I wish they would have determined the level of cooking (reheats food, cooks sometimes, to chef-level cooking) that these homeowners are doing/plan to do. I would like to see if there is a correlation between having the top priority being looks and the amount of cooking actually being done.
Diane

Great point. Of course, there are two trends: Increase in sales of chef ranges and increase in people eating out and sales of prepared foods.
My unscientific observations are that I don't see a correlation between equipment and quantity and quality of cooking.

And note that their trending kitchen's only criteria is that it has been added to more ideabooks than any other kitchen.
I sometimes add something to my ideabook for one element. And sometimes that element is something I want to remember NOT to do!
I'll add that that kitchen is in my ideabook, but so is almost every other white cabinet kitchen with wood floors and blue/green backsplash on Houzz. I'm trying to determine floor stain and bs

From the survey:
Well, 75 percent of you want soft, neutral colors in the kitchen. And 65 percent of you will choose stainless steel appliances, half will select a tile backsplash
and 35 percent will opt for hardwood floors.

Well, I'd like a ceramic tile backsplash (bunnies LOL) and a wood floor, but not the stainless steel appliances.

Diane- Excellent point about how much people use the kitchen! I wonder that, too :)

I'm going to go out on a limb...and say the kitchen table (rather than island) is going to make a big comeback. I think now that so many people have an island...we'll have to find a new trend.

And easy to maintain countertops will be replacing marble. Not that I don't want some marble in my baking area...but I think that will be the next trend.

BO-ring...... Soft neutrals don't have to be, but they too often ARE a boring choice picked out of fear.

And just to make another crotchety old lady point here, white IS a color and has to be used as a color if the design is to be successful. And that's why so many white on white kitchens fail. People load up their open concept kitchen with all bright and white and it floats away into the clouds from the rest of the space because it's not balanced with a usage of white elsewhere in the room. Balance and proportion, folks.

One interesting thing in the kitchen pictures is that they handled the soffit in such a way that I bet that 90% of the people that view that kitchen don't realize it's a soffit.

I don't find that to be a boring kitchen at all. lt depends on your personal taste and preferences for how you want a space to feel.

I bet a lot of people know that's a soffit. It looks like a soffit. Trimming them out is not new.

Yes, no small wonder Houzz's survey results would match its favorite clipped images. But true there are various interesting features and details there people might want to tag even when they don't really like the kitchen itself that much.

I have to say that kitchen's gorgeous. Multiply-split personality or not, I'd give up that vision reluctantly for a corn-yellow solid sheet floor. :)

As a pro, I imagine Hollysprings has lots of stories about kitchens, existing or just initial dreams, that look as if they were dropped into the wrong house.

I'd say Houzz's trend "analysis" would be most valuable as a measure of how people are affected by current marketing. Lovely, but don't hold your breath looking for an awkward old kitchen designed around a turquoise sideboard as old as the house.

Hollysprings - in my GW mind you are not a crotchety old lady but rather young, chic & sophisticated.

I think houzz attracts a certain type of remodeler. 50% say they are doing granite in their kitchen remodel on houzz but 70% of counters sold in the USA are laminate. Also, what people plans are might not be what they end up doing.

Too white for me. Not my cup of tea at all, but that's just me. The house has to work together - in a unified whole. If the white works in that house and for the people that live there, then that should be what matters. Not whether or not it's "trendy".

On a somewhat related note - we're close to drywall on our house. Mechanicals are going in this week. Yesterday I did a job walk with the guy that's in charge of our tile job. He said that he's seen a lot of "different" houses in his line of work - different as in "strange". He said that ours is going to be different in a terrific way. Of course, he hasn't actually seen some aspects of our house yet - has only seen drawings of the kitchen, heard about the lighting, etc. But he still kept stopping his planning work to look at our rooms. I was flattered! He has a good eye for design, too, from what I've seen of his work.

Trends are okay, I guess, as long as they *work* for the house. I've gone to Houzz for basic ideas, but I've brainstormed to come up with specifics that work for us and our house. Although I realize that not everyone has - or would want to have - a virtually blank slate for their house (sometimes it's kind of a pain!).

I seem to be in the minority with most of my wishlist, except for hardwood floors.

Points of interest for me: fully 41% are not remodeling their kitchens to improve function.

Other, lack of scientific method: there are too many confounding factors to determine whether some of the trends are cause or effect--

For example: the range I want (which is not pro-style) only comes in stainless. It doesn't matter what I would actually pick. And the colored appliances (mostly ranges, or Viking products) are too expensive, or off the radar for most consumers. So of course people are going to pick stainless. And since matching appliances is the holy grail of the typical kitchen all appliances default to stainless.

Same with integrated appliances. I had integrated appliances in my last kitchen and some rather intelligent and savvy people never knew such a thing existed until they saw mine. Too expensive for most people and off the radar of most people.

So it's true that these trends are what people are doing, but it doesn't exactly say much except people do what other people do and choose from what they perceive is available.

I found Houzz valuable to see what type of materials are available, and to get ideas on configurations and design element combinations. I used my idea book as a repository for my designer. I looked at all categories of kitchens for ideas.

I just wonder to what extent we are influenced by "trends" without realizing it (or admitting it). Somehow we have this idea that we do what we "love." I'm not excluding myself here.