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<a href="https://fsbrcarolinas.com/insights/kitchen-trend-of-the-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://fsbrcarolinas.com/insights/kitchen-trend-of-the-year.png" alt="2026 Kitchen Trend of the Year — Four Seasons Building & Remodeling" style="width:100%;max-width:680px;height:auto;border:1px solid #e5e5e5;border-radius:4px" /></a><p style="font:12px sans-serif;color:#555;margin:6px 0 0">Source: <a href="https://fsbrcarolinas.com/insights/kitchen-trend-of-the-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2026 Kitchen Trend of the Year</a> by <a href="https://fsbrcarolinas.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Four Seasons Building & Remodeling</a>.</p>
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What this shows
After a decade of all-white kitchens, 2026 is unmistakably the year of the warm, two-tone Upstate kitchen. More than 60% of our mid-range and premium kitchen quotes this year specify a contrasting island — typically a deeper walnut, navy, or warm-green base with off-white perimeter cabinetry. Quartz still dominates countertops (it's on roughly 78% of new quotes), but the surface choice that's actually growing fastest is honed quartzite for islands where homeowners want a more natural look without the maintenance hit of marble.
Three other patterns showed up often enough to be reliable trends rather than noise. Panel-ready refrigerators have crossed the 40% threshold on premium kitchen quotes for the first time. Pot fillers — which were a niche request five years ago — now appear on roughly a third of new kitchen builds. And dedicated coffee or beverage stations (separate from the main run of cabinetry) are now on more than half of premium kitchen quotes, almost always paired with a built-in undercounter beverage fridge.
What's not trending: open shelving as a primary storage strategy. We still install plenty of floating shelves as accent pieces, but homeowners who lived through the 2020-era open-shelving wave have largely returned to upper cabinetry for the practical reasons (dust, organization, and the cost of styled dishware).
Key takeaways
- →Contrasting island + warm-perimeter cabinetry is the dominant 2026 color scheme.
- →Quartz countertops dominate; honed quartzite is the fastest-growing premium upgrade.
- →Panel-ready appliances, pot fillers, and dedicated coffee bars have moved from niche to mainstream.
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