Home renovation and design website Houzz has found homeowners are dedicating more space to their kitchen during renovations.

Kitchen by Bradley Van Der Straeten

As part of its 2024 UK Houzz Kitchen Trends Study, it found three in five homeowners are making their kitchens bigger (up 6% from 2023).

A quarter of homeowners increased the total size of the room by more than half of the original size (25%).

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The survey of nearly 500 respondents found two in five homeowners make their kitchen more open to nearby rooms as part of their renovations (45%) and a third opt for a completely open-plan design with no wall separations (33%).

In addition, it discovered kitchens are becoming more open to the outdoors (46%), most often via a set of double doors or a row of doors (39%).

“Creating a bigger and more open kitchen appeals to homeowners for both functional and aesthetic reasons, but doing so may impact the project’s overall budget, requiring more technical changes,” said Marine Sargsyan, Houzz staff economist.

“We’re seeing homeowners make significant structural updates during their kitchen renovations, such as layout or location changes, which require the expertise of professionals.”

Among renovating homeowners, 71% reconfigure the kitchen’s layout and 62% upgrade plumbing, electrical or heating systems.

The share of renovating homeowners making other structural changes like modifying kitchen walls (43%) and moving the kitchen’s location (24%) both grew year on year (up 4% and 2%, respectively).

Homeowners overwhelmingly turn to home professionals for assistance with these more technical projects.

In fact, more than 9 in 10 homeowners rely on professional help during a kitchen renovation (93%).

Tradespeople are the professionals most commonly hired for kitchen renovations (68%), followed by kitchen fitters and designers (51% and 50%, respectively).

Hiring home builders for kitchen renovations rose 9% during 2023 (40% compared to 31% the previous year).

Along with growing substantial structural changes to the kitchen, the median spend on kitchen renovations is up 8% from the previous year to £13,000.

For large kitchens, measuring 100sqft or more, the median spend is £15,000 and for smaller kitchens this is £9,000.

Despite these rising costs, homeowners are saving up for these projects, with 34% of renovating homeowners citing having financial means as a key motivator for starting their kitchen update, up 4% year-on-year.

The 2024 UK Houzz Kitchen Trends Study is a report of homeowners who are in the midst of, are planning or recently completed a kitchen renovation.

The online survey was fielded to Houzz UK users in November-December 2023.