Natural Earthy Kitchens for Classic and Modern Homes

Tuesday, 11th November 10:40am 2025

“Happy place, happy place, Turf Moor.”

We all remember former I’m a Celebrity winner Jordan North’s iconic happy place. Ask many, however, and you’ll discover that natural settings, not football stadiums, are the go-to happy place for human minds. Hence, creating a natural earthy kitchen is a wonderful way to make your home a happy place.

The issue for many homeowners, though, is one question: “How do I create an earthy kitchen?” And they’re totally justified; designing a natural earthy kitchen isn’t as in intuitive as it seems at first glance. For instance, earthy colours reach well beyond green – this Bloomsbury range being a prime example.

Fortunately, at Masterclass Kitchens, our seasoned experts routinely create stunning earthy kitchens for both classic and modern homes, and in today’s article, we’re revealing their best tips. So, read on for a concise guide into creating natural earthy kitchens for both minimalist and maximalist tastes.

Why Get a Natural Earthy Kitchen?

Separated from our once-primal routes – the patient pace of hunting, foraging and smelling the roses – many of us now spend our days bombarded with to-do lists and overstimulated by algorithms. And while natural earthy kitchens can’t change your entire world, they can turn your patch of it into a haven.

You see, hacking our brain chemistry, but this time in a good way, earthy kitchens provide practical spaces with analogue functions. They align with nature and provide tranquillity. How? By harnessing natural colours and furnishings, while facilitating community and connection. They unfrazzle our brains.

So, what are they? Green cabinets? They can include them – like this Hardwick New Forest range – but green isn’t essential. After all, nature comes in lots of pleasing colours. What’s more important is how they’re configured – the family storage and social features that ground and connect us.

The Principles of Natural Earthy Kitchen Design

How do you go about making a classic or modern earthy kitchen? Before you decide which look aligns best with your home, it’s useful to understand the principles that underpin natural earthy kitchens in general, the first being the need to bleed the lines between indoors and the natural world.

Science has proven that biophilic design calms those who use it. So, indoor plants are key, as showcased in the above Hawksmoor range. The herbs positioned in task areas naturalise the cooking experience. Likewise, large windows, as displayed alongside our Hatfield Willow range, amplify the effect, letting in plenty of natural light, which complements all earthy kitchens.

While a nature-inspired look is paramount for a natural earthy kitchen, however, few designers also focus on family and community connections, which is a mistake. Seating against a table or island, for instance, is critical because it encourages our natural urge to relax as a group. If you want to create an effective earthy kitchen then it’s essential to consider awakening the primal senses in multiple ways.

Designing a Modern Earthy Kitchen

Once you understand the foundations of earthy kitchens, you can more effectively apply them to your own home, whether it’s modern of traditional. Even so, earthy modern kitchens, like this H-Line Sutton range, differ subtly from more classic earthy kitchens, as you’ll discover in this section.

Note that while it may harbour factors that can apply to both modern and classic kitchens – like its ochre, clay and petal-pink scheme – some of its design features only make sense in a modern setting. What you’ll find is that these anomalies, in many ways, overlap with Scandi design.

Layouts

One major characteristic of modern earthy kitchen design is its open-plan layout. Indeed, minimalism is often baked into the floorplan. This isn’t uniquely modern but considering it can greatly enhance your outcome.

Cabinets

Harkening more closely to a ravine or cave, these kitchens also tend to have clean lines – perhaps a handleless kitchen style – and lean into the minimalist aspects of modern kitchen design. Unique storage features like our MagnaSpace larders and Bar Dressers can help you maintain clear worktops.

Colour Schemes

As for the cabinet colours, using wood, clay, terracotta and stone as inspiration trumps foliage greens in modern earthy kitchens. That said, you can inject soft pops of colour with pastels if you want more charisma than brown and greys allow.

Dusty Pink, as shown in this Amalfi range with Tuscan Walnut handles is particularly striking for earthy modern kitchens. As is our brand-new Pumpkin Spice colour, presented here on a Bloomsbury Bar Dresser, which you’re certain to use while entertaining during cosy autumn and winter nights at home.

Accessories

On accessories, aim for low-maintenance, “chunky” items. Simplicity is key. Take, for example, our new wooden handles (also pictured). Presented in both Tuscan Walnut and Blonde Oak, they provide the perfect match for decorative clay works, dried wheat sheaves and woven items.

Designing a Traditional Earthy Kitchen

When many people consider earthy kitchens, their minds drift to traditional aesthetics – a more maximalist design: Victorian cabinets, deep forest inspiration and heady warmth. Movie director Nancy Meyers is a masterful orchestrator of this look, elevating texture and comfort to an art.

As you can see in this Hardwick Olive and Biscuit range, which provides an ideal example, such kitchens exist with a considerably different set of rules to their more modern counterparts.

Layouts

Less cavernous than modern earthy kitchens, traditional ones more closely resemble woodland backdrops, requiring more layers and nooks. Don’t worry if your kitchen is open concept, though. Rustic metals, woods, plants, wicker elements and earth-tone vases can create asymmetry to fracture your space.

Cabinets

Five-piece wood doors are necessary to distinguish your natural earthy kitchen as a traditional variant. It’s doesn’t matter whether you opt for traditional Shaker doors, or classic, beaded ones. Either way, combine them with a Belfast sink and the result evokes farmhouse nostalgia.

Colour Schemes

Remember the advice to avoid greens in favour of stones and clays when creating a modern earthy kitchen? Do the opposite if you want to be traditional. Think Olive, Forest Green and Biscuit – a rich collage of vivid and browner greens, as shown in this Hawksmoor range.

Sporting a natural, cosy palette, it blends deep green cabinets with leafy plants and wooden utensils, used here as decoration. Apply taupe wall paint with exposed stone and you get a cosy earthy kitchen worthy of a cottage in the woods.

Accessories

Layers are everything in a maximalist earthy kitchen. Consider this Ashbourne set. Grouping multiple wooden chopping boards with plants, warm brass and tasteful splashes of green, it’s become a relaxing sanctuary, reminiscent of the most wholesome yet stylish “coastal grandma.”

Time-worn wood is central in executing this maximalist earthy kitchen, but you don’t have to incorporate an excess of chopping boards. Rather, your additions could include wicker baskets, alpaca-wool rugs or an assortment of hanging copper pots. Simply create a sensory experience that uses natural aspects to change your state of being.

Let Us Design Your Earthy Kitchen

Need more help creating a specific earthy kitchen in your home? Request our Masterclass Kitchens brochures as digital downloads or luxury coffee table catalogues. They cover all the inspiration you’ll need. Or, if you’re ready to start renovating, why not book a meeting with one of our expert designers?

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