Someone who grew up outside a beltway might be thinking of a farmhouse kitchen, or he might be thinking of his family's cottage kitchen, and she might be thinking of something Victorian. And you still want the up-to-date kitchen technology (goes without saying). We all instinctively know the material touchpoints of traditional - natural materials and finishes, a warm atmosphere, a kitchen as comfortable when piled with homework or scrubbed clean for entertaining - but the vernacular of traditional is very complex indeed.