Kitchen Appliances You’ll Be Proud to Leave Out on the Counter

Our favorites double as decor.

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As the clunky workhorses of the cookware family, appliances have historically appeared drab and dull. But with new, aesthetically driven products on the market, that’s about to change. Gone are the days when entertaining meant hiding your unsightly appliances under the sink or shoving them into a corner of your tiny kitchen. Instead, with options as stylish as they are functional, you’ll want to make permanent space on your countertop to show them off for the world to see. Read on for our favorite design-forward appliances to brighten up your kitchen.   

If you lived on a futuristic UFO, this is what your espresso machine would look like. Sleek and smooth, it grinds your coffee beans with a conical burr grinder (read: fancy) and has a touch screen, allowing you to adjust temperature, brewing pressure, espresso output, and more. 

Say goodbye to bulk La Croix orders. Made from powder-coated stainless steel, Aarke’s water carbonator looks like it belongs in a science lab rather than on your kitchen island. Just twist on the bottle, press a button…and voilà! Endless bubbles at your fingertips. 

Often thought to be the eyesore of your culinary repertoire, a design-forward microwave is hard to come by. This one from Café Appliances is a game changer. It comes in multiple base and hardware options so you can customize it to your space and heat up dinner in a flash. 

Straight out of The Jetsons, just the look of Smeg’s retro-inspired coffee machine will energize you on a sleepy morning. With a convenient auto-start feature, your first cup will be waiting for you whenever you’re ready to kick-start the day. 

From morning smoothies to work-from-home midday salad dressings, a blender should be able to do it all. Zwilling’s streamlined design comes with a travel cup and lid so you can take your concoction on the go without skipping a beat. 

If the epitome of Danish design could be consolidated into one item, it might just be the Emma toaster. Clean lines and mixed materials set it apart while offering high-quality features like defrosting and browning controls.

An electric kettle has never looked chicer. Stagg’s sculptural design resembles an art piece rather than an appliance, so leaving it out will feel more like a stroke of luck than an accident. 

Say goodbye to burning bread. With steam technology, temperature regulation, and five modes depending on your toasting needs, the Balmuda toaster has features you never even knew you needed. Welcome to the future.

Domino’s editors independently curate every product on our site, because we’re just as obsessed with a great deal and an under-the-radar discovery as you are. Items you purchase may earn us an affiliate commission.

Julia Stevens

Contributing Editor

Julia Stevens is a Domino contributing editor. Basically, she’s a professional online shopper. She started at Domino as an intern and spent almost seven years in the style department curating products for our gift guides, trend roundups, and product reviews and on set styling the beautiful homes we get to share. Off hours, you can find her scouting New York’s newest design shops and restyling her shelves

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