A new year, a new look – key kitchen trends for 2012 from Anna Ryder Richardson

A new year should bring a new lease of life into our homes! If you’ve been thinking of sprucing up your house, then January is the perfect month to make the creative leap. And what better room than the kitchen – the hub of the home – to inject a new look into 2012.

I joined Magnet’s spokesperson Anna Ryder Richardson for lunch – who you’ll no doubt remember from Changing Rooms back in the day – and she took us through her key kitchen looks for 2012:

If you’re now lusting after Anna’s subtle accents of pear green and plum purple in her ‘Kitchen for Socialising’ video, you can easily get the look on mydeco.com:

How would you successfully re-design your kitchen on a budget?

‘The kitchen is actually the easiest area to change the look and style of in your home. Kitchen accessories are amazing for quickly updating your kitchen according to seasons and trends, and you can buy very ‘on trend’ mugs and tea towels in different colours and prints. I thank goodness for online shopping now as your search can be specific and you can find exactly what you like.’

What about kitchen appliances? Ugly or decorative?

‘Kettles and toasters, steamers and sauce pans – they all have a designer edge now and can look sleek and even ornamental. I think you can afford to mix it up a bit by mixing and matching styles. The days of having a showroom kitchen are gone – we need to relax and enjoy our houses and fall in love with them again.’

How can you keep up with seasons and trends on a budget? 

‘You can actually accessorise with food and change colour schemes quickly this way. So you can get excited about going to the supermarket and buying plums and making a display with them. So even if you’re not a great cook you can look like you are!’

Do you recommend using a moodboard for the initial design stages?

‘Yes, you clever minx! Moodboards are exactly what you should use. They are a great way to visualise and experiment with different looks before committing to buy. What I love about a moodboard is that you can conjure up any style. For instance, I made a moodboard for Magnet and I became Audrey Hepburn using high gloss, inky blues, Corian worktops and changing lights. When I’d finished I thought, ‘oh my God, that’s me!”

karma kitten created an Audrey Hepburn inspired moodboard on mydeco.com

What would you love your kitchen to look like?

‘I would love my kitchen to look like Nigella Lawson, where everything is sumptuous and gorgeous and used. Stylists used to go for a look where everything is immaculate and put away but thankfully they’re opting for more ‘lived in’ looks these days.’

What must we not cut corners on?

‘We are staying in our houses longer and using them as a home and not something that we can simply improve to add value to and sell on. You can actually add value by accessorising your house with quality items and making it look like a family home rather than a showroom.

‘Don’t try to save on the actual structure of the kitchen as it is important that it lasts and remains in good condition without the need for repair for a long time.’

What is your top kitchen trend prediction for 2012?

‘I would like to see people being braver with their work tops. Perhaps incorporating work tops with splashbacks, to create a look that is seamless, which can also make the kitchen look incredibly expensive. You can get really gorgeous worktops that turn up onto the wall and behind appliances and give a really sleek appearance to the kitchen. Personally, I really like Corian worktops.’

If you’re feeling tentative about committing to particular designs or colours, why not try them out using the mydeco.com 3D Room Planner. It’s a fantastic tool to help you visualise your look before buying. So, lets make 2012 the year we got daring with our designs and inject some fun and colour into our kitchens and homes.