The kitchen is probably the hardest room in any house to decorate. Balancing functionality and budget, all while trying to maintain your style, is no small feat, so discovering that your current kitchen design no longer fits your aesthetic can be a hard pill to swallow. And while warm wood-toned cabinetry and cheerful café curtains have made a comeback in recent years, there are plenty of once-chic decorating choices that simply no longer work.
Below, I’m sharing four design ideas that are unfairly holding your home’s overall look and feel back. If you have any of these in your kitchen, don’t fret! I’m here to help by sharing the designer upgrades that can turn your dated, drab kitchen into a space worth celebrating.
Dated Trend: Cold, Utilitarian Kitchens
Once thought to be the cutting edge of kitchen design, industrial-style kitchens featuring endless swaths of stainless steel no longer hold the power they once did—and, truthfully, as someone who covers kitchen design extensively, I couldn’t be happier we’re moving away from kitchens that feel like cold, utilitarian spaces.
Designer Update: Lived-In Kitchens
And designers agree with me! “Country kitchens are less about chasing perfection and more about creating spaces that feel genuinely lived-in,” says Tanya Smith-Shiflett, a Country Design 100 honoree and the mastermind behind Unique Kitchens & Baths. So feel free to have fun with color—consider wallpaper or an interesting backsplash—and create a space that truly feels like you. Remember: Kitchens are hardworking spaces, but that doesn’t mean they need to be completely devoid of personality.
RELATED: Grandmacore Kitchens Are Taking Over 2026
Dated Trend: Faux Plants Above Cabinets
The space above your kitchen cabinets can feel daunting—what do you even do with all that extra, unnecessary space? (There’s a reason most designers prefer to take cabinets all the way to the ceiling!) In the ’90s, the response was simple: Put some faux ivy up there and call it a day. Love them or hate them, faux plants have their place, but it’s definitely not in the kitchen, especially when there are so many other elegant, designer-approved solutions.
Designer Update: Artful Antiques
Take a page from this coastal North Carolina kitchen’s design playbook and fill the excess space above your cabinets with one-of-a-kind antique pieces. Looking for something simple? Try baskets! Whatever you choose, pick something with both provenance and personality to elevate your kitchen.
RELATED: Our Best Ideas for Decorating Above Kitchen Cabinets
Dated Trend: Recessed Lights Everywhere
Listen, I know that recessed can lights are a ubiquitous and seemingly unavoidable reality of American home-buying in the 21st century, but we do not have to live this way!
Designer Update: Semi-Flush-Mount Lights
Thankfully, lighting options have come a long way in the last 30 years. Semi-flush-mount ceiling lights are a designer favorite and add historic charm to a kitchen with ease.
You’re still likely to find plasticky recessed can lights in modern builder-grade homes, and they aren’t worth making over your entire kitchen on their own. Instead, upgrade your recessed lighting with easy-to-install brass trim rings for a designer-approved look.
RELATED: The 3 Types of Lighting Every Kitchen Needs
Dated Trend: Tuscan-Style Kitchens
Allow me to hold your metaphorical hand while I say this: Anything that feels as if it belongs in an Olive Garden has got to go, and that includes early-2000s Tuscan-style kitchens. While many elements of these spaces—stained-wood cabinetry, warm terra-cotta floors—are still popular, pairing them with exaggerated Italianate accents takes the kitchen into decidedly dated territory. The Tuscan-style kitchens of the early 2000s were also the worst offenders when it comes to style over substance thanks to a preference for luxury over functionality.
Designer Update: English Kitchens
These days, designers are looking north from Tuscany to the timeless, worn-in style of English kitchens. The classic British kitchen isn’t fussy—it’s charming, with happily hodgepodge cabinetry and humble-but-hardworking design elements like a beadboard backsplashes and a hardworking farm table instead of a large built-in island. English kitchens are restrained but exceedingly comfortable. Skirted sinks and delightfully dinged-up antiques ensure nothing in this space is taken too seriously.
RELATED: The Complete Design Guide to English Kitchens
Anna Logan is the Deputy Homes & Style Editor at Country Living, where she has been covering all things home design, including sharing exclusive looks at beautifully designed country kitchens, producing home features, writing everything from timely trend reports on the latest viral aesthetic to expert-driven explainers on must-read topics, and rounding up pretty much everything you’ve ever wanted to know about paint, since 2021. Anna has spent the last seven years covering every aspect of the design industry, previously having written for Traditional Home, One Kings Lane, House Beautiful, and Frederic. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia. When she’s not working, Anna can either be found digging around her flower garden or through the dusty shelves of an antique shop. Follow her adventures, or, more importantly, those of her three-year-old Maltese and official Country Living Pet Lab tester, Teddy, on Instagram.
