You may be starting a floor-to-ceiling remodel, or just freshening up your spaces, but either way, it's fun to scan interior design trends and pick and choose what works for your taste and lifestyle. These 2022 kitchen and bathroom trends are a great place to start.

What Interior Design Trends Fit Your Taste and Lifestyle?

Many people feel uncertain when it comes to renovating kitchens and bathrooms. It's disruptive to tear up one of these functional spaces, so you want to get it right the first time. You don't want to make expensive mistakes.

Unless interior design is a passion for you, you may feel clueless about what's in style and overwhelmed by your choices.

Here's a guiding principle: Learn the trends but be authentic and aware of what you need and like. A certain color may be having a moment, but if you don't like it now, you're not going to like it in a few months or years.

It's true that there's a trend away from neutrals and toward bolder use of color, but if a white bathroom has always seemed freshest and cleanest to you—go for it. So, what if everyone has an island in their kitchen; maybe some kind of movable cart would work better in your smaller space. 

Timeless Is Always on Trend

That said, here are some ideas if you want to play it safe and go for a look that won't date soon:

• Keep kitchen and bathroom cabinetry neutral. Neutral paint colors or darker woods are great choices. Pick cabinet styles that are classic or blend with the era of your house, like flat-fronted cabinets in a modern home, or Shaker cabinets in a traditional house. Consider using bamboo cabinetry, both for its sleek look and for its sustainability. Glass cabinets are perfect for showing off decorative dishes and glassware.
• For a backsplash that will remain classic, two safe choices are square or subway tiles. If you want to mix it up a little, you could feature something different behind your stove, such as stainless steel, or a continuation of natural countertop materials like stone or marble. You could also choose different tiles for the stove backsplash to introduce bolder colors, patterns, and textures on a smaller scale.
• Make sure your walls harmonize with the rest of the house. Wall color is easier to change than floors and appliances, but if you don't want to have to switch it up, pick something easy on the eye that looks good when you can see the kitchen or bathroom from other rooms.

Rounding Things Out

Rounded shapes are a strong trend in design right now—from rounded couches to waterfall islands (where the edge from top to side curves instead of meeting at a straight angle.) It's a playful concept to think about and can influence smaller choices too, such as the shape of vases or lighting fixtures.

Don’t Forget the Tech

Every year there’s something to make home life easier. Two standouts for 2022 are:

• Kohler’s PerfectFill – A drain kit and digital valve that lets you preset the temperature and level of your bathwater, so you can tell your smart speaker to run the bath from another room, with no risk of overflow.
• Samsung’s Freestyle – A two-pound device that you can use as a projector, smart speaker, and ambient light fixture. Mirror your phone to watch a movie anywhere from any angle.

No More Matchy-Matchy

You may have a rule in your head—leftover from the days when a whole roomful of furniture ideally came in a matching set—that all your bathroom or kitchen fittings, faucets, and lights need to be made with the same metal. Liberate yourself!

You may want to splurge on a high arc kitchen sink faucet finished in antique copper to complement a copper sink but keep other fixtures a lower profile satin nickel. This will draw the eye to the sink.

Upgrade Your Mirror With a Mirror Frame

In the same way, a MirrorMate frame over the bathroom sink doesn’t have to match the faucet. You may choose to contrast modern black faucets and lights with the golds and earth tones.

Don't Skimp on Lighting

Lighting may not be what everyone thinks of first, but it should be! Done well, it makes spaces so much more useful. You may have a huge bathroom mirror, but if the light in there throws shadows on your face, no one will use it for putting on makeup or trimming their beard.

Janet Baltzersen, the founder of Rusty Fig Redesign, says under cabinet lighting is a beautiful way to add a warm glow at night when the overhead lighting is off.

“It also highlights the backsplash tile. Recessed overhead lighting is important for task lighting, but make sure they are on a dimmer to set the mood accordingly. Show your style with a statement chandelier over the dining table. Pendant lights over the island can add some drama and personality.” 

Rattan, glass, and metal lighting are all on trend.

Vintage Comes Back Around

There are several reasons people are scouring antique shops and salvage warehouses for vintage furniture, cabinets, fixtures, and free-standing storage pieces.

One is the swing to maximalism. A pendulum swing from minimalism, this trend celebrates the tasteful arrangement of valued objects—lots of them! Color, shape, and pattern are celebrated and mixed freely. So, if you want to line an open kitchen shelf with seven different tea sets gathered from four continents, have at it!

Another support for using old things is sustainability. More than a trend, this is a desperately needed lifestyle shift that makes better use of our limited resources and cuts down on waste.

Why not use a solid old wardrobe with shelving added for a pantry? Why not use an old dresser, maybe freshly painted with new crystal knobs, as the base for a bathroom sink with drawers to store towels and bathroom supplies?

Improve on What You Already Have

Another sustainable option that’s easy on your wallet is to imagine how you can upgrade things you already have in your home.

That’s the approach taken at MirrorMate. Since 2003, we’ve been providing on-trend framing solutions for wall-mounted mirrors. Easy to install yourself, these frames take outdated mirrors to a whole new level.

Bathroom mirror frame kits come in different widths and finishes, including metallic, wood, or painted in white, black, and gray. You can also buy pre-primed frames to paint any color of your choice.

MirrorMate also offers different styles of mirror frames, from traditional to contemporary, ornate to rustic. Customers are often surprised by how much a good frame improves a plain mirror, turning it into a design feature that elevates the look of bathrooms and other rooms.

Check out customer comments and look over the range of options before ordering your DIY bathroom mirror frame kit.