Kitchen & Bathroom Design Trends We're Seeing Right Now — And How to Make Them Work in Your Home

Light Wood Cabinets Are Everywhere — and For Good Reason

If you've been scrolling Houzz or Instagram lately you've noticed the shift away from the all-white kitchen that dominated for years. Light wood cabinets — think warm oaks, natural maples, blonde tones — are having a serious moment, and we think it's going to stick. Mixed with whites and soft grays, they create an airy, warm palette that doesn't feel cold the way a stark white kitchen can.

We're seeing this a lot in our Rose Hill Cabinets line — clients who wouldn't have considered a wood tone a few years ago are now leading with it. Come into our showroom and we can show you exactly what these look like in person, because the warmth of a real wood finish is one of those things that's hard to fully appreciate on a screen.

Skinny Shaker Is the Upgrade You Didn't Know You Needed

Shaker-style cabinet doors are still the most popular choice — by a wide margin — and we don't see that changing anytime soon. What has changed is the proportion. The "skinny shaker" profile with a narrower rail gives the same classic silhouette a cleaner, more modern feel. It's a subtle difference that makes a big visual impact, especially in smaller kitchens where you want the space to feel more open.

Zellige Tile for the Backsplash

If you're still looking at traditional subway tile for your kitchen backsplash, we'd gently encourage you to look at zellige. These handmade square tiles in a glossy finish have an organic, slightly imperfect quality that gives a kitchen real character — the kind of "collected over time" feeling that makes a space feel personal rather than just remodeled. They're different enough from subway tile to feel fresh but familiar enough to not feel risky. We love them paired with light wood cabinets and a warm hardware finish.

Workstation Sinks Are a Game Changer

The kitchen sink has evolved. Workstation sinks come with built-in ledges that support a cutting board, colander, drying rack — basically turning your sink zone into a fully functional prep station. If you cook at home regularly and find yourself moving back and forth across your kitchen constantly, this is the kind of upgrade that changes your daily experience in the space. We've installed quite a few of these across our north suburban Chicago projects and the feedback from clients is always the same: why didn't we do this sooner?

Charcoal and Gray Countertops as a Statement

White countertops remain popular — and we still specify them frequently — but we're seeing a real appetite for darker countertops, particularly charcoal and deep gray tones. Against light wood cabinets especially, a dark countertop creates a striking, grounded contrast. If you've been on the fence about going darker, it's worth pulling some samples. Come into the showroom and we'll show you how different countertop tones interact with our cabinet finishes in real light.

Bathroom Trends Worth Paying Attention To

Curbless Showers — Still Growing, Still Beautiful

The curbless shower isn't new, but it continues to grow in popularity and we understand why. Running tile seamlessly through the entire bathroom floor — no threshold, no curb — creates a cleaner look and genuinely makes the space feel larger. It's also an accessibility-forward choice, which matters for aging in place and resale value. If you're doing a master bath renovation, this is one of the first things we'd put on the table.

Go Bigger With the Shower

While we're on the subject — if your layout allows it, go bigger with the shower. More homeowners are treating the master bath as a genuine retreat, and a larger shower is the single upgrade that delivers the most impact on that experience. We design and build these spaces every day and we can tell you: the clients who size up never regret it. The ones who don't sometimes do.

Oversized Tile and Stacked Patterns

Large-format rectangular tile in the bathroom is still going strong, and for good reason — fewer grout lines means less cleaning and a more expansive visual feel. We're seeing a lot of stacked tile patterns right now (versus traditional brick offset) especially in smaller bathrooms, where the continuous vertical or horizontal run of tile helps the eye move across the room and makes the space feel bigger. Add a few metallic tile accents and you have a bathroom that looks genuinely custom.

Earth Tones Are Back — and They're Staying

Browns, warm taupes, sandy beiges — earth tones are making a full comeback after years of cool whites and grays dominating everything. This isn't a fleeting trend. It's a design correction toward warmth, and it works beautifully in both kitchens and bathrooms. We're incorporating warm earth tones through tile, cabinet finishes, and hardware on a lot of our current projects, and the results are stunning.

Want to See These Trends in Person?

That's exactly what our Grayslake showroom is for. You can see how these finishes, tiles, and cabinet styles actually look together — not in a curated Instagram photo, but under real light, next to real materials.

And because we're a full design-build team, when you come in you're not just getting inspiration. You're getting a partner who can design the space, manage the project, and build it — with our own products and our own crew. One call. One team. No runaround.

Ready to bring one of these trends into your north suburban Chicago home? Visit our Grayslake showroom or contact us to schedule a consultation.

— Camille Johnson Lotus Home Improvement | Rose Hill Cabinets | Emerald Fern Finishes Serving Evanston, Skokie, Grayslake & the north Chicago suburbs