The kitchen usually turns into the most used room in every home. Family life revolves around it because that’s where we prepare our food. That’s why it’s important to design it with special care. It should be both functional and pleasant to be in. Functionality, when it comes to the kitchen, means the ability to move around safely and easily. It’s also important to design a kitchen in a way that makes it (or at least parts of it) accessible to all generations.

Here are a couple of kitchen trends to look out for in a year to come:

Open floor plans

Open floor plans are a trend for a while now and that’s going to continue, because of the practicality of the whole concept. As the name suggests homes with this layout have one or more large open rooms, which functions as multiple rooms within a living space. It changes the living conditions in several significant ways. First of all, it allows for more social interactions during the day, it’s better for entertaining and having house parties. Open floor plans are also safer because it allows parents to keep an eye on the kids, while they’re busy in the kitchen. These houses also tend to have more natural lighting. The downside is that you have fewer walls to put artwork on.

Transitional design

Transitional style is sometimes called updated classic and it’s very well suited to modern kitchens. It looks simple and clean, which is important because kitchen should serve a purpose. On the other hand, it goes well with all the modern appliances, which sometimes look like something out of sci-fi movie. It usually means that working surfaces are made out of natural materials (like granite and wood) and the appliances make a nice contrast with gleaming stainless steel.

Smaller appliances

Micro-living has started as a hipster trend and now it’s a widely accepted design choice. With state of the art bosch appliances smaller size doesn’t mean less quality. If you choose the right appliances you’ll be able to use your kitchen like a professional chef and still have the luxury of free space. Cooktop with two burners, 18 -inch dishwasher, 60-inch fridge and microwave combined with a convection oven are all you really need. Naturally, you might want to add juicers or soda makers if you’re a health junkie, but it’s optional.

Go all black

For a long time, kitchens were white from the floor to the ceiling. No one really knows why that was the case or who made the rule, but that was the rule. As it often happens with trends, someone decided to do just the opposite and it stuck. If you’re redoing your kitchen in 2017 make it all black – floors, walls, countertops, and the appliances all come in clean and sleek black. It takes a bit more cleaning that way, but faucets, glasses and everything made out of steel, really pops that way.

Touch-activated faucets

Touch- activated faucets were something that only exists in restaurants, where they’re basically a necessity. Then they became a bit of a trend and now every cool kitchen has them. The most important advantage is that you can get the water running even when you’re hands are all sticky from cooking, but there’s more to them. It’s a way to waste less water and that’s something that is going to be increasingly important as the environmental issues become more pressing.

In the end, kitchen (and basically your entire home) is a personal space. When you design it – think beyond the trends and imagine yourself living there and using it every day. That’s what really counts.