The early 20th century saw the birth of two design movements that changed the way we view our homes. Born in an era of industrialisation, Bauhaus and Art Deco styles both reject traditional clutter.
Design-wise, they love geometric precision, but their defining philosophies sit at opposite ends of the spectrum. In Bauhaus styles, kitchens should be designed with restraint, but Art Deco designers follow a historically Parisian flair for luxury.
To learn more about these two titans of design, stick with the UK’s number one Kitchen, Bedroom, Bathroom outlet.
What are Bauhaus kitchens?
In Bauhaus design, form always follows function.
Literally meaning ‘construction house’, Bauhaus principles strip back ornamentation in favour of radical efficiency. You can recognise a true Bauhaus kitchen by its stark, geometric purity: flat-front or very plain cabinetry and an absence of decorative handles or moulding.
Relying on the honesty of materials, the style champions industrial textures like tubular steel, glass, concrete, and unadorned wood, sometimes punctuated by bold blocks of primary colour.
It was this revolutionary approach to rationalism that made Bauhaus so influential. The movement grew out of the Staatliches Bauhaus, the German school founded in Weimar in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius.
Famously, the school’s ideals were tested in real domestic settings. The ‘Haus am Horn’ was a full model house built for the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition, designed to represent the home (and the kitchen, specifically) as a space that should be carefully planned and efficiency-led.
The Bauhaus was forced to close in 1933 under Nazi pressure, but its teachers and students carried its principles abroad. In 2026, Bauhaus is still a defining global reference point for modern architecture.
What are Art Deco kitchens?
If the Bauhaus kitchen is a study in restraint, Art Deco kitchens celebrate glamour.
You can recognise the visual language of Art Deco, with nods to the Roaring Twenties: high-gloss lacquered finishes and exotic woods, often accented with metallic touches such as brass, gold, or chrome handles.
Short for Arts Décoratifs, Art Deco takes an aggressively modern approach to linear symmetry and geometry. You’ll see pyramids, chevrons, stylised zigzags and other ornamental motifs on splashbacks. It’s structured but doesn’t shy away from luxury, very disparate to Bauhaus.
The iconic movement developed in France in the years after the First World War and reached a defining peak at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris.
The event gave the movement its name, and it’s still revered in 2026 for capturing a very specific mood: optimism about progress.
Side-by-side: the look and feel
Philosophically, Bauhaus and Art Deco can seem to speak the same language: both emerged in the early 20th century, favour strong geometry, and were considered ‘modern’ for their times.
But intent is where they diverge: Bauhaus kitchens are all about restraint, where form follows function and decoration is deliberately dialled back, whereas Art Deco prioritises the amplification of symmetry, stylised motifs and glamour.
Cabinetry and joinery
- Doors & cabinets: As we know, Bauhaus is all about stripping away ornamentation; it’s almost workmanlike, so you can expect features like flat, rectilinear door fronts and push-to-open mechanisms, or integrated J-pulls instead of hardware. Art Deco shares Bauhaus’s love of geometry, but it uses those same ingredients to perform luxury. These kitchens might make a door decorative, with symmetrical layouts, stylised geometric relief, and statement handles. Where Bauhaus is comfortable with restraint, Art Deco cabinets lean into high-gloss lacquered looks, chrome accents, and other deliberately expensive-looking material effects.
- Skirting, cornices & panelling: At the edges, Bauhaus designs try to make the architecture disappear into clean junctions. You’re more likely to see minimal or flush skirting, little to no cornice, and broad, plain planes that keep attention on proportion. Art Deco designs articulate edges with crisp, graphic profiles: stepped cornice lines, pronounced skirtings, and panelling, adding visual rhythm.
Hardware, fixtures & fittings
- Handles & knobs: Here’s where we start to see disparity emerge. Bauhaus hardware tends to feel like an extension of the cabinetry: hardware is a necessary evil that should be perfectly functional or entirely invisible. These kitchens favour handleless, pared-back, geometric cabinetry. When handles are used, they’re strictly utilitarian – simple tubular bars or geometric pulls made from industrial metals like brushed stainless steel or matte black. Taking the complete opposite approach, Art Deco treats kitchen hardware like jewellery: they’re made to be admired! You might see distinct geometric motifs, stepped edges, fan shapes, or hexagonal bars in polished finishes like chrome, polished nickel, or brass.
- Sinks & taps: In Bauhaus-adjacent kitchens, the priority with the sink and tap is hygiene. Stainless steel undermount sinks are common, and taps follow suit: high-arching mixers with lever controls or angular, L-shaped spouts that mimic factory piping. Art Deco kitchens refute this pure practicality. Taps are sculptural elements in their own right, so you might see angular, architectural spouts or cross-head handles with ‘Hot' and’ ‘Cold’ indices in cursive writing.
Materials & colours
- Bauhaus: Bauhaus concepts keep things straightforward, even in their colour palette. It’s honest, industrial, and leans towards controlled schemes where colour is used with intention. For this, monochrome, with flashes of primary colours as accents against calmer backdrops work. Material choices are also tied to hygiene: ultramarine-painted woodwork, light-toned tiles, and metalwork.
- Art Deco: Art Deco overlaps with Bauhaus in its embrace of clean geometry, and it can share some of the same ‘machine age’ ingredients – metallic finishes and manufactured materials. But Art Deco is far more interested in combining modern manufactured substances with richer, more luxurious natural materials: lacquer is a great example. Colour follows the same logic. High-contrast and high-impact, palettes are bolder, more theatrical, with jewel tones and strong light–dark pairings.
Layout, storage & display
- Bauhaus: Bauhaus kitchens are primarily workrooms – designed as efficient cooking spaces with a reduced footprint and a strong emphasis on integrated, built-in elements. In the same way, storage is treated as a tool for order: built-in cabinets, purpose-designed compartments and labelled storage containers are used to keep worktops clear. Display is generally minimised, and objects are not showcased to keep clutter to a minimum.
- Art Deco: For Art Deco, the kitchen is a stage. While geometrically disciplined in plan, they are far more willing to make the layout social. You might see a large kitchen island, a statement range cooker, breakfast bars, or seating areas that invite guests to linger. Storage in Art Deco is just as capable of being integrated, but it’s more likely to be expressed as part of the scheme through feature cabinetry or furniture-like elements. You might also see a glass-fronted cabinet or open shelving as a means of selective display.
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