Kitchen Styles Explained: Modern, Transitional, Farmhouse, Craftsman, Mid-Century and Scandinavian

By the JDI Construction teamReviewed by Arthur Kulchitskiy, CEOUpdated October 20266 min read

Quick answer

A kitchen style is mostly set by five things: the cabinet door, the range of materials, the color palette, the hardware and the lighting. Modern uses flat doors and few materials, Craftsman and farmhouse use framed doors and visible wood, and transitional sits between. Pick the style that suits the house's age and the rooms the kitchen opens onto, then keep to it.

Style names are shorthand. They help you search for pictures and talk to a designer, but a kitchen is built from specific choices: which door, which wood or paint, which metal, which lights. This page breaks six common styles into those parts, says which Vancouver house types each one sits in most naturally, and explains how to blend two without ending up with neither.

The six styles at a glance

Style	Cabinet door	Materials and colors	Hardware	Lighting
Modern	Flat slab, usually full overlay or frameless, often with horizontal grain	Few materials, used in large unbroken areas: matte lacquer, wood veneer, plain or lightly veined counters. White, black, gray or one saturated color.	Edge pulls, finger grooves, long thin bars, or none	Recessed lights and concealed strips; simple geometric pendants
Transitional	Shaker or another simple recessed panel	Painted cabinets in neutrals, quartz or stone with soft veining, plain tile. Sometimes a wood or colored island.	Plain bar pulls and round knobs in nickel, brass or black	Recessed lights with plain glass or metal pendants
Farmhouse	Shaker or beadboard, often inset or with visible frames	White and cream paint, natural wood, butcher block or honed stone, an apron-front sink, plank or handmade-look tile	Cup pulls, latches and knobs in black, bronze or aged brass	Enameled metal shades, lantern forms, exposed bulbs
Craftsman	Square recessed panel with wide rails and stiles, often inset, in quarter-sawn oak or another stained wood	Stained wood, earth colors (olive, ochre, rust, brown), stone, handmade tile with color variation	Hammered or square-backed pulls and knobs in bronze, copper or black iron	Mission-style fixtures with square frames and art glass or mica shades
Mid-century	Flat slab in walnut, teak-toned wood or plain painted panels; sliding doors on some uppers	Warm wood beside white, with accent color in limited doses (mustard, orange, teal, olive); plain laminate-look or solid counters; small geometric tile	Slim pulls, small round knobs, finger pulls; brass or stainless	Globe pendants, cone shades, multi-arm fixtures
Scandinavian	Flat slab or a slim-framed Shaker	Pale wood (birch, ash, light oak), white and soft gray, matte surfaces, little pattern	Small wood or leather pulls, plain knobs, integrated grips	Simple white, wood or paper shades; as much daylight as possible

Door types are compared in detail in kitchen cabinet door styles compared.

What defines each style, and where it goes wrong

Modern

Modern kitchens depend on alignment. With no frames or moldings to hide behind, every gap between doors, every seam and every outlet is visible, so the lines of drawers, appliances and shelves have to be planned to meet. Appliances are often integrated behind panels. It goes wrong when the plan is modern but the execution is not: uneven gaps, a busy counter, or ornate lighting added to warm it up. Warm it with wood veneer and texture instead.

Transitional

Transitional takes the proportions of a traditional kitchen and removes the ornament. A Shaker door, a simple crown or none, a plain backsplash. It is the most flexible of the six and suits the widest range of houses. Its risk is blandness. A transitional kitchen needs one deliberate choice, such as a colored island, a strongly veined counter or distinctive lighting, or it reads as generic.

Farmhouse

Farmhouse is about utility and texture: a deep apron-front sink, open or glass-front storage for everyday dishes, wood that looks used, furniture-like pieces. It suits houses with some age or simple, plain architecture. It goes wrong through accumulation. Sliding barn doors, signs and distressed finishes all at once turn it into a theme. Choose two or three farmhouse elements and keep the rest plain.

Craftsman

Craftsman kitchens show how things are made: visible joinery, substantial door frames, wood grain, handmade tile. The wood is usually stained, not painted, and the palette is drawn from earth and plants. The style belongs to the bungalows of the early 1900s and looks most convincing in or near that kind of house. Its risk is darkness. A room of mid-brown wood, dark tile and bronze needs generous lighting and a light counter or wall. Wood choices are covered in wood kitchens.

Mid-century

Mid-century kitchens combine flat wood fronts with white or a clear accent color, long horizontal lines and an easy connection to the next room. Walnut and similar red-brown woods are typical. It goes wrong when treated as a costume, with every surface in a period color and pattern. Flat wood doors, one accent color and period-appropriate lighting are enough.

Scandinavian

Scandinavian design is modern softened by pale wood and by an insistence on light. Surfaces are matte, colors are few and quiet, and storage is closed so counters stay clear. It works hard to make a dim room brighter. Its risk is coldness: all white with gray and steel reads clinical. The wood, some textile and warm-white lighting are what keep it comfortable.

