Every two years the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom sector comes alive in Birmingham, of all places, for the industry’s most notable UK trade event, KBB. Showcasing the finest companies from all corners of the KBB industry, the event allows brands the chance to connect with designers, specifiers and showrooms and highlight the newest innovations and designs set to dominate the market for the year ahead. “2024 was incredibly vibrant, and we generated lots of leads from the event despite not having a physical presence this year”, commented John Davies, head of marketing at Smeg. “Instead, our products were installed on many of our kitchen partners’ stands, with our home economists Clare & Alice blown away by the interest many visitors expressed in our products during the live demonstrations they were hosting. We’re considering our own stand at the next show, which says a lot about how successful we viewed the event in 2024.”
Optimism aside, here’s a round-up of the key trends we identified this year:
Go big or go home
Many brands presented oversized furniture and appliances, giving kitchens a certain wow factor, and transforming built-in designs from a piece of practical kit into a design centrepiece. Smeg installed an oversized refrigerator on the Rotpunkt stand which, although integrated, meant the fridge was no longer your bog-standard kitchen staple but a design statement in its own right. 90cm ovens, extra-wide range cookers and supersized kitchen islands were other key standouts.
Designer doorware
We were so impressed by the number of designer doorware stands at this year’s show – with brands such as Armac Martin, Hendel and Hendel and a collaboration between Buster + Punch and Rotpunkt Kitchens leading the charge. Typically considered an afterthought, handles and accessories were presented as jewellery for the home, with a range of art deco designs adorning stands in an immense variety of colours.
Image credit: Armac Martin
Innovative contemporary
While the high street continues to favour deep greens and navy blues, those in the know presented super-slick kitchens in stark contrast to the traditional shaker styles you frequently see on the front pages of the interiors mags. Think handle less, soft-close designs, with intelligent storage solutions in shades of matt black, grey, and dark copper. Dusky pink hues were still knocking around, but there was far less colour in the kitchen market this year. Having said that, one of the most popular colour combinations was yellow and black, with the warm intensity of the yellow creating an almost ethereal effect when presented against matt black cabinetry.
Super storage
Speaking of storage – most kitchen suppliers recognised a need to include clever solutions within their designs. One of our favourite brands was Vauth-Sagel, the German supplier of integrated pantry solutions that had us swooning for its clever storage ideas. Who knew we’d find opening and closing a cupboard door so satisfying!
The idea of maximising space extended far beyond kitchen cupboards and recognised that the square footage in many new-build and modern properties is often sacrificed due to narrow plots that encourage developers to build ‘up’ rather than ‘across.’ Kitchen countertop space is increasingly at a premium, meaning appliances need to work harder than ever. Combination models that offer bonus features such as microwave and steam oven are now market-leaders, reducing the need to have additional appliances kitting out your worktop and taking up valuable space.
Bold bathrooms
While the kitchen market avoided colour, the bathroom brands took a different perspective, with the trend for colourful bathroom sanctuaries seemingly going nowhere soon. Of course, we have to give a special shout out to House of Rohl, home to Victoria + Albert Baths, Riobel, Perrin & Rowe and Shaws of Darwen; one of our favourite installations at the show was a gorgeous sage green Shropshire tub sitting pretty against flora-and-fauna themed wallpaper, casting aside notions of the bathroom as a plain and utilitarian space. Other brands adopting the trend included Ca Pietra, which is famously known for presenting one of the most beautiful stands year after year. For 2024, it showcased a Mediterranean-inspired palette of muted creams, terracottas, browns, and navy blues, demonstrating how the use of colour doesn’t need to mean bold and in-your-face, but can be far more subtle.
Far right image credit: Ca Pietra
Did you make it to this year’s show? We’d love to hear from brands on what they made of the 2024 trends and their thoughts on the KBB industry overall. Until then, we’ll be turning our attention to Eurocucina in Milan come April, and keeping our eyes firmly on the global industry during the world-famous Salone del Mobile.
