#10 Stylish Kitchens with Stainless Steel Countertops

An interesting trend creeping into kitchen design lately is home kitchens that look a lot like commercial kitchens. Even if you're not ready to embrace the full-on restaurant look, you can inject a little bit of that industrial feel into your own space with stainless steel countertops.

Stainless steel countertops (as I discovered when putting together this post) are surprisingly versatile. They're perfect in a sleek, modern space, but can also add a little edge to a kitchen with more traditional styling. And if you're having trouble going all the way with one material, they also play nice with wood (images 8) and concrete (image 2) countertops.

The best thing about stainless steel countertops, though, has got to be their durability and ease of maintenance. (There's a reason they use them in restaurant kitchens.) They're easy to clean, heat resistant, and last practically forever. You can read more about stainless countertops here.

TOP ROW:

1. Subway tiles read traditional, but stainless counters give this luxe kitchen a modern edge. House Beautiful via Interior Canvas .

2. The sleekness of stainless contrast with the warmth of concrete in this striking kitchen from Country Style Australia (via Dustjacket Attic ).

3. Stainless steel paired with blonde wood cabinets in a kitchen from 79 Ideas .

4. Warm wood and steel make a lovely contrast. From Bo Bedre .

5. Steel counters below and steel shelves above, from Emmas Designblogg.

BOTTOM ROW:

6. Stainless countertops in a sleek modern kitchen from Domino .

7. Stainless steel countertops in a spacious loft spotted on Design Sponge .

8. Stainless shows its versatility — here, it's perfect in a rustic kitchen with plywood countertops, from Residence .

9. Here's an interesting solution. Since water can damage wooden countertops, the designer of this Swedish kitchen used stainless only around the sink area. The contrast between cool metals and warm woods is a nice one. From Made in Persbo .

10. Grey walls and a gold chandelier do a good job of dressing up stainless in this space, spotted on The Decorista.