In the 80’s it was laminate counters and black appliances. In the 90’s it was Corian and white. Now it’s granite and stainless that’s all the rage. What will come next?
Concrete. At least the home shows I’ve seen seem to focus on concrete countertops.
Yep concrete and hidden appliances are the newest of the new. I’ve seen some amazing ornate concrete countertops.
See here.
Whoa those are nice.
Glass countertops and appliances.
That’s a good question. We re-did our kitchen 5 years ago. I know it was past its hey-day, but we used formica. We got one with a deep, rich solid color that looks great with the cabinets and wall paint.
Also, wood/butcher’s block is nice. I don’t know if you’d use it for an entire counter, but I could think of worse things.
People are using concrete now, but I think that’s really going to be laughed at one day.
Right, looking at those photos, the concrete stuff started becoming dated after about 15 seconds. It is almost like they re-animated Frank Lloyd Wright’s corpse to consult on current designs and that is never a good thing. The man screwed up America and even some of the rest of the world for decades and there is no reason to get that whole nightmare started again. I can’t see granite or stainless steel becoming badly dated simply because of the timeless and basic nature of their design.
I think some people have been warped by the negative connotations of “dated”. Most eras prior had attractive designs even far after their peak even if it was obvious that the objects in question were older. It was mainly the late 1950’s - the mid-1980’s where designers went on a bender and designed hideous things and shortly thereafter, consumers went on a bigger bender and bought the stuff. Like most things, this was the fault of the Baby Boomers and it doesn’t have to happen the same way today or in the future.
Cast bronze?
Tungsten?
Artificial Sapphire?
Transparent Aluminum?
Frank Lloyd Wright’s stuff looks great. It was the inferior architects that copied him, plus the soulless styles of Mies van der Rohe, Le Courbusier, and the Brutalists, that gave modernism a bad name.
Wooden/butcher block countertops and work surfaces (Imagine the convenience, you could cut or chop anywhere, same with putting down a hot dish!)
No upper cabinets seems to be all the rage these days. (It does make the kitchen more open and sleek looking, but you’d better have storage somewhere!)
Personally I’d can’t wait to see the return of the walk in pantry. I have one in my old house and I adore it and cannot imagine going back to a ton of kitchen cabinets. Of course, I did have to defend it when we bought the house, from husband, contractor and others who’s first thought was, “Get rid of it, maybe move the fridge.” Now they all universally agree it would have been a mistake.
What comes next? Recycled materials: from crushed glass and recylced construction material for countertops and floors to recycled metals from old cars for appliances.
Pantries make sense for a lot of reasons:
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People want walk in closets upstairs - why wouldn’t they want a good pantry as well?
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Modern cooking uses tons of small appliances - everything from stand mivers to breadmakers to crock pots. Storing these in cabinets is a nightmare - storing them on shelving in a pantry is a breeze.
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Convenience foods are more convenient when they can be organized and easily found.
Personally, I’d like an upstairs pantry and a basement root cellar as well.
As for recycled materials - this makes plenty of sense. But I’d like to point out that steel, which is ideally suited to appliance building for reasons of cost and strength, is already recycled at about a 75% rate. So you can buy that new fridge with a clean conscience.
I’ve been waiting for the granite/stainless fad to end since it was about 15 minutes old. Most (not all, most) of the granite I’ve seen looks really cheap and ugly to me, regardless of the high cost its owners tend to brag/moan about. No way I’d put it in my kitchen even if it was free. I’ve seen a couple pieces of granite that I thought actually looked nice, but I still wouldn’t want it.
Stainless seems to combine the worst of all features- it shows fingerprints like crazy and I can’t put my kids’ drawings up on the fridge with magnets. Sure, it looks sleek and beautiful in the magazine and model home, but practical for everyday use? Nah.
When we redid our kitchen about 8 years ago we used white appliances and Formica countertops. Sure, we were on a budget, but we would probably do it the same way today. The appliances are easy to keep clean (sinks clean really easily with a Magic Eraser!) and the Formica counter looks great.
I do have a friend that used the black lab table countertops you see in high school science labs- he says it’s easy to work with, looks great and requires no maintenance.
Here it’s all about the walk-through pantry. I come in from the garage with groceries (into the laundry), and walk through the pantry through another glass door into the kitchen. It’s pretty convenient.
Also, top floor laundry rather then main or basement.
They are tinting stainless in colors now and trying to make it more finger print resistant.
Regarding countertops, though there are maintenance issues, soapstone, limestone, slate and others with a honed or matte finish I think look more liveable than the super shiny polished granite.
Le deluge.
Not to hijack, but…
Agreed on the FLW…love his work, not so much on the imitators.
I would say that Mies van der Rohe is one of my favorite architects (and I’m a veteran of 3 different Architectural Boat Tours! 
). I didn’t like it at first, but once you have a chance to compare his clean lines to the general wankery of the Solomons, etc…you appreciate him more.
Would you call Khan a Brutalist?
-Cem
We just re-did our kitchen, and we used Quartz. Yeah, it’s kinda like granite, but we had a far larger color selection, and you don’t have the maintenance problems as you would with granite.
My guess is thick, scratch-proof glass for the countertops, and different metallics for the appliances (copper, Oil-rubbed bronze, tin, etc.). I’ve already seen “graphite” colored appliances at our local top-end place.
-Cem
Copper seems to be getting popular, but woodclading might to the next trend.
Oh, no, my new black appliances are apparently so '80’s. 
I want cast iron and cypress.
Who cares what’s trendy? Invent your own.