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

What Your Window Treatment Says About You: A Personality-Based Guide

April 23, 2025
Your selection of window treatment products and services is not merely about getting a job done. Rather, if you look hard enough, you can find direct correlations between the type of person that you are and the window treatment that you select. We have created this personality-based guide to help you best discover what kind of window treatment truly matches your spirit. The Dependable Type: Wooden Blinds You are the person that all of your friends can count on. You are the type of person who truly sticks to your plans when you make them, and you are the type of person who will choose wooden blinds for your home. Privacy is important to you when selecting your blinds, and that is why you find yourself pulled into the idea of putting up wooden blinds. Besides that, they happen to be highly functional, and that's not something that you are willing to pass up either. The Planner: Blackout Curtains Those who value truly getting the most value out of their blinds or anything else that they install in their homes will think very carefully about their options. For those people, going with blackout curtains makes a lot of sense. They want to gain as much value as possible out of their options, and they know that they can significantly improve their quality of sleep and so much more when they opt for blackout curtains. These also happen to be a great option for those who work night shifts or other odd hours and yet still want to enjoy their sleep. They need blackout curtains to help increase the quality of that sleep and allow themselves to get their day started right. The Tech Enthusiast: Smart Shades They roam among us: The type of people who are quick to adopt any new technology and get to work figuring out how it can improve their lives. These people are great because they are not afraid to take a risk and because they help to move our society forward. They simply want to get more out of each day, and they often do so by adopting and using the latest technologies. These individuals will gravitate towards smart shades for the following attributes: Innovation - Who wants to stick with the boring old ways of shading one's house? Smarter options are now available, and you better believe that the tech enthusiasts among us are willing to latch on to them. Efficiency - These shades are a more efficient option for those who care about that kind of thing. They can be easily activated and set up to open or close automatically (how cool is that?!). Progressive - The "cool" factor is a big deal for people who fall into this category as well. They might not admit to it right off the bat, but they care deeply about what others think about them. As such, they want window shades that have that cool factor attached to them. The Dreamer: Sheer Curtains Finally, we land upon the dreamer. This is the person who views every day for the possibilities that it can bring. They are not scared off by those with a negative attitude. If anything, they believe that they can change those people! Instead, the dreamer wants sheer curtains because they bring in soft light, open spaces, and bring about a feeling of possibility all throughout the house. Sheer curtains are the ideal option for someone who classifies themselves in this way. They will receive plenty of compliments on their curtains, and they will appreciate how open they are to the world.  Which kind of person are you and which window treatment option makes the most sense for your personality? For more inspiration and ideas, reach out and contact us today.

5 Unexpected Places Homeowners Are Installing Outdoor Shades

March 13, 2025
We all know and understand the concept of installing outdoor shades on a patio. It is the classic way to create a cool and comfortable space for yourself and your friends to spend some quality time together outdoors. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is limiting to think that the patio is the only part of one's property where outdoor shades are appropriate. There are some surprising and unexpected places where homeowners have taken to installing outdoor shades recently. We want to take a look at some of these to provide you with ideas for your next home improvement project. 1) Balconies Some homes are built quite close together, and some homeowners naturally feel like they would like to do more to protect their privacy. Although their neighbors might not intentionally be looking through their balconies, it is easy for the human eye to drift. Thus, some city-dwelling homeowners have made the choice to install outdoor shades in this area. On top of keeping prying eyes off of your property, outdoor shades also block the sun rays from your balcony as well creating a more comfortable space to spend some time. 2) Outdoor Kitchens One of the most delightful social experiences that someone can have is to invite over a large group of friends for a meal cooked outside. It gives everyone the opportunity to share stories, laughes, and a bit of food all at the same time. Of course, this is best done in an outdoor kitchen. Your outdoor kitchen is a space where you should feel comfortable and have the ability to entertain a large group of people all at the same time. This means looking at installing outdoor shades to provide an extra layer of protection from the heat of the sun. Thus, this has become another area where homeowners are quickly installing outdoor shades. 3) Poolside Lounges Now we are really talking! Who doesn't love to kick back with their favorite cold beverage and spend some time relaxing next to the pool? That is what you can enjoy more completely when you set up a poolside lounge with outdoor shades. Poolside lounges are meant to be a place where you can spend several hours at a time. However, it can get pretty hot while doing so if you don't put some outdoor shades in place. Get those shades up so you can let all of your worries melt away as you take in the smell of pool water and sunscreen. 4) Garden Areas Do you enjoy a little gardening in your downtime? You might like it even more after setting up outdoor shades that protect you from the excessive heat of the sun. Gardening is labor-intensive work and can take several hours of diligent labor to do it properly. However, you don't want to overextend yourself and end up getting physically overworked. Keeping some of the sun away is an excellent way to ensure that you don't overdo it. Just make sure that you check up on the sunlight needs of the various plants that you intend to put into your garden before installing outdoor shades. 5) Exterior Windows Did you know that it is possible to reduce your energy bills by installing outdoor shades? It's true! If you place outdoor shades on the exterior windows of your home, you can reduce the strain placed on your air conditioning by naturally reducing the overall temperature within your living space. This means less money out of your pocket and more money for working on your next project.  There are many interesting places where homeowners are installing outdoor shades these days. For more creative ideas on what you can do with yours, reach out and contact us now.