Mid Century Modern Kitchen Design: Your Style Guide For Mastering This Timeless Look

When it comes to designing homes, people are putting more and more effort into how they decide to create their kitchen, and for good reason. Kitchens are as important to your home as any other area of your house. It’s where you start your morning with a cup of coffee, where food gets made for a family meal, and where you can even entertain guests.

The perfect kitchen will complement the rest of the house while still adding its own unique and personalized and features. Today, we’re going to talk one specific kitchen style that is as timeless as it is functional: the mid century modern kitchen design. In this guide, we’ll walk you through what exactly these type of kitchens consist of and how you can create your own mid century themed kitchen in your home.

At Treasured Spaces, we value creating comforting, warm, and functional homes for our clients. This includes their kitchens. Whether you need a renovation or are starting from scratch, you can come to us with all your home building and remodeling needs.

What Makes a Kitchen Mid Century Modern?

Mid century modern kitchens work towards combining old, authentic features with new age, contemporary elements. For example, they will often fuse together both modern materials and features with some quirky, vintage kitchen accessories and appliances.

These kitchens will typically adhere to the galley style, which features two parallel counters with a walkway between them. This style of kitchen is often seen in smaller, more cozier homes. But, that doesn’t mean that you can’t imitate a larger version of a galley style kitchen if your home has the extra room.

Along with the parallel counters, a mid century kitchen will typically blend together with the surrounding rooms, as opposed to being a completely separate area. There will be continuity between the kitchen’s floors and ceilings with those of the adjoining living spaces which will make it appear larger than it actually is.

Image from Desire to Inspire

Designing Your Perfect Mid Century Kitchen

Shelving/Cabinets

Efficient, smart storage is key with a mid century modern kitchen. Tall cabinets work well for vertical storage which will save you space. The taller the ceiling, the more room you’ll have to fit everything. Vibrant colors can help bring a smaller kitchen to life as well, just make sure that they work well with the rest of your home because, as previously mentioned, the kitchen is more of an extension of the surrounding rooms than an entirely new room.

One way to make your mid century kitchen not so cramped with food and appliances is to make good use of a pantry. A pantry is a must have for smaller kitchens and can allow you to hide a lot of your food behind closed doors. Nothing can make a kitchen feel more small than food and kitchen accessories piled up on the counters.

Floor

Because the floor should be the same throughout the kitchen and the adjoining rooms, wood as a great option. It looks great in a dining room and other adjoining rooms to the kitchen and will work well with the classic yet modern style of this type of kitchen.

Tile flooring is also another type of flooring to consider, and using materials like slate or terrazzo is common in the typical mid century modern kitchen. If durability is a main priority, concrete should be your flooring of choice. As an added bonus, concrete will also lower your energy costs by providing excellent insulation. Stain your concrete floor in a natural shade and it will be a beautiful and long-lasting foundation for your new/old kitchen. A concrete floor stained with a natural color will provide an excellent basis for your kitchen.

However, you can use whatever style of floor that works best for your home. There is no one specific type of flooring that will work best for a mid century modern home. Go with what works best you and your preferences!

Refrigerator

You can have some creative liberties with your fridge. Because mid century modern homes are all about putting together classic with contemporary, you can go old or new school with your refrigerator. If you’re leaning towards the a more classic feel, check out these vintage fridges for inspiration:

If these styles aren’t up your alley, you can still find a more modern, yet still simple, fridge that will fit in nicely with your kitchen.

Furnishings

Furnishings for a mid century modern kitchen should typically feature minimalist features. Square edges are often seen for table tops, and simple table legs for any tables and chairs near the kitchen. Solid colors are what you should shoot for as well. Think simple over flashy.

Accessories and Appliances

When it comes to the appliances and knick-knacks used to tie the entire kitchen together, there are tons of great options out there, due to the uptick in popularity of these types of accessories. Whether you’re going for bright colors and themes or more dark, earthy tones, check out some of these appliances you can use that are as decorative as they are functional.

Pastels and bright, vibrant colors add life to a small kitchen by brightening it and giving it a cheerful vibe. While more darker tones will really emphasize the modern side of your kitchen.

Countertops

Quartz and concrete countertops are a couple of the most popular choices when it comes to merging retro with modernization. These two options look great when combined with the other elements of mid century modern kitchen. Just make sure that no matter what material you use for your countertops, that the overall shape and layout is still simple, which is an adjective often used with these style of kitchens.

Image from Remodelista

Need some help designing your perfect mid century kitchen?

When it comes to your kitchen, you’re going to want to surround yourself with a team of qualified experts who will work with you every step of the way, to design and construction. If you’re in need of some guidance on your next kitchen project, reach out to Treasured Spaces, Minnesota’s premier remodeling contractor.

With five star ratings on Google, Facebook, and Houzz, we have a reputation for leaving our client’s happy and satisfied with their homes. With an eye for detail and a passion for quality, we at Treasured Spaces have over 450 projects under our belt and have a long history of bringing serious value to our clients.