10 Design Trends for New Kitchen and Bath Products in 2024
See the latest shower features, countertop looks, faucets, appliances and more that debuted at the KBIS 2024 trade show
At last year’s show, several steam features garnered lots of attention. This year, it was saunas turning heads. In December, Kohler announced it had acquired Klafs, a German home sauna company. On display at the show was its newest creation, the S11 sauna, which was designed in collaboration with the famed Studio F.A. Porsche (yes, of sports car acclaim). It combines dry heat with sound and lighting features to create a soothing experience.
Perfect Wellness, a New York City offshoot of Italian company Effe, also showcased a new home sauna. The company also offers Finnish-inspired outdoor sauna cabins.
Likewise, Brizo announced its Pristive tankless reverse osmosis system. It also reduces more than 90 contaminants from drinking water. It features, like the previously mentioned Clarifi, a slim design that takes up less space than a traditional tank system. Pristive also features remineralization and will be available in fall 2024.
2. Beauty
Of a piece with health and wellness is a trend toward beauty features and products. Exemplifying this is Kohler’s new SpaViva hand shower, which features two spray types as well as attachments that magnetically dock to the shower head and rotate at three speeds. A face brush attachment features small, densely packed silicone bristles to deep-clean pores. A body brush has large silicone bristles. A body massager, shown here, features five massage points. A body scrub attachment exfoliates skin. SpaViva won the gold in the Wellness Trailblazer category at the Best of KBIS 2024 awards.
3. Vintage Looks
Sometimes looking forward requires looking back. Several brands announced new styles with decidedly vintage looks. Perrin & Rowe’s new Southbank collection of kitchen faucets draws on the midcentury architecture of London’s South Bank neighborhood. The faucets have curves and contours that echo midcentury furniture as well.
In fall 2023, Kohler announced new collections designed in collaboration with popular interior designer Shea McGee of Studio McGee. Working with an archival historian at Kohler, McGee dove deep into the company’s archives to integrate timeless details. The new Malin vanity, shown here, leans on classic Shaker style and includes reeded fronts, delicate door framing and mushroom knobs.
4. Bridge Faucets
Speaking of vintage looks, it’s hard to deny the comeback of bridge faucets. This typically traditional style is seeing a resurgence of popularity with updated details that root it in the modern world.
Kohler and Studio McGee collaborated on the new Edalyn kitchen faucets, which include a bridge model, shown here. It features elegant curving detailing.
5. Details, Details, Details
Sometimes it’s the subtle details that can make a product special. A look at products launched at KBIS 2024 reveals that product designers are obsessed with the little details. It was almost impossible to walk 10 feet at the show without hearing words such as chamfered, channeled, knurled, fluted, hexed, faceted, etched and hammered.
Kallista launched its new ONE Collection x P.E. Guerin, which features hand-hammered details on the handles. The faucet shown here, from the collection, is in unlacquered brass and polished nickel.
6. Warm Neutral Countertops and Surfaces
As we noted earlier this year in our 2024 design predictions, homeowners are craving warm neutral colors in their rooms, rather than the stark whites and cool grays that dominated in recent years. This shift is also evident in many new countertop and surface styles launched at KBIS. Instead of crisp white backgrounds on surfaces, there were lots of warm creams and taupes. Caesarstone’s new Gold Finch quartz, shown here, is a good example.
7. Sustainability and Eco-Friendliness
Sustainability, recycling, conservation, eco-friendly processes — these topics have been in a lot of design conversations lately. And it’s clear that manufacturers are paying attention. These topics often were the first ones to arise when visitors entered booths at KBIS.
Kohler’s WasteLab, a waste reuse division, announced the Vox sink. It’s the company’s first sink to be constructed of more than 70% recycled materials, including ceramic and cast iron waste left over from the manufacturing of other products. The sink is handcrafted and has a stone look.
Silica, and how to reduce it in engineered countertops, was an important topic among countertop and surface manufacturers at KBIS. Silica is a mineral common in quartz, and when not safely handled by workers during the cutting of countertops, it can lead to health problems. Wearing a mask and cutting quartz surfaces with water can help mitigate the problems, but companies are quickly shifting to processes that drastically reduce the silica content in the slab surfaces before they reach fabricators.
