Is stainless steel the avocado or harvest gold of the future?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I watch a lot of HGTV, and almost without exception, kitchen remodels include stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. When we did our kitchen 3 years ago, my husband wanted SS throughout, but I didn’t, partly because of the cost but mostly because I felt like the look would be dated a few years down the road.

What do you think? Will homebuyers 20 or 30 years hence walk into kitchens and say “What were they thinking??” or is stainless a classic, timeless look?

In case you’re wondering, we installed all almond appliances. Now there’s a classic.

2

One word: Boomerang.

It was hot in the 50’s, became passe, and came back. Boomerang is currently available in three different flavors of Formica™.

Methinks it’s similar to what my Dad said about ties. Hang onto them long enough, and they’ll be back in fashion. :wink:

3

At least stainless won’t fade the way the avocado and harvest gold paint did. And it’s been around for a long time without being the in thing.

4

The problem with stainless is that it shows every fingerprint.

I definitely think that the “stainless & granite” look will be ‘dating’ in the future.

5

Yes and no. I think it won’t be to everyone’s taste in a few years, but at least stainless steel isn’t a * color *. Pretty much anything goes with stainless steel just like that old standby, appliance white. Stainless might be a bit too modern, so if rustic comes back in, SS won’t cut it.

As for granite – I’d think that’s pretty classic. I’d imagine that after 20 or 30 years, a granite counter, if maintained, is going to look just as good as it did on day 1.

6

Despite being a child in the 50s, I have no idea what Boomerang is - could you enlighten me, please?

7

I agree that they are generally quality finishes.

However, as someone who was looking to buy a house over the last couple of years, I got sort of allergic to them.

The reason is that, on the resale market, retrofitting a kitchen with stainless & granite was often the “lipstick and mascara” applied to older houses in order to boost their price - often at the expense of quality.

8

I think that it will date the kitchen, but stainless steel appliances and granite* countertops will still look good and won’t lose the value as quickly as some finishes.

IMO, stainless steel backsplashes and countertops will be dated and hated in the future, just as the wood grain formica of the 70s is hideous now. I have a 70s kitchen with newer white appliances–I don’t like stainless steel appliances. We aren’t going to upgrade the cabinets and countertops until closer to selling time so we can catch whatever stupid wave is on the horizon.

*Except the some of the more interesting granites. Some granites I’ve seen on HGTV are fugly.

9

This is boomerang formica.

10

Ditto that, just about every “gut rehab” condo building in Chicago advertises stainless steel appliances, I don’t see how it could not become dated, at least around here. Same for exposed brick.

11

I suspect it will be a certain “look” that’s going to become dated … then again, I’m the person who recently tried to to buy harvest gold appliances. (I ended up going with white – the finishes closest to harvest gold were only available as custom options on the higher-end models, and I was committed to more of the mid-range.)

The other thing that cracked me up during my appliance search was when a friend pointed out that stainless steel appliances aren’t magnetic. This hadn’t occurred to me before – I could envision myself getting one, and then standing there slack-jawed in the kitchen wondering why my magnets were broken.

12

Hey, White Castles have been SS since the 20’s and no one says they look dated! :wink:

13

So, Boomerang Formica is back in style? Not in my house, it ain’t. That’s just scary…

14

Brushed metal has come, gone, come back and gone again on items such as TVs and stereos - why should any other design choice be different? People always think current designs are snappy and timeless, at the same time as thinking those from a decade or so before are frumpy, quaint or quirky. This will continue as long as there are humans.

15

Stainless appliances will likely be dated in a few years. They aren’t all that practical (smudges and fingerprints) and they’re damned expensive. The one exception to the color rule seems to be white. Throughout all of the appliance “eras”, white has been the one constant.

16

Even then, sometimes white looks minimalist, streamlined and sexy, other times it looks clinical or industrial and inhuman. And of course the shape of things changes even if the colour doesn’t - fridges in particular - sometimes rounded is fashionable, sometimes angular looks best.

17

Of course - how is this even a question? Stainless steel is tremendously faddish right now, so it’s only natural that that’ll end someday, and thus look horribly, horribly dated.

18

I hate the stainless steel look and its even more insidious cousin, the “fake silver-gray plastic look.”

The reason: it clashes with wood. At least the wood-grain stuff from the 70s fit in with all the wooden furniture that people have in their houses. It’s hard for me to find any appliance that looks good with all the wooden stuff that I have, which is why I tend to try to find vintage electronics with woodgrain finishes. If only there were modern, high-quality television that had wood trim around them - alas, they all come in silver-gray or black. I’ve seriously considering buying a bunch of veneer and just doing the job myself.

19

Actually, the above is basically only true of the fake silver-gray plastic look - actual stainless steel looks good with wood.

20

The Stainless Steel “look” has been, and will be a design motive. What’s next? Look for mixed finishes, stainless steel panels in low contact areas, with finishes on high contact areas (knobs, handles, etc) that are more “grime/fingerprint” friendly.

Current movement is towards organic coulouring in cars, fashion and decorating. Not the Avacado and Burnt orange of the seventies, but tauped greens and browns, which will look new for a while, but become dated after awhile.

One thing just over the horizon is replacable panels (on appliances) that can be changed to reflect different colour schemes in kitchens. These are already available on some higher end GE appliances.

Synthetics (For counter tops) like Corian are also becoming popular alternatives to granite, which can be very expensive, especially in “refits”. Corian is not cheap (or its competitors), but it offers a huige range of colours and finishes, including very realistic looking stone.

The late 90’s/early millenium “Smart” appliance movement is currently dead in the ditch. No one wants to be reminded by their fridge to buy more milk, let alone have the fridge do it for them. On the other hand, fridges that “learn” their owners use patterns and set their auto defrost cycles to achieve maximum energy eficiency are here. Look for you next smart appliances to use their “intellegence” to maximise their energy efficiency.

Long over the horizon (10 yrs plus) are surfaces that utilize nano technology to “heal” inor scratches (when wiped with a propritory solution from the manuafacture. This technmology also offers the opportunity to change colours when desired, and is seen by designers as a holy grail. (Buy our fridge made to work effieicntly for 35 yrs (wow!) and have it modifiable to fit current design trends over its lifetime…

I have no cites for this but worked in high end aplliance/kitchen sales for several yrs, and attended many trade shows, met with industry reps, designers and engineers, etc over that time.

Regards
FML