Best Unique Kitchen Cabinet Designs

When planning a full kitchen renovation, cabinet designs is one of the most important choices. Especially as cabinetry is typically the single biggest investment you’ll make. Whether or not your kitchen cabinets are well designed and well organized can really make or break your experience in the kitchen especially if you have a small kitchen and a cabinet design mistake is not an easy one to remedy. Furthermore, there are endless cabinet styles and designs to choose from, making the design process a little harder to navigate.

Designers we polled about kitchen design trends for 2022 predicted that cabinetry would increasingly become the focus of kitchen design. From mixing materials to leaning on green shades that have dominated our Instagram feeds of late. We’re predicted kitchen cabinetry ideas are only going to get more interesting in the months to come.

In anticipation, we culled through our archives of white kitchens, colorful kitchens, modern kitchens, farmhouse kitchens. And every other style out there in search of the most distinctive kitchen cabinet ideas from designers all over the world. We even looked at our best home bar ideas. As these spaces often yield some of the most inventive design solutions.

A common thread emerged: Designers as well as architects tend to design or select kitchen cabinets. That echo the architectural style of the home, generally speaking. In a classic Georgian residence, for example, one might expect to find Chippendale-style cabinetry. While Japanese midcentury-inspired cabinets look right at home in a modern mountain lake house. Selecting the right cabinet style often sets the tone for other design choices as well. From kitchen backsplashes to kitchen lighting.

Glossy Black Cabinets

At his home in San Antonio, Texas, designer Todd Romano complemented custom Talavera tiles are arranged in a graphic chevron pattern with glossy ebony cabinetry (Black, Fine Paints of Europe).

Chippendale Cabinets

In designer Caroline Gidiere’s Mountain Brook, Alabama, home, antique glass and Chippendale fretwork give the built-in bar cabinetry beautiful historic character. Stained mahogany cabinetry is framed in fiery orange trim (Lava by Porter’s Paints) as well as gold leaf ceiling paper (Phillip Jeffries). Pendant lighting, Visual Comfort & Co. Backsplash, Adelphi Paper Hanging.

Cabinet Panels for Appliances

In this South Carolina kitchen, architect Peter Block and designer Beth Webb clad the counter-depth refrigerator and freezer in the same rift-cut white oak panels as the cabinetry to create a more seamless look, which is all the more important in a small kitchen. The slender range by Bertazzoni.

Organized Cabinets

The drawers in Sallick’s kitchen are lined with dividers on the diagonal (to accommodate larger items). That keep kitchen and prep tools organized and at the ready.

Drawer Cabinets

The serene foundation for this white kitchen in a Naples, Florida, retreat designed by Celerie Kemble is its simple, unadorned cabinetry. Which features drawer panels with no visible hardware. Dark-stained beams and interlocking white oak floor tiles from Jamie Beckwith add just a hint of rustic warmth.

Ebonized Cabinets

In this Montana kitchen designed by Palmer Weiss, a bank of drawers in place of lower cabinetry provides ample storage space that’s much easier to access as well as organize. Silicon bronze brushed pulls, Rocky Mountain Hardware. Dual fuel range, Wolf. Cabinetry and ebony finish, Provincial Store Fixtures

Mirrored Cabinets

Soft, smoky tones lend a high-fashion, sophisticated touch to the alluring kitchen of this 18th-century flat in Paris. The upper cabinets feature mirrored eglomise facings as well as “almost look like venetian blinds,” notes decorator Jean-Louis Deniot. The lower cabinetry paint color is Midnight Oil by Benjamin Moore.

Simple Shaker Cabinets

It’s hard to deny the timeless appeal of classic, Shaker-style cabinetry. Simple in its construction yet refined in its precision, a Shaker cabinet works with a wide array of achitectural as well as decorative styles. Today cohost Jenna Bush Hager overhauled the midcentury kitchen in her spirited Long Island cottage with pastel blue cabinetry (Wedgewood Gray by Benjamin Moore) that pops against a fireclay apron-front sink (Rohl) and glazed wall tiles (Waterworks).

Shaker Cabinets with a Twist

The kitchen in designer Philip Mitchell’s Nova Scotia home is a study in timeless design, starting with the cabinetry, which features a mix of glass-front panel doors on the uppers and Shaker-style doors with a bevel on the lowers. Stacks of drawers with classic brass bin pulls offer variety in storage.

The banquette seating is crafted of tufted leather as well as resilient acrylic fabric (both by Ralph Lauren); and an ikat pendant shade (custom, The Urban Electric Co.) is a brilliant foil for the overhead lighting (bulkhead cage lights, Cape Cod Lanterns).