Larger stoves are becoming increasingly popular and the restaurant sized six-burner with one or two ovens is a common choice in new homes. Ovens can be placed over, under, built-in or exposed. Convection ovens, using an internal fan to circulate air to maintain a uniform temperature in all parts of the oven are in demand. The microwave is treated as a separate appliance and now seldom found over the stove. With today's concern for traffic patterns in the kitchen, a popular location for the microwave is often under a counter, close to the refrigerator and between the refrigerator and the table.
Colors are often neutral to allow opportunity to add personal color accents.
The look includes natural materials as much as the budget allows. People are returning to real wood floors because they see that the laminate doesn't quite look like real wood. We just did a home with maple floors, maple cabinets, granite counters and stainless steel appliances. You can keep it simple in terms of color and texture and leave out fussy details with the use of high quality materials. Even something as formerly unimportant as the backsplash comes to light in the planning process.