The Tuscan Kitchen Trend That Deserves A Revival

When you close your eyes and picture the ideal home kitchen, what does it look like? Maybe it's a classic black-and-white design with checkerboard tiles on the floor. Or perhaps it's vintage, aqua-colored, and full of retro kitchen gadgets. Or how about a more modernist style with bright lights and stainless steel appliances?

If you grew up in the early 2000s, you might be imagining a kitchen style that was very popular during this time known as a Tuscan kitchen. Inspired by the Tuscany region of Italy (where else?), this type of kitchen features warm lighting, wood, wrought iron, and a playful approach to color. A typical Tuscan kitchen might have a huge center island, wooden cupboards with elaborate designs, a big oven, and, as Wayfair's YouTube channel suggests, an overall vibe that evokes the fast-casual dining establishment, Olive Garden. This style largely faded after the 2000s, but it has returned for a new generation. It's not hard to see why this style was all the rage at the turn of the millennium: It evokes a classic, rustic vibe; it's a design choice that can make a large kitchen feel open and inviting.

While not all the kitchen trends of 2026 are so great, the renaissance of Tuscan kitchens is one we can get behind, because they're returning with a modern twist. The kitchens people are installing today aren't exact replicas of the style that swept the suburbs in the early aughts. Updated Tuscan kitchens often replace the large, dark granite countertops of yore with smaller, brighter quartz ones. And while some wood is still essential to the aesthetic, intricate, ornate wood carvings have increasingly become a thing of the past. There's also a change in the color palette, a bigger focus on modern appliances, and overall a little bit more, well, subtlety.

For example, you might see an occasional piece of expressive pottery or a handful of copper pots hanging from the ceiling, but ideally there won't be so many homey elements that they clash or become muddled. All these design changes help bring a classic style into the future and make the return of Tuscan kitchens something to celebrate.