Stoves come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Modern stoves have come a long way from the days when the only method people had to cook was by suspending food over an open flame or attempting to cook it on a flame-heated piece of stone. Once the wood stove was invented, modern stoves took off! Certainly, there are still some people who use wood stoves to this day, for cooking and heating their homes. However, the most common place stoves are natural gas and electric stove and oven combination units. Designers have worked tirelessly for decades to figure out how to create modern stoves that are fun to use and beautiful to look at.

Knowing that there are technologically advanced stoves available, why would anyone choose to use a wood burning stove? The main reason people choose wood stoves for cooking and heating is the money they save doing so. Wood is cheap and readily available. It costs much less to heat a home and cook on a wood-burning stove than it does to pay for the electricity or natural gas needed to run one of the more modern stoves.

When most readers read the words “modern stoves,” they think of something that appears to belong in a clean or sterile hospital room. This is in large part because the modern art and decor movement places a lot of emphasis on clean lines and a lack of decorative cues. In a small, modern kitchen space, this lack of decor can help the space appear larger than it already is. In a larger space, the lack of decor prevents the space from feeling cluttered.

Today, modern wood burning stoves are used primarily for heating and an electric stove is used for cooking. If you are forced to use an electric or natural gas stove in a small kitchen space, you should consider breaking the unit. Instead of choosing a modern stove and oven combination, look for countertop stoves and wall ovens. These make more use of the space you have available and bypass your current design rather than force you to do so.

As for color, almost any color will work in a modern kitchen. Modern art tends toward bold, contrasting colors, so your modern stove color should blend in completely with the rest of your kitchen or stand out in stark contrast to the surrounding cabinets and counters. If you are concerned about the small space in your kitchen, the matching color will help make the space appear larger.

The most important elements of many modern stoves are whether or not you like the way they look and whether or not you will enjoy cooking with them. Choose a unit that will make you happy and expand your small kitchen space! You will be using your modern stove a lot, shouldn’t you like it?