Which styles suit which Vancouver houses

Any style can be built in any house, but some combinations need less effort to look right. The house types below are those described in kitchen remodeling by home era in Vancouver.

House type	What the house gives you	Styles that sit naturally	Notes
Pre-war houses near downtown: bungalows, four squares and Victorian homes in neighborhoods such as Hough, Arnada, Carter Park and Hudson's Bay	A small, separate kitchen, often with original trim, windows and built-ins worth keeping	Craftsman, farmhouse, transitional	Take door and trim proportions from what survives in the house. A fully modern kitchen works as a deliberate contrast only if it is done completely.
1950s and 1960s ranches and split-levels	A modest enclosed galley or U-shaped kitchen, often with a soffit, frequently opened to the living area in a remodel	Mid-century, Scandinavian, modern	Low ceilings and horizontal lines suit flat doors. Heavy traditional detail tends to look out of scale.
1970s and 1980s houses	A U or L with a peninsula, a soffit and a ceiling light box	Transitional, modern, Scandinavian	These houses have less fixed character, so the kitchen can lead. Once soffits come out, simple full-height cabinets suit the rooms.
1990s and 2000s houses	A larger kitchen already open to a family room or nook, often with an island	Transitional, farmhouse, modern	The kitchen is seen from the family room, so choose with that room's trim, flooring and furniture in view.
2010 and newer	A builder's standard kitchen in a working layout	Whichever suits the rest of the house	Projects here are about personalizing, so a change of doors, color and lighting carries the style.

Check the property record for your own address. Build dates vary street by street, and many kitchens have been remodeled at least once already.

Blending styles

Most real kitchens are blends, and transitional is itself one. Blends work when one style clearly leads.

Pick a lead and an accent. As a rough designer guideline, let one style govern the big, fixed elements (cabinet doors, counter, floor) and let a second appear in the changeable ones (lighting, hardware, stools).
Blend neighbors. Styles that share a door type combine easily: modern with Scandinavian or mid-century (all flat doors), farmhouse with Craftsman or transitional (all framed doors). A raised or beaded door with flat modern fronts in the same room rarely settles.
Hold the palette steady. Two styles in one color scheme look related. Two styles in two palettes look like two kitchens. Use how to choose a kitchen color scheme to set that first.
Limit the metals. Each style has its own hardware habits. Blending styles is not a reason to add finishes; see mixing metal finishes.
Use lighting to shift the mood. Pendants are the cheapest way to lean a plain Shaker kitchen toward farmhouse, modern or mid-century, and they can be changed later. Sizing is in pendant and island lighting.

Choosing without regret

Start with the house: its age, its trim and the rooms the kitchen is seen from.
Choose the door style first, because it is the most expensive element to change later.
Keep the fixed, costly surfaces quiet and put stronger style statements into paint, lighting and hardware.
Be honest about upkeep. Open shelves, grooved doors and living metal finishes are part of some styles and all need attention.
Test the plan against one question: if you took away the accessories, would the room still look like the style you wanted?

How doors, boxes and finishes are built is explained in kitchen cabinets: stock, semi-custom and custom. JDI Construction is a design-build remodeler, and each kitchen design includes a 3D layout so you can see the doors, colors and lighting together before ordering. Browse our kitchen remodeling projects or start with kitchen remodeling in Vancouver.

Common questions

What is the difference between modern and contemporary kitchens?

Modern refers to a specific design approach: flat surfaces, little ornament and an emphasis on line and material. Contemporary simply means what is being built now, which changes over time and borrows from several styles. In showrooms the two words are used loosely, so describe the door, the colors and the hardware you want instead of relying on the label.

Does the kitchen have to match the style of the rest of the house?

It should relate to it, especially where the kitchen is open to other rooms. Repeating the house's trim profile, door style, floor or window proportions ties a new kitchen in, even when the cabinets are simpler than the originals. A closed kitchen behind a door has more freedom than one seen from the living room.

Which style is easiest to keep clean?

Flat doors with no grooves, integrated or simple handles and a slab backsplash have the fewest places for grease and dust to settle, so a modern kitchen is the least work. Every frame, bead, groove and open shelf adds an edge to wipe. Shaker doors are a middle ground, with one inside corner per panel.

Can I change the style of a kitchen without replacing the cabinets?

Partly. Paint, hardware, lighting, the backsplash and the counter move a kitchen a long way. What cannot change without new doors is the door style itself, and a raised-panel door will always read as traditional. The refacing page of this guide explains when new doors on existing boxes makes sense.

How do I describe the style I want to a designer?

Bring pictures of three or four kitchens you like and say what you like in each: the door, the color, the amount of wood, how plain or detailed it is. Also say what you dislike. Specifics about doors, materials and hardware are more useful than a style name, since people mean different things by the same word.