The National Kitchen & Bath Assn. (NKBA) has revealed 2011 kitchen and bath design trends, as determined by a survey of more than 100 members. The results indicate there will be  changes in the direction that kitchen and bath styles will take this year.

Below are some kitchen and bathroom trends that are poised to take hold in 2011. The NKBA says the trends reflect overall preferences across the United States and Canada.

Shake It Up
Shaker has supplanted Contemporary as the second most popular style used by NKBA member designers. While Traditional remains the most popular style, having been used by 76% of designers surveyed over that last three months of 2010, that’s a slight drop from the previous year. Meanwhile, the percent of respondents who designed contemporary kitchens fell to 48%, while Shaker rose to 55%. Cottage was the only other style to garner at least 20% of the market.

Dark Finishes
Dark natural finishes overtook medium natural, glazed and white painted to become the most specified finish at the end of 2010. While medium natural fell from 53% to 48%, glazed from 53% to 42%, and white painted from 49% to 47%, dark natural finishes rose from 42% to 51%. Light natural and colored painted finishes remained fairly common, and each rose slightly from the previous year: from 24% to 25% for light natural and 24% up to 29% for colored paints. Distressed finishes dropped significantly from a year ago, when they were used by 16% of designers, to just 5% by the end of 2010.

LED Lighting
Incandescent lighting continues its journey to obsolescence. While 50% of NKBA member designers incorporated incandescent bulbs into their designs at the end of 2009, only 35% did so a year later. Instead, designers are clearly opting for more energy-efficient lighting options. LED (light-emitting diode) lighting has increased from 47% to 54%.

Quartz Countertops
Quartz continues to take away market share from granite in the market for bathroom vanity tops. A year ago, 85% of NKBA bathroom designers incorporated granite into a recent design, compared to just 48% for quartz, but now, that gap has narrowed to 83% for granite and 54% for quartz. Unlike in the kitchen, solid surfaces haven’t gained much popularity in the bathroom, increasing only from 23% to 25% over the past year.

Green Bathrooms
It's literally green bathrooms. A year ago, green color palettes were used by only 14% of NKBA designers, but at the end of 2010, that figure had risen to 24%. Still, whites and off-whites, beiges, and browns are the three most commonly used color tones in bathrooms. However, while white and off-white palettes are up slightly from 57% to 60%, beiges are down sharply from 66% to 57%, while browns have dropped from 48% to 38%. Other common color tones include blues at 22%, grays at 21%, and bronzes and terracottas at 17%.

Click here for a complete list of the NKBA's  survey trends.

Posted by Karen Koenig