two different designs for curtains and blinds. But a stylish dual-purpose window treatment can help transform your sunny kitchen into a cool living room or craft area when your invisible kitchen is folded away.

Consider replacing your cottage curtains with sleek rolling blinds that match the overall decor of the room. And don’t forget to color-match your window treatments with the unified color scheme of your beautiful multi-purpose room design.

 

The Disappearing One-Wall Kitchen Door

One-wall kitchens hold a special place in the invisible kitchen trend. From tiny homes to penthouse hotel suites, one-wall kitchens allow you to easily and beautifully disguise a fully-functional kitchen with a single set of panels or doors. One-wall kitchens are recessed into the wall so that the wall is flush with the front of the counter, stove, fridge, and cabinetry. When closed behind panels, a one-wall kitchen can completely disappear.

 

Are you looking for an all-new way to create a beautiful personalized space? Contact us today for custom window treatments and design innovations to transform your home style.

Expert Advice by Just Blinds

Best Options for Sheer Privacy: Your Guide to Private Sunshine

By Autumn Hooper • January 10, 2025
Sunshine can fill any room with a warm glow. It provides natural light and can even lift your mood. But there may be some rooms where you want both privacy and sunshine at the same time. You shouldn't have to block out the light to enjoy private rooms in your home. For these moments, having the right blinds or drapes can make all the difference. The answer is in sheer privacy, sheer and semi-sheer materials that let in the light without allowing others to see through your windows. This is your guide to private sunshine: how to enjoy your privacy and warm natural light in any room. Why Sheer Privacy Matters There are many situations where sheer privacy is ideal. Bedrooms are warm and welcoming when filled with natural light, but privacy is paramount. Sheer window treatments can also bring sunshine into your living room without broadcasting family activities to the neighborhood. And if natural light helps you stay focused in your office, you can maintain professional security without worries by hanging sheer blinds and drapes so your computer screen is never visible through the window. How can you achieve this perfect balance of sunshine and privacy? There are several types of blinds and drapes that can meet your needs. Woven and Fabric Blinds The right fabric or woven blinds can provide the perfect balance between light and privacy. Woven and fabric blinds are rarely completely opaque. Depending on your choice of material and weave, you can determine both how much light shines through and the level of visibility in your sheer material. Fabric blinds use woven fabric to block visual access through your window while also acting as a diffuser for the sunlight. Woven blinds are made of grass or reeds and provide a similar effect. This can be used to cast gentle glowing light into your room at slightly dimmer-than-normal levels while showing silhouettes or less. Slatted Blinds and Plantation Shutters The most traditional answer is slatted blinds and plantation shutters. These methods use opaque angled slats that open to allow in some light without creating an easy line-of-sight from anywhere that a person outside might reasonably be standing. Slats pointed up or down welcome sunshine from various angles during the day but cannot be seen through until the slats are nearly horizontal. Slatted blinds hang from the top, and the angle of the slats is controlled with a cord system. Today, pull cords and hanging loops are no longer used. Instead, a control wand or motorization is used to enhance home safety and convenience. Plantation shutters are wood structures that are permanently installed or fold out over your windows. The slats are structured and controlled by pushing a ridge bar on the back of the shutter slats themselves. Honeycomb Blinds Honeycomb blinds are a type of fabric blinds that use honeycomb cells to provide greater insulation. Honeycomb blinds are not just energy-efficient, they also provide greater privacy by implementing layered fabric to create the honeycomb air pockets. At the same time, the fabric used can bring in sunshine and act as a diffuser to spread gentle sunshine through your room. The honeycombs themselves also diffuse any silhouettes or shadows that might be seen through the fabric of the blind for greater privacy inside your rooms. Semi-Sheer Drapery If you prefer drapes, you can also select a sheer fabric as the innermost layer for your draperies. The fabric and the folds of the drapes combine to provide both a diffuser for sunshine and privacy. Drapery is the most likely to reveal shadows and silhouettes, but a style with more folds when the sheer layer is closed can obscure shapes and activities within to provide the privacy you need. Private Sundrenched Rooms with Just Blinds If you are looking to enjoy diffused sunshine and keep your rooms private at the same time, Just Blinds can help. Contact us today to explore your options for sheer privacy design with custom window treatments.

