How Wellness Trends Will Transform Kitchen Design
Wellness trends are here to stay and in 2020, our growing desire to improve our physical and mental wellbeing will be reflected in interior design. The hub of the home, kitchens are set for some major makeovers, including new features, concepts and technology all designed to make us feel better and keep healthier.
Here we outline those set to make the biggest impact:
Food Friendly Technology
As revealed at IFA 2019, Europe’s biggest tech show, some of the world’s leading brands of home appliances are introducing exciting new products in line with the wellness mega trend. Many of these products will be ideal for modern kitchens and more health-conscious owners and occupiers.
Examples include new technology from Beko, which uses light to enable fridges to keep food fresher for longer. This has been designed to recreate the 24-hour sun cycle in a fridge using combinations of blue, red, and green lights to mimic natural sunlight as well as times of darkness. It’s claimed that this will preserve Vitamin A and C levels in food, making it more nutritious when it’s time to eat it.
Similarly, AEG is also offering new steam ovens designed to retain nutrients in food, and fridges that keep produce fresher for longer, which it says will allow for healthier, more flavoursome meals.
For those seeking to grow their own food, Bosch was one of a number of brands to launch indoor gardening systems at the IFA. These innovative appliances enable users to grow their own herbs and other edible plants from the comfort of their own home. In contrast to herbs from the supermarket, the patented light and irrigation technology guarantees more healthy and aromatic plants.
Multisensory Design
Multisensory design acknowledges that people experience and react to space in many ways, using all of their senses. This can affect the way we feel, our behaviour and general wellbeing. For example, there is some evidence that our mental wellbeing can be affected by different colours as well as our surroundings.
Multisensory design is already being used in workplaces and urban planning, but will soon be reflected in our homes.
Air quality in particular, is front of mind for many designers at the moment. A study commissioned by environmental charity Global Action Plan revealed that indoor air pollution is 3.5 times worse than outdoor air pollution and at its peak can be up to 560 times higher.
Concerns about pollution could see air purifiers become common kitchen features as well as more plants and flowers, which can help clean the air and enhance wellbeing. The use of more natural, untreated materials such as wood is another step that could help minimise the risk of pollution.
Noise Minimising Features
To increase comfort in open plan spaces, a trend which continues to grow, minimising noise is another priority. This could involve the use of zoning areas using screening, including cladding walls with noise absorbing materials. Padded fabric panels are very effective at minimising sound and off-the-shelf acoustic panel systems are available, which can be easily fixed to walls.
Home appliance manufacturers are also offering a wide range of new products to keep homes more peaceful. Bosch and Miele for example have designed the quietest dishwashers. The Benchmark model by Bosch measures just 40 dB in sound tests making it ideal for open-plan living.
Miele [MOU1] also offers an extractor fan with a specially insulated motor, chimney and cooker hood canopy for effective sound proofing. The same product diffuses one of three selected scents and changes colour, meeting the demand for another growing wellness trend – colour chromotherapy.
Considered Colour Schemes
Colour has a huge role to play in interior design, but some experts also claim it can have a significant impact on your mood.
Colour chromotherapy is a concept that dates back thousands of years but is rising in popularity. The use of different colours is believed to affect body vibrations that influence a person’s wellbeing. For example, orange can stimulate creativity, productivity, pleasure and optimism while blue can increase calmness, peace, love and honesty.
More considered use of colours and how they could work throughout the home, including the kitchen is likely to increase this year.
Expert Advice
There is no denying that wellness is a global trend. With a rapidly rising number of people taking action to improve their wellbeing, manufacturers and designers are moving quickly to keep up. This is bringing new technologies, concepts, and products to market and shaping the way our homes are designed.
The kitchen offers one of the biggest opportunities for people to enhance their health and wellbeing and Commodore’s experts are on hand to help. With the latest insights into future trends and almost 50 years’ experience in kitchen design and construction, we can ensure your customers get a kitchen that keeps them happy – and healthy.
For further information, please get in touch or contact our team on 01375 382323.
