How do you design a minimalist kitchen? The idea of minimalism is to take everything back to its essential, soothing, elements. Your home doesn’t have to be an ocean of detail when it can be an oasis of simplicity. A minimalist kitchen removes all the questions about hardware, paint color, cabinet bevelling, and backsplash design in favor of pristine surfaces where the meals take center-stage, not the decor.
With minimalism, we achieve a great deal with very little. We find beauty and tranquility in clean surfaces and simple designs. A minimalist kitchen embraces these idea principles with flowing countertops, smooth cabinets, and hidden storage, freeing your eyes to feast on the beauty in the materials and design itself. Today, we’re focusing not just on minimalist kitchen design, but how to choose a countertop that completes your vision of the perfect minimalist kitchen.
What Makes a Minimalist Kitchen Design?
- Clean lines
- Simple color palettes
- Smooth cabinet doors
- Hidden hardware and appliances
- Storage solutions to minimize clutter
- Elegant artistic touches
Minimalist kitchens are each somehow unique in their minimalism. Some are gleaming white, some are matte black. Some minimalist kitchens are parallels, L-shaped, or a spacious ring of countertops. Some have high-mounted microwaves, some have coffee pot nooks. But all of them share a few key features that truly define the space as minimalist.
These are clean lines, smooth cabinets, hidden hardware, and simple color palettes. The two most common color schemes for minimalist design are all-white and all black. Mixed black-and-white kitchens can be minimalist, as can kitchens with a little bit of moody color like navy, caramel, or wood tones. The key is to keep everything smooth and simple, focusing on clean lines and easy-on-the-eye minimal designs.
Choosing the Right Countertop for Your Minimalist Kitchen
So you have your minimalist kitchen planned out. You have your color-scheme ready, your smooth hardware-free cabinetry prepared, and a sleek new faucet for the sink. Maybe you enclosed your fridge in cabinetry to make it more minimal. Perhaps you’ve installed hidden storage to keep your counters pristine. But what about the countertops themselves? How do you choose the perfect stone benchtop to complete your minimalist kitchen design?
The ideal minimalist countertop is simple, smooth, and gives the impression of flowing from one end of the counter to the other. Some seek stone with minimal grain, some look for a subtly beautiful grain that adds just a hint of detail and highlight to your minimalist kitchen. Here are the most important things to consider when choosing a minimalist kitchen countertop.
Calcatta Verona with dark brown kitchen cabinets
Smooth Uncut Stretches of Stone
Nothing says minimalism like uninterrupted lines. To achieve this, you will want to plan ahead for long, smooth pieces of granite or marble for your countertop. Uncut slabs create the cleanest, most beautifully minimal lines for your kitchen. Cutting fresh from a hand-picked slab is the best way to achieve this for every section of your countertops. Choose a color and grain that guides the eye comfortably down the lengths of the pristine counter in an unbroken line.
Black, White, and Grey granite color known as Silver Cloud installed with grey cabinets
A Flowing or Minimal Stone Grain
What type of granite or marble grain is best for a minimalist kitchen? We recommend flowing grains as opposed to speckled and flecked grains, when it comes to minimalism. Reduce the ‘busy’ look of some granites by choosing stone that has gentle, low-contrast flowing lines through the length of the slab. Metallics like gray, silver, and gold make excellent minimalist grain accents because they add to the monochrome feel while actually providing a beautifully understated highlight to your color palette.
Of course, there are a few rare slabs that have almost no grain at all. If you want the beauty and cool luxury of a natural stone countertop without the vivid grain of natural stone, ask your fabricator to help you find a nearly grain-free slab. Pristine white or black stone will make a beautiful minimalist statement without interrupting the featureless beauty of your kitchen.
Soapstone kitchen countertops with a butcher block island
White or Black Minimalist Countertops
The two most common countertop colors for a minimalist kitchen are white and black. When most people think of minimalism, they think of pristinely glowing all-white design. A white countertop completes that look, while a black countertop in a white kitchen provides a stark ribbon of contrast without marring the pristine monochrome minimalist design.
Alternately, many people today are embracing the dark kitchen trend with minimalist black kitchen designs. Matte black cabinets, black enameled appliances, and a glowing black countertop are all part of the modernly elegant and luxurious black minimalist kitchen.
Waterfall Island with Miter Cut Joint
Waterfall Islands and Backsplashes
What should you do about the backsplash in a minimalist kitchen design? Many people go with something simple like white subway tiles, and you can do this too. But our favorite way to make a kitchen elegantly minimal without the standard tile backsplash is a waterfall backsplash. Like a waterfall island – where the stone “flows” smoothly over the ends of the island to the floor, a waterfall backsplash is where the countertop marble or granite extends up onto the wall.
This creates a beautiful, nearly seamless effect as if the countertop grew upward instead of needing an additional material for backsplash tile. It’s also a great use of your stone remnant after your fabricators have cut smooth, unbroken stretches of countertop from your chosen slab. Done by experts, the grain can continue perfectly from the countertop to the wall as if it flowed naturally. Waterfall backsplashes look best in contrast, where the backsplash and countertop contrast the cabinetry to create a uniquely beautiful minimalist prep space.
Quartz White Countertops Kitchen
Unifying Remnant Accents
Last but not least, don’t forget other ways to turn your stone remnant into a minimalist masterpiece. By using the same piece of marble or granite, you continue the monochrome and pristine look of your home by applying remnant stone to other, smaller areas of the house. Use the same countertop stone for your bar, or to top a half-wall. Take a strip of granite or marble for your mantlepiece and to top your coffee table.
Minimalism is all about unity and simplicity of design. By continuing the theme created in your kitchen, remnant pieces can extend the beauty of your kitchen minimalism to unify the design of your entire home.
Are you planning a minimalist kitchen renovation? Explore our gallery or contact us today to find and cut the perfect piece of stone to make your minimalist masterpiece complete.