Host in Style: The Kitchen Trends Keeping Us Entertaining at Home
By February, most of us have shaken off the post-Christmas hibernation and started craving company again. A 2023 YouGov study found that 65% of adults were hosting at home more than they had before the pandemic — and I'd guess that number has only grown since. Almost all of that hosting happens in one room: the kitchen.
Kitchens have changed enormously even within my working life. Once purely functional, they're now where people gather, relax, and — almost as an afterthought — cook. That shift is exactly why I love designing them: they're the hardest-working room in the house, and getting the layout, storage and mood right is a genuinely satisfying puzzle.
Tim Eve, owner of Stonemill Kitchens in Tiptree, has noticed the same shift in his own clients: "We're definitely seeing more clients plan their kitchens with hosting in mind. It might be as small as a champagne cooler in the island worktop, or as considered as an appliance cupboard to hide the toaster and coffee machine, keeping surfaces clear."
A few features are showing up again and again in entertaining-led kitchens: a pantry or prep kitchen tucked out of sight, so the main kitchen stays calm while the real chaos happens behind a door; social seating, from upholstered banquettes to a couple of armchairs, so the kitchen becomes somewhere to linger rather than a room the host disappears into; and softer textures — rugs, lamps, layered textiles — which do double duty, making the space feel more like a reception room while genuinely improving the acoustics of what's usually the hardest-surfaced room in the house.
None of this requires a full renovation. Companies offering replacement door and drawer fronts — Brentwood-based Plyfronts, for instance, who make birch plywood fronts to fit IKEA and Howdens cabinetry — can transform a tired kitchen for a fraction of the cost of a refit, especially paired with a fresh coat of paint.
But the honest truth is that the best evenings were never really about the kitchen. You can spend hours getting the cabinetry right, and your guests will still remember the conversation, not the joinery. Get the lighting warm, open the door, and trust the company to do the rest.
If your own kitchen isn't quite pulling its weight yet, [How We Work] walks through how a project like this typically starts.
This piece originally appeared in Alicia's monthly interior design column for Essex Life, February 2026.
Alicia Mellish leads Studio Forty Seven, an interior design studio working across Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk.