We are replacing our kitchen appliances. We plan to buy stainless steel. We can absolutely get the best price and highest rated appliances by picking each piece from all choices. My wife insists that they all need to be from the same manufacturer so that they match. I maintain that the will all be stainless steel, therefore they will match, and while there might be a slight difference in handle appearance this is of no consequence. My theory is that the “same manufacturer” rule is ancient, and based on the days of avocado and harvest gold, when different manufacturers would have colors that MIGHT clash. Anyway, in addition to your opinion, pointing me to any somewhat authoritative sites would be appreciated. And that is even if you agree with her. I am not against admitting I am wrong, if I am.
Screw that. Buy the best choice for each. I used to build high-end custom homes, and we used one brand for the dishwasher, another for the stove, oven & microwave, and a third brand for the refrigerator.
Stainless steel finishes are not all exactly the same although will more or less match without a close look. Different manufacturers do have different styles.
This does not really boil down to “Will they match?” but rather “My wife cares that they match and I do not.” I would be OK with using different brands for fridge, dishwasher, ovens, and cooktop, if I felt that I couldn’t get exactly what I wanted by using all of one brand. But for some people, having a certain look when they walk into the kitchen is more important than specific features.
This isn’t a matter of right and wrong and regardless of what opinions get posted on this board, your wife wants what she wants. Rather than negotiating in the abstract I would suggest putting together a list of the features that you want in each appliance and then pick out a couple of options that hit your price goal, and then compare it to what you would get if you got a single brand instead. Then you and your wife looks at the concrete pros and cons.
If pricing is your bigger concern, then check into a package deal–if you buy everything from one place you may get a much better deal than you expect, even if you buy one brand. We just bought a new refrigerator a couple of months ago and the dealer was doing these kinds of packages although we didn’t need anything else.
And last, spending an extra couple hundred dollars might be worth the investment in marital harmony. YMMV.
^^^^^ Nice user-name/post combo!
Good point about the package deal. I did a sort of hybrid: got two items, same manufacturer, from one dealer because it was a great deal. But got my other items elsewhere from different dealers and different manufacturers. They are all “bisque” and all match in color and handle style.
That’s going to be the problem. Just go to the showroom and look at all the different brands of stainless steel fridges or stoves and you’ll see the difference. On top of that a lot of manufacturers are moving away from regular stainless steel to a different type that doesn’t pick up fingerprints. When you put those two things next to each other one would look much darker, less shiny and not really like SS anymore.
OTOH, if you stay loyal to one brand you might find out in a few years that it’s a crappy brand and up replacing your fridge, oven and dishwasher all within 2 years of each other. That might not happen if you bought a Bosch dishwasher, GE oven and LG fridge.
Also, can you see everything at once? In my house, from my living room you can see all the major kitchen appliances, but not at once. If you stand in the kitchen, you can see them, but you’re close enough to them that you wouldn’t really be able to compare them since you sort of have to back up to do that. Besides you’ll get used to them and most of your friends aren’t going to talk about the subtle differences in the color of your SS appliances behind your back.
With some of the appliances like the refrigerator and dishwasher, you can put on a false front to match your cabinets. (And the refrigerator is the biggest thing in the room anyhow.) So that will help everything to blend.
Do NOT buy all of one brand, unless those models are all highly rated. You may be able to find top rated appliances under one brand name, but it’s unlikely. Then you could be stuck with a great fridge and stove, and a dishwasher that can’t wipe its own ass. Do your homework, point out the differences to your spouse and try to convince her of the wisdom of doing it your way.
Concerning matching: We did see some fingerprint resistance things that looked like they had some dark coating on them. All the rest looked very stainless steely to me. Even the handles looked similar.
We have panels currently, but are going to stainless. Even with the panels the handles would still be different.
I’ve been using stainless appliances for a decade, and I’ve never had a problem with fingerprints. The brushed front that most manufacturers make doesn’t really show them, in my experience.
