When does stainless steel become the new avocado green?

I wonder about stainless steel. Is it neutral enough to be enduring (white bathroom suites never went away) or does it start to look sooo fin de siecle in about 5 years time. I guess it may depend on how utilitarian the actual design is.

I kind of like stainless steel sinks, fridges, oven ranges, etc. It's hard for me to see them completely going out of style because they're fairly neutral and they probably continue to look nice for a long time.

Yeah, there's a whole bit in David Brooks's Bobo book about this.

Depends on how much more the rich will have to pay their housekeepers to keep the copper clean.

we are redoing our kitchen and outfitting it with all stainless steel. but this is largely b/c we are planning to sell in a few years and want to make it attractive to the types of people we think will buy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/automobiles/12SEMA.html

!!!!

well, it is restaurant grade. and colette, it's meant to be cleaned several times a day.

I always liked the idea of fridge and dishwasher front-panels that blended in with one's other cupboard facings, so everything looks like some kind of weird scary board room only with stoves.

And gimme bright colourful small-tile splashbacks over steel any day. I love that red or sea-blue tiled look (in the wee little tiles).

Don't be so Kenanish.

I think "terra cotta" refers to the color of naked terra cotta just as "avocado" refers to the color of an avocado, which also could be painted or glazed with terra cotta or laundry-accident pink.

it would be quite interesting if kitchen appliances did move out of the realms of boring neutrality just like many other home products which are becoming more inventive, whacky, and even baroque (at the top end) but i can't see it happening.

also, calling a colour "terracotta" is nothing like calling a colour "paint" wtf?

Also, I haven't seen much stainless steel in kitchens that isn't brushed.

I think this is one of the things that prompted this thread - so many of the shows on HGTV have people remodeling for the theoretical future buyer who apparently "expects" houses to have stainless appliances and black granite countertops and so on. I've seen more than one episode of "What's My House Worth?" or some other show where they downgrade the big expected sale price because you don't have these features.

It's like the homeowner's taste and preference is secondary to this idea of outfitting a house that someone else is going to buy from you. I have nothing against stainless steel, but it's just weird that it's become the standard remodeling feature for kitchens and everyone does it lest their house not look like every other house when it comes time to sell it.

my cousin and her husband had a gorgeous three story place in san fran with 14 different bright colors on the walls and french antiques everywhere.

in order to sell it they had to repaint in muted violets and greys and bring in boring crate and barrel shit.

Oh, I love these too. When my brother and his wife moved into their house in Glasgow, it had the most amazing fifties bathroom with slightly atomic shaped sink and toilet, and it was blue, with black glass splashback. I just loved it. They pulled it all out and put in all those overlong taps and huge showerheads and a big flat Belfast style sink (those things are sooo useless in bathrooms) and I wondered what will happen in another fifty years when someone else pulls all that stuff out. Will there be another sister saying "but you can't! It's so cool and retro!"

haha Ok.

Why hasn't white gone out of style yet?

-- molly d (molly.dah...) (webmail), Wednesday 10:56 AM. (mollyd) (later)

are you crazy?? i love shag carpeting. i remember when i was a kid my job used to be to rake the carpet. that was some sweet carpet.

its already come back anyway. in rug form, at least.