With that in mind, porcelain, a naturally silica-free material, is emerging as a popular countertop and surface choice. It’s heat-resistant and stain-resistant and can be used outdoors. It also can be cut thin enough to be used as flooring. Caesarstone added seven new looks to its porcelain Ooak (One-of-a-Kind) collection, including Marenstone, shown here. The new colors will be available in spring 2024.
Appliance manufacturers are also tackling the environmental impact of their products from a variety of angles, including reducing the products’ energy consumption and emissions and “greening” their materials.
One potentially revolutionary technology unveiled at the show is featured in the 30-inch panel-ready SlimTech Insulation column refrigerator from JennAir, shown here, which won gold in the Game-Changing Innovation category at this year’s Best of KBIS awards. Its doors have a proprietary powder vacuum-sealed interior that removes the need for bulky polyurethane foam insulation. Not only does the new material dramatically reduce the wall thickness and allow for more capacity inside the refrigerator (among other consumer advantages), but it also has the potential to be recycled at the end of the refrigerator’s life — something that up until now has been a challenge with refrigerators. The insulation technology will be available in select JennAir column fridges later this year.
8. Seamless Kitchen Appliances
While colorful retro refrigerators and ornate gas ranges were eye-catchers at the show, many of the newest and buzziest products from major appliance manufacturers have been designed to fly under the radar. Picture wall ovens in understated matte black or satin stainless finishes, and refrigerators and dishwashers concealed by panels, all sitting completely flush with surrounding surfaces to create a sleek, seamless, contemporary look.
Miele’s ArtLine design line, which debuted at the show, is a good example. Shown here are appliances from the line in a new Obsidian Matte Black finish. Available this spring, the black glass-fronted appliances have a velvety glass finish and a sleek profile thanks to their handleless design and integrated displays.
9. Small-Space Appliances
The general trend of small-space living, whether in backyard accessory dwelling units (ADUs), tiny houses or urban condos, is translating to high demand for compact appliances — and expanded offerings.
At this year’s show, Smeg showed off this newly available 24-inch Professional series induction range, and Sharp had a display kitchen featuring 24-inch-wide appliances. Look for more examples and more appliance trends spotted at this year’s KBIS show in an upcoming article.
10. Cool High-Tech Features
One of the buzziest booths at KBIS was the small but mighty booth of FreePower. The company creates a wireless charging device that can be integrated into any countertop material. It says that if a fabricator can cut a hole for a sink, it can precisely fit a FreePower system in the space. The system can charge up to three devices at once; it shows a lighted box through the surface when charging and disappears when not in use. It can go into a kitchen countertop, as shown here, a bathroom countertop, a nightstand, a home office or any stone or engineered surface in a home. The system won the Best in Show award during the Best of KBIS awards, and is available now.
Many of the newest appliances in both the kitchen and laundry spaces are “smart” — for instance, a washer that’s able to automatically gauge and dispense the precise amount of laundry detergent for optimal cleaning, or an oven that users can preheat via an app.
At the show, some of the latest ovens functioned like kitchen assistants. For example, the Signature Kitchen Suite 30-inch double wall oven, pictured here, from the new Transitional series, has a built-in camera combined with artificial intelligence technology. It can identify ingredients placed inside, offer recipe suggestions through its ThinQ app, then let users monitor the dish as it cooks. The camera can even take snapshots and capture time-lapse videos that users can post to social media.
What would a bath exhibition be without a high-tech futuristic toilet? Last year, Kohler debuted Numi 2.0 in a black finish. This year, it brought a white finish to the luxury toilet. The toilet has voice control functions, a heated seat, various wash modes with water pressure and temperature settings, a dryer option, a night light and automatic cleaning with UV light and electrolyzed water. The seat opens automatically when you walk up and closes when you leave.
Suzanne Ennis contributed to this article.
1. Health and Wellness
By far the most-talked-about trend happening in the kitchen and bath world is a tripling down on health and wellness. Anything to nourish, rejuvenate and calm the body is getting full attention.
Few things drew more oohs and aahs at the show than Kohler’s new Anthem+ shower system. It allows homeowners to create a shower with up to 12 water output points plus add steam, controlling everything from a single digital interface. A setup might include multiple body sprays, shower heads and handheld sprayers as well as a steam function for the ultimate spa-like shower experience. The system is available now, and more features, such as lighting control and sound capabilities, will be added later this year.