If you’re planning a new kitchen in 2025, there’s some gorgeous kitchen trends to lean into that will have your space feeling on-trend and stylish.
Undoubtedly, a kitchen island becomes the real heart of any kitchen, and from bold colour ways to innovative layouts, form meets function in 2025 for some hard-to-live without kitchen islands that will serve your space more than just on an aesthetic level.
Hottest Kitchen Island Trends To Watch In 2025
There’s no denying that one of the hottest interior trends for 2025 is colour. We’re not asking for permission on using colour in our home anymore, it pays off to be brave.
From deep, richly pigmented colours to fluted panelling that adds a stunning softness to kitchen, I’m also sharing the developments on trends, and what’s not to hot on your kitchen island spec list anymore.
1.Fluted Designs
We’re actively looking for new ways we can create tactile, interesting spaces in our homes, and combining different textures is a key interior trend for 2025.
Fluted designs on kitchen islands not only bring a sense of verticality, but they add instant character and depth in a kitchen.
Molly Chandler, Kitchen Designer, at Willis and Stone shared her thoughts on this kitchen trend for the year ahead. “Fluted or grooved elements are a popular choice for modern kitchen design, adding texture to the space. They help to break up runs of flat surfaces, creating subtle shadows and highlights to enhance the overall design. This detail lends a sense of craftsmanship and sophistication, making cabinets, islands or backsplashes stand out”.
“Functionally, fluting can also help disguise minor imperfections and wear over time, maintaining a cleaner appearance. Additionally, fluted glass used in cabinetry does make it harder to see what’s inside, taking the pressure off having perfectly displayed contents”.
You may also choose to tie this design trend into the rest of your kitchen, doing this with reeded glass on your upper cabinetry is a gorgeous way to make it feel intentional in the space.
2. Integrated Storage
Function and form are at the forefront of this design trend. Let’s face it, we tend to have a lot more ‘stuff’ than families a decade ago did.
Kitchen islands need to become multi-functional spaces to adapt to the needs of today. Traditionally kitchen islands were essentially a block, often with a space to pull up a few bar stools. Now it’s about making the most of that space and adding integrated storage options to it to create a space that works.
I personally suggest a mix of both closed and open storage options on your island, as shown on the image below. It gives greater interest than drawers along the entire bottom, and it allows you to add a little playful mix of recipe books and cookware.
3. Concealed Electrical Charging Points
This felt like the perfect lead on from integrated storage, and one that really is quickly becoming a key feature, and need for kitchen islands.
The kitchen island is designed to be the heart of the kitchen, a sociable place, and one that’s usually much more than an arm stretch away from a charging port.
Sockets can feel ugly which is why these concealed electrical charging points make fabulous sense. Pop up sockets are a seamless, popular option, but these charging drawers are becoming increasingly prevalent as they conceal effortlessly whilst actually adding a handy bit of storage to shut chargers and devices out of sight.
Connecting the kitchen island to the kitchen is the key part here, and it’s a function that just works. Whilst adding sockets underneath kitchen islands has been a tried and tested method thus far, this creates a much more seamless design aesthetic.
4. Bold, Pigmented Colour
The paint experts have spoken on the top paint colours we can expect in 2025, and the move towards richer, bolder colours is evident.
From plum based browns, to tasteful pops of red, we’re going bold in our in interiors, and a kitchen island provides the perfect platform to add a cheeky little bit of colour.
A kitchen island is always best served in a second tone to your kitchen cabinetry as it breaks up the monotony of one colour and adds a gorgeous depth of colour to the room. The kitchen island is the place to add a bolder colour that complements your kitchen scheme.
Take inspiration from the kitchen below and lean into the ‘unexpected red theory’, a theory than an accent of red in an room is the magic ingredient to pull any room scheme together, trust us on this one! Farrow and Ball Picture Gallery Red and Bamboozle are two punchy reds that will add a spicy scheme to your kitchen.
5. Integrated Appliances
It really is all about maximising the space you get out of your kitchen island in 2025, and along with more integrated storage solutions, integrated appliances are rising in popularity.
Whilst sinks have often been a popular choice, adding your hob to a kitchen island suddenly creates a more sociable environment for the chef, and their guests, or family.
Perhaps, the best part is that you no longer have to face the wall whilst cooking on your own. There are some really smart options for adding integrated hobs that seamlessly extract steam, eradicating the need for an overhead fan which can feel bulky, and dated in a brand new kitchen.
6. Rustic Butcher Block Islands
As earthy interiors soar in popularity, so are wooden accents and more traditional, butcher block kitchen islands. In fact, from Google search data, we can see that the search term ‘butcher block islands’ is up 900% over the last three of months of 2024.
Butcher block islands add a little bit more flexibility with than you get with more modern styles. They’re often smaller in nature and work well as an additional island, as shown below, or they work well in smaller kitchen spaces that don’t quite have the room for a large scale island.
Generally they act as an additional workspace and bring a beautiful authentic accent to a traditional or earthy colour scheme.
Designer: House Nine Design
Photo Credit: Joey Kendal Brown
7. The Return To Clean Lines
Curvature has had its moment on kitchen islands, and whilst they still remain a popular design choice for introducing softness to a kitchen, we’re seeing the return to clean lines.
Angular, clean lines on kitchen islands have always been a classic design principle, and we’re seeing the introduction of softness in other areas of the kitchen instead to support these clean lines. For example, curved archways, shelving units and decor accessories.
Angular lines bring a clean, symmetrical aesthetic that feels good. It’s a timeless design trend that will stand the test of time if you’re designing your kitchen with this trend in mind.
8. Wood Kitchen Island
Natural elements in a design keep us connected to our natural side, and with rising interior design trends such as earthy inspired interiors, kitchen islands constructed of wood not only look great, but they’re rising in demand.
Google search data shows that there has been a whopping 900% year or year change in searches for ‘wood kitchen island’ on Google.
Data insights like this really demonstrate what people are actively searching for, and instead of opting for a two tone colour scheme, the addition of a wooden kitchen island pairs beautifully with virtually any colour on your kitchen cabinetry.
Perhaps, if you’re inspired by Japandi style kitchens, you might choose to lean into one type of wooden finish throughout.
9. We’re Going In On Yellow
Joyous yellows are going to be among one of the most popular colour ways for 2025. Dulux released their colour of the year True Joy towards the end of 2024, a vibrant yellow that comforts and supports you in your interior.
Marianne Shillingford, Creative Director and Colour Expert at Dulux shared her reasoning behind this year’s shade, “The meaning behind the colour’s choice is so impactful. The sheer bliss the colour exudes physically pushes us to create something better for ourselves; it allows us to put the past behind us and gives us the inspiration we need to forge a future for our proudest, most confident selves. Put simply, True Joy™ is a call to action.”
Whether you choose to lean into a vibrant yellow like the below kitchen island or a more buttery shade, it could well be the new ‘unexpected yellow theory’ on our hands. Maybe. In the right shade it can bring a beautiful softness that’s uplifting and feels good to be around.
Looking for some yellow shades to get stuck into for your kitchen? Take a look at Farrow and Ball India Yellow, Farrow’s Cream and Babouche.
Which of these kitchen island trends will you be leaning into in your interior this year?