2025 Colors of the Year: How to Use Them in Your Home Design

By Autumn Hooper • December 10, 2024
Every year, the leading paint and decorator brands release their Color of the Year. Each organization theorizes which colors will be at the peak of interior design trends for the next 12 months, and the 2025 Colors of the Year have been released. If you want your interior decor to match the mood of the year with the latest magazine-spread designs and eye-catching arrangements, now is your chance. 2025: A Year of Bold and Somber Tones 2025 rings in a year of regally subdued tones. They are at once both bold and somber, creating relaxed yet elevated living spaces through strong colors and muted hues. This is a marked contrast from the light and airy palette created by the colors of the year from 2024 featuring soft pinks, warm honeys, and renewing blues. This year, the leading tones are dark red, deep purple, and dusty neutrals that make a space feel at once both cozy and formal. Stately Reds If you love dark reds from brick to mohogany, then this is your year. Both Behr and C2 have named dark yet natural-tone reds as their colors of the year. They are perfect to make a room feel luxe and stately without the overwhelming quality, making these reds the perfect base color for walls and a great accent in an elegant room. Rumors by Behr - A dusty red that is both light and dark at the same time. This muted town is a smooth, creamy rendition of faded brick that looks perfect with warm colors and red-hued wood furniture. Raku by C2 - A bold, dark mahogany red that looks great for interiors and exteriors inspired by the ancient Japanese tea ceremony. Regal Purples Purple is back in bold refrain for 2025 interior design. Between Violet by Minwax and Purple Basil by Glidden, you have an incredible palette to create the most regal of interiors, from primary colors to accents that pop. We love these rich tones that make any room stand out from the typical warm tones and neutrals that have ruled the roost for a decade. Violet by Minwax - Violet by Minwax is not your typical violet. It is a deep, rich aubergine, the color of royal robes and the most luxurious paint. This majestic color will stand out no matter how you use it. Purple Basil by Glidden - Purple Basil is a dusty reddish lavender that shares tones with charcoal and plum. It is somehow both somber and cheerful, warm yet subdued. Purple basil is a wonderful color for both primary walls and bold trim without overwhelming the space. Relaxed Blues Last year, blues were bright and full of energy with an aqua-green undercurrent. This year's blues are more relaxed, blending well with neutrals whether you're looking for a chill space or a summer tone. Quietude by HGTV / Sherwin Williams - Quietude is the eggshell of blues. It is soft and faintly blue in hue while still giving the light neutral feel of a nearly-white painted room. It has the faint hues of a lightly cloudy sky. Encore 8002 by Valspar - Encore 8002 is a bold, rich blue on the cheerful side of royal blue. It's deep but not dark, embracing what makes blue such a great color for decor. Mapped Blue by Dutch Paint Boys - Mapped Blue reflects green-blue theme of last year but with this year's dusty trend. It's soft and comforting but with a touch of surprise that's not your everyday medium blue. Subdued Neutrals While red, purple, and blue may be our boldest tones, it's neutrals that rule the 2025 Color of the Year list. From deep yet soft Truffle to warm almost-pink cinnamon, you will find a surprisingly gorgeous palette of neutrals to work with as primary, accent, and rich detail tones in any room design. These colors can fall into the background or make your room pop. Truffle by Stainmaster - Truffle is the darkest of the 2025 neutrals, blending honey with charcoal for a warm bold tone that looks amazing in boho or minimalist styles. Mochi by Little Greene - Mochi is a warm medium neutral that naturally supports wooden furniture of all hues. It has undertones of milkey coffee but reflects light in a way that still brightens a room. Caramelized by Dunn-Edwards - Caramelized is a tone that approaches boldly from the cheerful side, reminding us of dessert landscapes and faintly orange sunset skies. Cinnamon Slate by Benjamin - Cinnamon Slate is a soft neutral that is just this side of dusty pink. It's described as a dreamy, velvety purple and brown that can add subtle richness to any space. Mocha Mousse by Pantone - Mocha Mousee is a sophisticated neutral that reminds us of soft earth and smooth wood. Using the Colors of the Year to Inspire Your 2025 Interior Design These colors aren't just for paint, they can be used to enhance every element of your space. One of the best ways to introduce diversity and annual color trends into your home is through blinds and drapes. Choosing the perfect blinds can update your style to magazine-worthy arrangements for every year and season. Find the latest colors and styles at Just Blinds today.