NKBA 2025 Kitchen Trends are all about "sustainability and wellness." Really?

You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

Design: Kamal Moshg. Photo credit: NKBA

I wasn’t going to write this week, but this one just had my name on it.

Every year, the National Kitchen and Bath Association surveys its 55,000 designers, manufacturers, remodelers and architects to come up with its trend report. Not being a member, I would have to pay $2,995 for it, so I have to work from the press release, which may not present a complete or accurate summary. It starts by noting:

“According to the report, the focus over the next three years will remain on sustainability and wellness, calming earth tones, and the importance of lighting design.”

It then proceeds to completely ignore anything to do with sustainability or wellness. Instead, it discusses how “the muted mid-century modern aesthetic of the 1950s will see a resurgence.” The very first quote from a designer is, “My favorites are golds and peaches, but in my own kitchen I used an avocado quartzite for counters that includes just about every shade of green.”

Everybody loves quartzite these days. This is a natural stone, not the engineered quartz counters that are killing installers and are banned in Australia. Quartzite is porous and has to be sealed every year, or it can harbour bacteria. This is wellness?

Now, to be fair, I don’t know what they mean by wellness. (I don’t know what sustainability means either, but that is another post) The Global Wellness Institute says wellness is “associated with an active process of being aware and making choices that lead toward an outcome of optimal holistic health and wellbeing.” Dimensions include physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social and environmental. Yet the NKBA shows kitchens that are too much physical work, that never get out of your headspace, and that are health and environmental nightmares.

Design: Yancy Dearinger Bonner. Photo credit: NKBA

The next section is titled Healthy Living Starts in the Kitchen, illustrated with a range on the corner of the island without an exhaust hood; at least it is not gas.

“Fifty-three percent of respondents state that kitchens will become increasingly connected to the outdoors and become focused on healthy living in the next three years. Designers agree that water (72%) and air (62%) quality are top considerations in kitchen design, reflecting the continued prioritization of wellness.”

Even though kitchens have major air quality issues, more designers apparently are worried about “forever chemicals” in the water than they are about nitrogen dioxide or PM2.5 in the air, so gas stoves proliferate in the illustrations. Many of these do not have exhaust hoods, and most of the hoods shown are too shallow or too far away. And this is what Engineer Robert Bean says you get when you put that all in an open kitchen:

“Since there are no environmental protection regulations governing indoor residential kitchens, your lungs, skin and digestive systems have become the de facto filter for a soufflé of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehydes, volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, fine and ultra fine particles and other pollutants associated with meal preparation. Toss in the exposed interior design features and what is left behind is an accumulation of contaminants in the form of chemical films, soot and odours on surfaces, similar in affect to what one finds in the homes of smokers.”

The NKBA’s idea of wellness:

“By mapping out a client’s needs and personality in the kitchen, we can select healthy, efficient materials that speak to them. Infusing those discoveries in various elements creates wellness opportunities throughout the design. For instance, color is a great place to pull from nature’s palette of biophilic references or Ayurvedic practices to evoke thoughtful design. It can make one’s time in the kitchen feel more intentional and mindful rather than task-oriented.”

Seriously, there are 150 years of research into making kitchen tasks as efficient as possible, and it is all ignored. Kitchen islands have become continents, and now “52% of respondents agree that adding a second kitchen island to increase functionality is gaining popularity”- they have become archipelagoes.

Whereas in the 1940s, kitchen designers worried about how many steps it took to get from one appliance to the next. In her wonderful article The Woman Who Invented the Kitchen, Alexandra Lange describes the work of Lillian Gilbreth:

“In the 1940s, what Gilbreth called “circular routing” became known as the kitchen “work triangle,” a concept that designers still rely on today. In an efficiently planned kitchen, the perimeter of the triangle formed by stove, sink, and refrigerator should be no greater than 26 feet, with a typical distance of 5.5 feet between appliances.”

Design: Kristin Petro. Photo credit: NKBA

In some of the kitchens shown in the article, the fridges look like they are 20 feet from the sink. In many of them, you have to do a two-step: taking stuff out of the fridge and putting it on the island, then doing another trip over to the sink. But apparently, practicality doesn’t matter; it’s all about personality.

“It’s clear that unique and personal design is crucial: 92% of respondents agree that the kitchen is a reflection of a homeowner’s personality and 85% of respondents agree that the kitchen has the strongest impact on the “personality” of the home as a whole. As personalized design continues to rise in popularity, 71% of respondents agree that their clients prefer a colorful kitchen to let their personalities shine through, and 75% of designers agree that homeowners want a kitchen that is unique to them.”

From Christine Frederick to Lillian Gilbreth to Grete Lihotzky to Lenore Sater Thye, the lessons were that kitchens should not be “unique to them.” They were supposed to be healthy, efficient, and time-saving. Now, they are apparently about personality, mood and accessories.

NKBA Design Council member Thom Felicia tells KBB, “I suggest unifying the overall mood and vibe of the interiors through the kitchen. By thoughtfully using materials, multiple layers of lighting, and decorative pieces of art that feel connected to the rest of the home, the kitchen will be a natural extension of your personality and point of view. Tips: Always add art, books about cooking and entertaining, beautiful & useful items on display, collections of attractive trays for organization, and portable mood lights that can go from countertop to tabletop as well as rugs to help tell your unique story. The kitchen should be accessorized just as you would any other space in your home.”

Christine Frederick, who brought the ideas of Frederick Winslow Taylor into the kitchen, is spinning in her grave with all this talk of tchotchkes and art in the kitchen. She wrote in 1917:

“Many women are under the impression that a "roomy" kitchen is desirable. It may appear attractive, but a careful test of the way work is done in a "roomy" kitchen will discover waste spaces between the equipment, and hence waste motion between the work. Country kitchens are particularly apt to be large, and are often a combined sitting-room and kitchen. This plan seems cosy, but is inefficient because of the presence of lounges, flowers, and sewing all unrelated to the true work of the kitchen, which is the preparing of food.

Now, it is true that the true work of the kitchen has changed; fewer people are preparing food, and more people are grazing from the fridge or reheating takeout. The counters are covered with phone chargers and Uber Eats. Perhaps I am behind the times.

Design: Lisa Frahm. Photo credit: NKBA

In two weeks, I start teaching a hundred students from the TMU School of Interior Design about “sustainability and wellness.” I will discuss healthy materials and good air quality, not biophilic references or Ayurvedic practice. But mostly, I will be talking about sufficiency- how much kitchen do we really need? How big an island? How many ovens? What is enough?

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I have written often on this subject:

Why do open kitchens feel so wrong? The way we eat has changed; kitchen design should too. The modern kitchen should be small, efficient, and closed.

Don't say goodbye to the kitchen (or dining) table. Don't listen to the designers; the kitchen island is no replacement for sitting down at a proper table.

What will the kitchen of the future be like? It's always changing, depending on the preoccupations of the time it's envisioned.

Kitchen bloat is everywhere, from tiny homes to monster homes. It's time to return to the closed, separate kitchen, and to lose the giant gas stoves.