I’m a kitchen expert – these are the 7 kitchen trends I expect to see in 2025

2025 is almost upon us and as a kitchen expert, I’m excited to see what kitchen trends we can expect to see in the new year.

In 2024, many different appliance trends and design choices gained serious attention and popularity. AI took over the kitchen and found its way into our ovens and fridges, while air fryers still held onto its title of the world’s most favourite appliance, with the emergence of stackable air fryers and air fryer inserts.

But what’s coming in 2025? These are the seven kitchen trends I’m predicting for 2025.

1. Shrinking air fryers

The best air fryers have been around for years now and almost every household has one in their kitchen, thanks to their time, space and energy saving features. In 2024, bigger was better with air fryers, with brands like Ninja, Tower, Tefal and Instant Pot having huge successes in 2024 with its redesigns and extended colourways. For example, the Ninja DoubleStack Air Fryer became the most popular air fryer this year, with its vertical design that stacked two baskets atop one another.

While bigger might be better for some, the more the capacity, the bigger the air fryer will be, and they can take up a lot of space in your kitchen – something that air fryers had originally resolved. Many celebrity chefs have also come out to say that air fryers don’t need to be that big or have that many features, so I think we might be seeing smaller and more compact air fryers in 2025.

2. Goodbye gas, hello induction

As an induction hob convert, I hope to see more people introducing induction hobs to their kitchens in 2025. While induction hob installation can be a bit of an ordeal, they completely change the way you cook, offering even cooking and coverage, quicker heat-up time and lower energy prices – plus you won’t have to worry about accidentally leaving the gas on!

For those who don’t want to replace their entire hob unit, brands like Tefal and Smeg have launched mini portable induction hobs that have proven very popular this year, so I could see more homeowners making the swap from a gas hob to an induction one for safety, convenience and versatility.

3. Smart food waste and storage

In the UK alone, 9.5 million tonnes of food is wasted in a year, with over a third of all food produced globally going to waste. In an effort to reduce food waste and be more environmentally friendly with the food that does get thrown away, I’d like to see more smart food waste and storage options in 2025.

One key area that could be looked into is introducing smart waste bins that recycle your food in a compact and less odorous way. The Sage FoodCycler is a great example of this, a mechanised composting device that dries and grinds food waste into EcoChip which can either be used in your garden or be recycled. Tracking stickers like the Ovie LightTags – tags that sit on leftover containers and monitor freshness – could also become popular in 2025 as a way to cut down the amount of food we throw away.

4. Better AI cameras in appliances

As mentioned above, AI has been a new addition to kitchens this year, especially within the best ovens and the best fridges. In 2025, I think AI is going to be even more prominent and widely used, mainly with improvements and advancements to its AI cameras.

Some AI cameras in fridges can recognise ingredients and offer recipe suggestions, while the ones in ovens will track food progress, but I think brands will take this a step further next year by adding more cooking functionalities. Particularly with ovens, the AI cameras and features could be upgraded to automatically adjust timings and temperatures so you can cook completely hands-free with your appliance taking care of everything for you.

5. The rise of matcha machines

Coffee machines might be on the outs if the predicted coffee trends of 2025 is anything to go by. Decaf coffee is more in demand now, but it’s matcha that’s really waging a war with coffee. Making matcha is relatively simple, but it does require a more manual brewing process than coffee, especially if you use a bean-to-cup or pod coffee machine.

I’d be interested to see if matcha machines could gain momentum. There is one model on the market called the Cuzen Electric Matcha Machine which has received mixed reviews so far. I’d like to see if high-end brands will look into matcha machines or if they’ll offer other products like capsules or whisks to enhance the matcha experience.

6. Smart herb gardens

With more of a focus on reducing food waste and growing your own food at home, I think there could be a rise in smart herb gardens. The way smart gardens work is by connecting the ‘pot’ of the plants to an app which will send you alerts on when to refill the water and harvest herbs – so if you’re a plant killer like me, it’s a pretty foolproof way of growing food and plants. There are a few on the market already, including Click & Grow and LG Tiiun but they can be on the pricier side so I’d be interested to see if there are any developments in 2025.

7. Natural colours, materials and textures

Kitchen design trends tend to flip-flop year on year. Sometimes it’s all about bright colours and bold patterns, while in other years, there’s more of a neutral, laidback approach. The latter is what I expect to happen in 2025. The 2025 Pantone Colour of the Year is mocha mousse, a dark brown colour, and I predict we’ll be seeing a lot of natural colours, materials and textures around the kitchen, inspired by this. I’ve already been spotting this trend start to gain momentum, including wooden countertops and brown cabinets, as well as appliances like KitchenAid’s stand mixer in evergreen with a wooden bowl.