Check out the 4 K&B design trends from KBIS 2023.

BACK IN KBIS-NESS.

The Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS), North America’s largest K&B trade show, came roaring back to life in Las Vegas on January 31st offering, as KBIS themselves describe it, “three days of thought-provoking, inspiring, and trend-setting programming,” which spanned familiar topics like sustainable living, technological innovation, design trends, designer/client relationships, and wellness. 

Running for decades, KBIS gives K&B brands the opportunity to introduce their newest products and design solutions to the K&B business community, and the business community to get a glimpse of what’s coming down the pike. From ovens to faucets, ranges to basins, showers to refrigerators, our team had the chance to peruse the latest products and chat shop with the hundreds of brand reps and product experts on hand. KBIS visitors included interior designers, architects, showrooms, builders, remodelers, dealers like us, and other trade professionals who flocked from far and wide to see, touch, blog about, and take selfies with the latest and greatest in K&B appliances and accessories. 

While this year’s attendance numbers shattered expectations and is being hailed as one of the most successful events in KBIS’s nearly 60-year history, how was the show itself? 

As expected there was no shortage of inspiration with plenty to do and see—immersive booth experiences, interactive panel discussions, award events, and K&B brands showing off their wares in creative ways. The planning and craftsmanship put into the brand booths was impressive—the deep investment and creativity both obvious and beautiful. Although there were too many ooh and ahh moments to list, Monogram, Miele, Kohler, and TOTO brands certainly made wonderful, noteworthy impressions. 

New trends? Despite what marketing machines and volumes of enthusiastic social media content may convey, ‘earth-shattering revelations’ felt more like refined reimaginings and nuanced progressions of previous trends and topics folks have been talking about for a while now. See below for our top four takeaways.

COLOR

Move over whites and neutrals, it’s color’s time to shine. 

New and emerging color preferences across design mediums are always a fluid story. However, it was the ‘how’ and ‘where’ color was being used that garnered attention. While prevalent color has often been relegated to small spaces like powder rooms in the recent past, post-pandemic trends see many consumers and designers confidently moving beyond the safety of neutrals and using color in larger spaces like kitchens. The trend ranges from traditional color bursts and pops to a more fully-realized, comprehensive approach. 

Color finishes run deep in some appliance brands’ history like Viking, AGA, SMEG and BlueStar.  Now, many manufacturers are following suit by expanding current offerings to include an array of color options spanning bright to subdued. Sure, elegant black matte and other metallic finishes are still going strong, but there’s a decidedly optimistic, post-covid trend that leans happily into sunny, bright, warm and earthy. Dark greens, warm yellows, subtle oranges, soft pinks—statement K&B products are having a moment.

Victoria + Albert introduced new color palettes inspired by luxurious travel destinations around the world in partnership with Condé Nast Traveler.

True unveiled its captivating new finish, Bluestone—a calming blue hue imbued with hints of gray and lilac. The addition of this new color to the brand’s Build Your True program spanning color, finish, and hardware customization gives both trade professionals and homeowners 72 color-combination options on all their outdoor undercounter units, or full-size indoor appliances.

To celebrate their 150th anniversary, Kohler brought back two iconic vintage shades, Spring Green and Peachblow, for a new limited-edition product series.

Native Trails’ Precious Metal Collection added a sultry new finish, gunmetal.

Visitors enjoyed a first-hand experience of the Samsung MyBespoke custom printing service.

INNOVATION

Emerging integrated technologies continued to play an important role in both kitchen and bath.

Debuting at KBIS 2023, the new Home Technology Pavilion displayed manufacturers’ latest smart-tech products. This was a popular destination for trade professionals looking for smart home products and solutions for their clients who want to feel more in control of their lives and businesses. This makes sense—having more control of our time and resources seems like a sensible way to combat the creeping sensation that the world is spinning off its axis. 

Smart can come in many shapes and sizes—lighting, control systems, energy management, water, security, and more. Integrated smart technology in appliances like fridges, ranges, and dishwashers represents a step forward in empowering home and business owners to connect, control, and monitor their appliances to save them time, energy, and money.

TOTO’s Neorest LS offers EWATER+ for the bidet seat’s underside, preventing waste accumulation and stubborn yellow stains, and benefiting the planet by reducing the need for harsh cleaning chemicals.

Beko’s HarvestFresh fridge freezers use three-color light technology in the crisper drawer to mimic the 24-hour sun cycle, which helps preserve vitamins in fruits and vegetables for longer.

With a focus on purposeful technology, ultimate performance, unique design and enhanced functionality, Miele is driving innovation and leading the industry in cooking, cooling, cleaning, and coffee appliances.

Recognized as a 2023 Best of KBIS Award finalist, Dacor’s 24” Wall Oven is the first to combine full steam, air-fry and air sous-vide modes into one wall interface.

SUSTAINABILITY

More home and business owners are placing more value on sustainable manufacturing processes and products than in the past, so it’s unsurprising that it’s also becoming more important to designers, builders, contractors and other trade professionals when it comes to sourcing fridges, ovens, and other K&B products for their clients. In response to this growing interest, many brands have been developing manufacturing and product innovations that help minimize negative environmental impacts and energy wastefulness. For brands like Samsung, KBIS provided a great opportunity to highlight innovations that raise the bar for sustainable living. The end goal? Make energy savings a seamless part of everyday life.

Samsung showcased efforts to enhance sustainability throughout the product life cycle–from production to distribution, use, and disposal–and highlighted the added energy savings that come with its SmartThings Energy service.

Fire Magic Grills revealed a new full-size electric grill, offering a high-performance, high-tech luxury option for buyers seeking a sustainable grill outdoors.

Under its initiative of "shaping the future of freshness,” Liebherr’s new refrigerators and freezers have been developed with the goal of achieving high levels of energy efficiency, longer service life and reducing food waste through BioFresh technology.

WELLNESS

Feeling better, healthier and happier is the ultimate goal.

In 2023, designers will continue to focus on creating spa-like experiences that offer home and business owners a retreat for the mind and body. 

Though already core to bath manufacturers’ messaging, the pandemic elevated the importance of wellbeing to new heights, creating a surge in wellness-related design projects and consequent growth in demand for the products to support them. Here at Snyder Diamond we continue to see strong demand for steam showers, saunas, dry floating beds, combi-steam ovens, instant sparkling-water faucets, kitchen organizers, and more from brands like Gessi, Fantini, Effe, The Galley, Kallista, Mr. Steam, and Zerobody. Although sanity-saving products that help improve physical and mental health may not be a burning-hot topic at this point—some of the new, technological advancements and innovations in this category are truly exciting and newsworthy. 

Brizo’s new Mystix Steam System comes in two experiences: a standard Elemental steam shower with temperature control and an upgraded version called Transcendent with all kinds of therapeutic options—chromatherapy, aromatherapy and audiotherapy.

With customizable presets, precise temperature and flow control, built-in Wi-Fi, and connectivity to virtual assistants, the Delta ShowerSense Digital Shower has all the features necessary to create a shower experience customized to fit your needs.

Until next year KBIS!