SHAKER KITCHENS: YOUR GUIDE TO ACHIEVING THE LOOK

The ultimate in refinement, shaker style kitchens are about celebrating simplicity, precision, and consistency. Timeless shaker style cabinets may be one of the defining hallmarks of Hamptons style kitchens. However, when you concentrate on styling an entire space with its celebrated symmetrical brilliance, the aesthetics speak for themselves. 

Thanks to style versatility, shaker kitchens are compatible with a wide range of contemporary and more traditional homes, ensuring they can flourish in many spaces, whether provincial, country, or coastal. 

Understated elegance is assured in the shaker style kitchen. Now it’s time to detail how you can achieve the look and incorporate this classic aesthetic into your home.

The 18th century Shakers were a self-sufficient religious group renowned for their orderly way of life characterised by simplicity, durability, and functionality. For this reason, these Quakers, who were also craftsmen, valued a plainer, more economical style that eschewed decorative detailing. 

This cultural pastime gave birth to the signature shaker design that focuses on refinement and emphasises neatly framed square panelling for door, cabinet, and drawer fronts to help accentuate spaces.

Shaker style kitchens are all about carefully incorporating a neutral colour scheme and employing natural materials to maintain a minimalist aesthetic. It’s about highlighting a certain gentility, and modern shaker kitchens can capitalise on this quality to play to its unique strengths. 

Apart from its adaptability, the beauty of a shaker style kitchen is that it will never go out of style. Those framed recessed panels are brilliantly uniform and versatile enough to implement another pattern into the design subtly. Panelling with a fluted front or glass front doors for your overhead cabinetry, for instance, helps (no pun intended) shake the style up a bit and prevent mundanity.

As mentioned, neutral colours work best for shaker kitchens as they help define its minimalist design. White shaker kitchens boldly capitalise on this level of absolute refinement, bringing out all the unique definitions of your cabinetry. This could be complemented with black workbench surfaces and brushed nickel cabinetry handles or knobs, which work together to help bring out the brilliant white shaker style kitchen. The appealing distinction that gunmetal cabinetry pull handles add to your design would work well too. 

You can also use mosaic tiles to enhance other facets of your shaker kitchen space. For example, they can greatly complement the backsplash of a black shaker kitchen to help add extra nuance. 

Grey shaker kitchens arguably encourage a little more play with colours and textures. For example, you can incorporate white cabinetry with grey to distinguish a particular area, like a kitchen island, for instance. At the same time, you could equally vary the worktop benches with different tones to define your space.

While minimalism may be the base point for shaker style kitchens, this shouldn’t imply you can’t enliven your space with some tasteful decor. 

Beams, exposed brick walls, and pendant lighting all work well in the shaker style kitchen. You’ll be equally surprised by how a little simple ornamentation can help enhance the shaker style kitchen too. Consider organic forms such as fresh flowers, potted plants, and even hanging plants. Functional items that help to keep benchtops clear and prevent cluttering, like magnetic knife racks, would work well too. 

Shaker style kitchens present a wonderful opportunity to go bold with your kitchen tapware, too – incorporating an everyday fixture with a design that defies convention and makes an aesthetically pleasing impression. 

Gooseneck designs like the Elysian Kitchen Mixer or the Elysian Commercial Pull Out are great for enriching your space in a modern shaker style kitchen. Colours are equally important, so don’t be afraid to experiment. Brushed brass, brushed copper, brushed gunmetal, white or matte black help to make a point of difference and give your shaker kitchen the extra dimension it deserves.

Gaining some perspective to help realise the shaker kitchen of your dreams makes sense. Fortunately, our friendly team are experts in modern shaker kitchen design and are ready to help turn your dream kitchen into an eye-opening reality. 

Why not book a free design consultation below to ensure the process of transforming your kitchen with selected products from ABI becomes a positive one.