Yeah, I’m pretty excited about it. That bedroom already has an extremely dark grey/slate accent wall with the other walls in a beige/taupe, so I don’t think it should be a hard sell with my husband. Plus because it’s a carriage house we have multiple skylights, large windows and vaulted ceilings in every room on the top floor, so I don’t any concerns about making the room feel smaller either.
My personal home design pet peeve is the ascendancy of grey. Grey, grey, grey in every single room.
The house I grew up in (built in '72), had marble floors in the foyer and a bathroom upstairs. It was hard, loud, slippery when wet, and very cold. I wouldn’t want it even if it was free! Although we had fun sliding on it in sock feet!
That only bothers me when someone calls it a warm color. Since when is grey warm? I love how the rules change when they’re trying to sell us on something different.
I have a feeling this is a very NYC-and-environs-specific complaint, but it’s insane how many homes were advertised as “2 bedrooms” when the second bedroom was really just a closet with the doors taken off and a crib shoved in it, no closet and no other entry point other than through Bedroom 1. Come on now! Call it a closet fit for a toddler, or the mystical “Junior Bedroom.” We gave up on Washington St. in Hoboken pretty quick once we realized almost every place we looked at had a faux closet-bedroom.
Some thoughts: Very dark cabinets do make a kitchen looked claustrophobic, unless it’s a large space to start with, then it’s OK.
Granite countertops are nice to work on and I think they look lovely. As noted earlier, I’m waiting for someone to start raising concerns about radon from the granite - then we’ll start seeing granite being ripped out of houses.
Glass tiles in backsplashes are trendy, but not so special when they started showing up in fast-food restrooms. They are different looking but how long until they go out of style?
Someone posted earlier about white appliances in a winter dominated climate. That’s a plot point in the novel Giants in the Earth. The very thoughtful husband spent good money whitewashing the interior of the 1880’s Dakota settler cabin, but when winter came, it drove the wife insane (sorry if that should be in a spoiler). I think that’s why you see lots of stained wood in northern climates like Minnesota, instead of white-painted trimwork.
One thing I dislike about HGTV is the use of sledgehammers to take down cabinets. Unscrew them from the wall and use them in the garage, or donate them to Habitat for Humanity or a Restore store. They’re just doing it for dramatic effect - much more interesting than watching someone being totally careful.
Obviously it’s all about selling and advertising to keep up with the latest trends. I like Nicole Curtis’ show Rehab Addict where she tries to restore houses to their original style, not necessarily using the latest stainless steel and granite.
I’m going to bump this old thread, because … well, I think the OP might be right at home in the hippie town I now live in. You see, hippies love things that are “natural”, “rustic”, “authentic”, and the like. That extends to the local housing stock. Think dirty 1940s/1950s kitchens (with the main bathroom directly off of it!), girt and gravel driveways (in an urban setting), “back to nature” landscaping, and the like. I’m not talking about cheap fixer-uppers, but what you would find for the average house price in the county - about $250K.
There’s even new housing developments marketed towards the hippie/green crowd that are intentionally designed to look weatherbeaten and disheveled. The attitude towards property maintenance here is one of “let the house return to Mother Earth, from which we stole it.” Its frustrating. I’m looking for something with a bit of polish – not necessarily “it’s got to have quartz countertops!”, but rather, something that’s clean, has a decent floorplan that doesn’t take its inspiration from 1850s farmhouses, has 8’ or taller ceilings, has a kitchen that was upgraded sometime in the 1990s or later, has a paved driveway, and which doesn’t look like a double wide. I’ve found that just doesn’t exist in this market, except at the very high end.
I lived in a Prairie 4-Square, which I hated with a passion, EXCEPT for the maple floors throughout, including the kitchen. Difficult to believe, every time I spotted another bird’s eye board, that maple was considered junk wood at the time the house was built.
Love the look of birds-eye maple. We replaced all our kitchen cabinetry with maple finished with a clear resin. The 4 pull-out drawers in the tall cabinet are fronted with birds-eye maple. If we could afford it, we’d have a lot more.
Wood floors eliminate carpet dust / dirt, lint, etc. I love em.
Those two I would write off to being easy to clean and looking cool as Hell when they are clean. The other two invoke a “meh” from me.
I have a tile floor in my kitchen and hate it. Every dish that anyone has ever dropped on it broke. Every single one. It’s cold and hard underfoot. The grout never looks clean. There are a couple of cracked tiles where the underfloor must have flexed.