We’ve bought our appliances piecemeal and I can attest that I have never found it problematic that they don’t match precisely. I’m not all that matchy-matchy overall so this may be why it doesn’t bother me. (I almost never wear matching necklaces and earrings, for example. bleh!)
Also I have coordinating stainless steel items in the kitchen and it certainly doesn’t matter if they match — like the toaster oven, paper towel holder, coffee pot, KitchenAid mixer. Actually a lot of it is a mix of SS and black, so that’s my theme and I’m sticking to it! 
Dude! You are going to argue with your wife about kitchen appliances? You are going to be wrong in her opinion and will hear about it until (1) you replace the appliances in the future, or (2) divorce. Actually I’m wrong. Neither 1 or 2 will stop the subject from being brought up again and again.
I suggest that you let your wife pick out the appliances but reserve veto power in case she does something really wrong like wanting to buy a gas stove when you don’t have gas.
Also keep in mind that you do not have to buy a living room set or a bedroom set. It is perfectly alright to choose individual pieces. The idea that everything should match exactly is a marketing technique used to take advantage of people who lack confidence in their own judgement.
Concerning disagreeing with my wife. Right, stupid and futile, and I usually don’t. This just seems so wrong.
Philosophy question du jour: If I say something and my wife doesn’t hear it, am I still wrong?
It’s my understanding that from your wife’s frame of reference, all of your opinions are both right and wrong until she hears them.
Then they are wrong.
This is basic quantum matrimony.
One question. Who does most of the cooking in your family? Obviously whoever does should have more of a say as to which appliances (particularly the range/stove/cooktop/oven) are chosen. Some of the high-end appliance stores are set up with working kitchens so that you can actually use the appliances.
We replaced with stainless appliances a couple years ago and didn’t even think about trying to match. We ended up with dishwasher, fridge, and gas range all one brand and the micro was another. We didn’t even think about stuff matching and certainly considered a mix of many other brands. I mean really, how different can the handle styles be as long as they’re all the same color? Just bring your wife into a showroom and start looking at stuff. My guess is she’ll realize there really isn’t that much variation in styles across brands.
Why are you replacing ALL of you appliances? Is it for aesthetics? Or is it because all of your appliances are in the crapper? Because if it’s the former, it seems logical to me that you’d buy all the same brand.
It’s true, you could buy different brands and have a pretty close match. Close enough that most people wouldn’t notice. But the thing is, your wife would. And what seems unnoticeable to others can be blindingly obvious to her. (We’re all like that.)
Anyway, you know what they say “Happy wife, happy life.”
I’ve been accused by my wife of being a nay-sayer and always finding problems with her furniture and decorating plans. So when she wanted to buy a new dining room table that was all but too large for the room, I just mentioned that it would be a tight fit. She bought it anyway. After about a week of squeezing between the wall and table, she said “Why didn’t you stop me from buy this table?” I replied something like “Every time I’ve stopped you from doing something similar, you’ve complained about it. Lesson learned!”
Of course I was ‘wrong’ for saying that. 
So a few months ago she had some rooms painted a color that I thought was too dark. I made my opinion known but didn’t stop her. Now she wants to repaint those walls, but didn’t blame me this time. If we stay married for another 36 years, I might have her trained. Probably not.
Is there really that much difference in the performance and features of appliances of the same price point? I’ve never really shopped for them.
In large surfaces as, in music, a clearly intentional interval is less jarring than an imperfect mix. If your wife won’t go with different but complementary styles, I recommend going for perfection. And getting a mix of matching surfaces won’t solve the mismatch in handles and trim.
I really really liked the Shroedinger’s bitch response.
The icemaker died. The oven has always been a piece of crap.
It is all 17 years old. So getting all new seems reasonable.
My wife does 95% of the baking. We each do about the same amount of other meal preparation, so it is not like I am an unconcerned bystander. Besides, I would love to have a gas cooktop (yes, we have gas heat) but my wife says no for aesthetic reasons and I have never even hinted that I would like to change. I do not think that I am generally unreasonable.
Hey, are any ovens really great for baking (whatever that might mean)?