The Kitchen Cabinet Trend Interior Designers Are Obsessed With in 2026

Want to add some charm into your kitchen? Try cutting something out, suggest some interior designers. Specifically, the cabinets, in the form of tiny, decorative perforations. Whether they’re spotted in a Seattle cottage restored by AD PRO Directory firm Studio Laloc or a Montana kitchen from AD100 designer Heidi Caillier, cutouts are quickly becoming the best (and buzziest) way to zhuzh your kitchen cabinets. “It’s like jewelry,” says Samantha Feuer of Norris Studio in Maryville, Tennessee. “It’s a little detail that makes [cabinets] feel more cottagey.” Though the visual benefit is undeniable, the design detail “comes from function rather than decoration,” says Imogen Pritchard, design director at Plain English, a custom kitchen brand in the United Kingdom. Before refrigeration became mainstream, cutout details were added to larders and meat safes as a way to ventilate a cupboard without leaving it open. “If you shut food in a solid cupboard, it sweats and spoils,” Pritchard explains. “The doors were pierced to let air move through while keeping flies and vermin out.” As perishables have found a temperature-controlled home—and cupboards have been reserved for pantry essentials, small appliances, and serveware—cutouts have become more soulful than sensible. “It's a lovely example of a practical, historic detail finding new life in contemporary cabinetry,” says Sean Symington, an interior designer in London and the Cotswolds. Now, this fanciful fretwork’s comeback feels like a natural extension of today’s penchant for whimsy—be it color drenching, skirted furniture, or snailcore. And with the advent of AI-everything, cutouts are old-world antidotes, imbuing a cabinet with a sense of nostalgia, emphasis on craft, and cozy flair. “We have far surpassed the time when a kitchen was seen as mainly a utility space,” says Shana Sherwood of Sherwood Kypreos in Los Angeles. “People want a space that feels thoughtful. They don’t want a stock cabinet door.” Meta Coleman, a designer in Salt Lake City, recently used small, slightly contemporary dot cutouts to bridge the gap between her client’s midcentury home and the “warm, summer cottage feel” they craved inside. “The dots add a decorative element that can make it feel more like a furniture piece,” Coleman explains. “Meanwhile, the stiles and rails reference the midcentury elements of the home.” As for the cutouts’ design, there are some proven favorites, though designers encourage experimentation. Kathryn and Brandon Mulcahy—owners of Keystone Kitchens in Maryville, Tennessee—have seen an uptick in clusters of four shapes, ranging from dots to small crosses. “It looks nice and balanced that way and hearkens to cross designs, quatrefoil designs, or compass designs, which the human eye is used to seeing in other areas of architecture,” Kathryn explains. Feuer, the Tennessee-based designer, says you can never go wrong with a few strategically placed dots, though she’s a fan of outside-the-box ideas, too. She’s currently adding tulip-shaped cutouts to a girl’s bedroom and even toying with the possibility of a cowboy-hat motif for another space. If you can’t decide, Symington, the London- and Cotswold-based designer, suggests looking at other patterns in the space so it feels considered and part of the wider scheme. “The loveliest results come when the motif feels like a thread running through the home,” he says. “If you land on a little daisy, perhaps it echoes a block-printed fabric elsewhere in the room.” Feuer thinks cabinet cutouts are best suited in historic or traditional homes, but notes there might be some contemporary exceptions. “The great thing about them is the sky’s the limit,” she says. “You could try triangles or another shape to make them feel more modern.” Ambitious DIY’ers could try their luck with stencils and a jigsaw, but Symington recommends leaving the handiwork to the pros. “The structural integrity of the door is everything,” he explains. “It needs to be [done correctly] so the cutouts don’t compromise it or leave the doors feeling flimsy.” To ensure cutouts’ staying power, they need to be used sparingly, the pros stress. Though some designers also incorporate cutouts in mudrooms, laundry areas, and bedrooms, Feuer says repeating this detail in too many spaces is “overkill.” For a happy medium, Coleman, the Salt Lake City–based designer, recommends adding cutouts to upper cabinets, and leaving the lower ones bare, to create “an understated visual interest.” In another project, Sherwood, the Los Angeles–based designer, opted for thin slats, a barely-there take on the trend that paired nicely with ribbed-glass-fronted uppers. “You have to think what makes sense for this house within its own architectural context,” she shares. “But when you do it well and [the cutouts] make sense in the space, you can have them forever.”