Of course, I don’t think I’d trust wood. What happens when you drop an egg and it leaks into the little crack between the boards? I grew up with a vinyl kitchen floor, and honestly, I don’t think there’s a better kitchen surface than high-quality vinyl. I suppose I do like that I can drag chairs across the tile without worrying about scratching it.
I have a 2’x2’ square of granite counter-top next to the stove. I LOVE it. I can put hot pots on it. I can chill it and use it to roll out pastry. I got a tight-grained granite that doesn’t need to be sealed, and it stains a little, but I don’t actually care. I wouldn’t want granite for all the countertops, though, because it is so hard and unforgiving. I have formica, which is fine. If I re-do the kitchen, I’ll get Corian or some similar plastic surface. (except for the 2’x2’ square, which I will keep.) But several friends have drop-dead gorgeous granite counters, and I can’t say I dislike them.
My cabinets are painted wood. Not very stylish. But I love the cabinets, which were built into the house in 1959. They stay if we remodel. Maybe get a fresh coat of paint. If I were starting from scratch I’d do a natural light wood, like maple, or birch, or beech, or bamboo. (Yeah, not technically wood, but similar enough.)
When we bought the house the kitchen had all black appliances. As they die and we replace them, we’ve moved to white. It’s cheerier.
Although I don’t really understand why anyone would want that, it doesn’t really surprise me after seeing people spend hundreds of dollars on jeans with holes in them and hearing about startups in San Fransisco remodeling normal office space to look like grubby lofts. I wonder what’s next–cars that come with a permanent (but superficial) knock in the engine?
My understanding is that granite is naturally porous and the only reason it’s smooth in countertops is because of the sealants that are applied to it after installation. And that means you have to watch out to make sure you don’t use the wrong cleaning supplies or spill the wrong liquids or scratch the surface because these things can penetrate the sealant.
I’ve also heard that granite can crack due to heat but it has to be a pretty high temperature - approaching five hundred degrees. That’s higher than you would normally cook at but you can crank your cooking equipment up to high and reach it. If you were making something like blackened fish and moved the hot pan to the countertop, I think you could crack it.
There are different types of granite. We bought one that didn’t need to be sealed. (Although as mentioned above, it can stain.) And while I’m sure there’s some level of heat that could damage it, I have zero concerns about our oven producing those.
Of course, ours isn’t the most beautiful granite. And probably not the most sanitary, having tiny pores. I don’t put raw meat on it, and don’t worry about it. That’s the beauty of only having a small section be granite. We use it for the stuff granite is good for.
HGTV would be appalled with me. I’m a fan of the rustic look: butcherblock counters, weathered wood cabinets, white or black porcelain finish appliances, etc.
Granite is a sucker’s bet. You pay $$$$ obtaining it for a $$ return on the investment.
My LL put hardwood in the kitchen and I hate it because it’s a PITA to keep clean. Vinyl looks nice until it scars. Put me down for tiled floors, at least in the food prep area(s). I’ll concede hardwood or carpet in the kitchen where the probability of spills approximate that of the rest of the house.
Not a single mention of stainless steel countertops?
I’ve always thought that would be awesome. I imagine they’re expensive, though.
I have a friend who tried to get them. Maybe he succeeded. Expensive, sanitary, but not terribly attractive, as they are easy to dent or scratch. Must commercial kitchens have stainless.
Wow, that is beautiful.
I’m not knocking granite. It’s a good material for countertops. I’m just saying you need to use it right (which you appear to be aware of). But if somebody treats it like it’s indestructible, they could end up damaging it.
I am in the process of having new cabinets and countertops installed. I had “builder’s cabinets,” Formica (aka laminate) countertops and white appliances. I went with maple cabinets, Corian countertops (cinnamon color with maple, grey and white flecks) and stainless appliances. I’ve had the appliances for 2 weeks and while I love the functionality I loathe and despise the constant need for cleaning fingerprints. The stove has a black top which is impossible to keep clean. I wish I had bowed to my sister’s pressure for stainless appliances–I would have gone with white. I lovelovelove the cabinets and when everything is done I will lovelovelove it but for now I’m working with no countertops and no sink.
Missed the edit window. “I wish I HADN’T bowed to my sister’s pressure…” She told me white was so 1990s and I believed her…