From stainless steel, the rise of granite to the rustic Tuscan trend, here’s how kitchen design stacked up at the start of the new Millennium.

By Donna Heiderstadt

As NKBA celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2023, we’re taking a retrospective look back at major kitchen and bath design trends over the seven decades since our founding. This week, we’re revisiting what happened in kitchen design in the Aughts — 2009-2000 — as we continue to work backward in time until we highlight the top trends in the kitchen and bath spaces in the early 1960s.

1. Rise of Stainless Steel Appliances 

The new Millennium brought with it a new design mandate for the modern kitchen: Appliances must be stainless steel. Whether they replaced ‘90s-era black appliances or the brown-toned wall ovens and fridges from earlier eras, stainless steel appliances became the de facto symbol of the early-2000s kitchen. The look was futuristic, polished and professional, which aligned with the country’s mindset as we left the 20th century behind and fixated on emerging technology (the Blackberry debuted in 2002 and the iPhone in 2007) and celebrity chefs, as the Food Network skyrocketed in popularity. Two decades later, stainless steel continues to rule the kitchen — fingerprints, smudges and all!

2. Rustic Tuscan Design Took Root

The early 2000s saw a major kitchen trend inspired by the rustic kitchens of Italy’s Tuscany region, featuring warm and familiar design elements like terra cotta tiles, faux finishes, arched openings, wood beams, elaborate range hoods and fruit and farm-animal motifs. Seeped in brown, gold, bronze and rust hues, the Tuscan kitchen exuded Old-World charm and was especially popular with suburban homeowners. The look, however, was often so overdone that it quickly grew outdated, earning it the nickname “The Olive Garden” aesthetic.

3. The Kitchen Island Became King

The embrace of open-concept design that seamlessly blends living, entertaining and food-prep spaces began to emerge in the early 2000s and showcased a coveted feature that virtually every homeowner now desires: a kitchen island. While the island concept dates back to the ‘80s and ‘90s, it wasn’t until home renovations were beamed into households 24/7 on HGTV that the kitchen island became the holy grail, both aesthetically and functionally. This multi-purpose kitchen staple remains the go-to spot for chopping, baking, snack-time, mixing cocktails and even doing homework.

4. Homeowners Went Gaga for Granite

Granite had been around for several decades before it took off like a rocket during the housing bubble of the early 2000s, as builders showcased it in model kitchens — making it a must for many new home buyers. Consumers embraced its myriad patterns, replacing outdated tile and laminate countertops with dazzling slabs of veined and speckled stone. Early in the decade, they favored rich browns and beiges that paired with dark-wood cabinets (especially cherry), Tuscan-tile backsplashes and sponge-painted walls. Later in the 2000s, they opted for moodier dark granite countertops that created a stark contrast to lighter wood and increasingly popular white shaker cabinets.

5. The White Kitchen Emerges 

By the end of the 2000s, the kitchen began to get dramatically lighter and brighter as the popularity of white-painted cabinetry grew, spanning all design styles from classic white shaker to glazed antique looks. This movement away from darker wood cabinetry and heavily patterned granite set the stage for the next half-decade when white was the dominant kitchen motif and transitional and contemporary cabinet styles began to catch on with consumers.