"I just wanted to start a dialogue which obviously it has."

Often, with dialogue comes negativity, whether IRL or virtual.

Remember that as a designer, you are exposed to a lot more design than the typical client. You may have designed 18 identical kitchens, but unless your clients know people who live in new houses or other people who have remodeled a kitchen recently, their kitchen may be the first all white kitchen among anyone in their circle so it is "new" to them.

I have seen in these forums people asking about a "new trend" or something else they have never seen before, when really it's been around for a decade and it may be trending out in some areas already. They haven't seen it before because they may have never had much reason to look carefully before, because they haven't remodeled a kitchen before.

Where I live right now, in the middle of the market, you're right every kitchen is the white kitchen. At the top of the market, here, kitchens have moved on from that, but are also much more contemporary, in general.

Where I grew up I doubt anybody has the all white kitchen with marble/quartz/quartzite countertops in the entire town, or maybe there may be a couple trickling in. These things are also regional. Some parts of the country are probably a good ten years behind other parts and it's not because they haven't seen it at all, it's because tastes vary as well.

"I’m already over it. This kitchen trend is everywhere and overdone."..."so overdone I don’t see anything else -anywhere on any new design the past six months"..."This is the pickle ball of the kitchens"..."I’m a little sick of looking at the same exact style in 100 new kitchens if 2024"

And then: "It wasn’t meant to have any negativity towards anybody. If you direct negativity please keep me out of it."

Your post most definitely was meant to be negative. The subject title was negative. The words you wrote were negative. And posting a photo of a lovely expensive-looking kitchen just to denigrate it, which means denigrating the thousands of people who frequent this forum who might have opted for white kitchens. And who spent their hard-earned tens of thousands on a white kitchen. So you "want to be kept out of it"? But you disparaged anyone who chose a white kitchen - why do you get a pass?

In any case, that's a myopic viewpoint as a designer, since people opt for white kitchens in that pictured design for many reasons, not because it may or may not be a trend. Perhaps their kitchens are dark and they want a white color and bright metallics. Perhaps their last kitchen was wood and they want a change. Perhaps they just like a white kitchen, only to have you come on here to be supercilious about it.

Kitchen Place - cannot wait to see pics.

yes, kitchen place…swooning over that pink!

With conversations like this, and more color, I would come to Kitchens more often.

While I would not want to live with some styles of kitchens, I can still admire most of them.

The nice two toned kitchens members have posted are not what I think of when I hear "two-toned" -- upper cabinets some form of white, lowers are a color.

I have always believed the kitchen (and interior design) should compliment the house exterior. I also believe you shouldn't buy one style home and try to make it into something else.

Our first home was a 1956 ranch. I wanted a medium grey blue. When my dad saw the color, he suggested go a little lighter. I was not fond of it, but made it work until we remodeled after nine years. We lived in that house just over 20yrs.

Then we built a custom home, an English cottage (architect labeled). I had fallen in love with unfitted English kitchens years prior. Using affordable kitchen designers were a no-go since I still couldn't get the look I wanted. DH finally shamed me into going to a local store that had furniture made in England - they started doing kitchens. Thinking it was out of my reach, I talked to the owner and found it was reasonable. The best part? He asked me to sit with him during the design phase. While his measurements were off (by a mile), the two cabinetmakers/installers were amazing and it was perfect for me and the house.

Still miss this island and its antique pine top. There was a stained cupboard on the fridge wall (to the left) and you can see a glmpse of another cupboard in the hallway between kitchen and laundry room. Finishes: one stain, three paint colors, three counter materials.

Sadly, the next owners love modern. They painted the coffered ceiling white (only in the ktichen) but left the hood as shown. The cabinets were painted white and the backsplash and exterior counters are white. White walls throughout the house. They even painted the exterior (including all the stonework) white. The black hutch was painted gray. (Our son ran across photos posted by the painter on FB.)

Our next house was a full remodel. I wanted another English kitchen, but more refined to fit the house. Rearranging the appliances gave me the "wall of doors" (fridge/freezer towers, pantries and hidden coffee station) and moved the cooking area from the island. After living in the previous earth tone house, I wanted color everywhere - cabinets, walls, ceilings (but not when there are beams involved). When I saw these large handles online, I fell hard (unlacquered brass). I worked with a local kitchen designer whose DH builds/installs the cabinets. There was also a soapstone apron front sink.

Sadly (again), the new owners also like modern and the entire interior is now white, black, gray and taupe.

Plot twist. After a few years, we decided to move to the beach and purchased a 3yo home. Two things I said I would never own - a pool and a white kitchen - are now ours. While I previously would not have even considered quartz counters, they look great and work well in our kitchen. It even has white subway tile, but medium gray grout. The best part, I am not inclined to redo the kitchen because it fits the house.

I was in someone’s kitchen last week and we had a conversation that I think is relevant to this discussion. It led me to believe that the all white kitchen isn’t going away anytime soon.

The people I was visiting are not fad chasers and they just redid their kitchen in this same dominantly white style. Their reason was that the kitchen they replaced was the standard dark wood kitchen cabinets, a darker granite, and darker floors. They commented about just being so glad to be in a light and airy kitchen after more than twenty years of that heavy and oppressive kitchen (their words).

I looked around on Zillow at the overwhelming number of dark kitchens and I can’t help but think that this fad is so popular in reaction to how popular the deep dark kitchen cabinets were. While designers might be getting tired of the all white look, dark kitchens still likely outnumber them by at least ten to one and I stongly suspect we are not nearly finished with people wanting exactly the opposite of what they have.

Trends are popular for a reason. As a whole people tend to follow whatever seems to be liked by most - perpetuating the continuing popularity. Kitchens are no different than Crocs, Stanley's and Lululemon.

Sometime the heart has reasons that reason knows nothing of...

I put the phrase "I hate white kitchens" in the pretty bad GW-House search box and on the first page I got a post called "I hate white kitchens?" and one called "White Kitchens--Trend Over" both from 2012.

So there is really some validity to the argument that white kitchens aren't really a trend at all, although I will say that with the many choices in white quartz that have come on the market, and with the return to favor of light finished floors, the white has become more uniformly, brilliantly white.

Also, I grew up in a house with an all white kitchen with black hardware and some stainless appliances (some white) from 1969. They weren't trending then, but neither were my parents complete innovators. They had probably seen something somewhere

Also when it comes to all these bleached light woods for flooring and cabinetry that have been popular again for a bit, and the color pink popping up? Does anybody remember the revulsion people had for um...pickled finishes and the color pink anything not all that long ago?

( I've had pink in two of the three kitchens I have designed for myself, somewhere starting 28 years ago)

Why are people harshing on the OP for expressing an opinion and getting a conversation started? I totally disagree with the OP and love white kitchens. But, I am hardly offended by her opinion. If you consider her post to be negativity, I hate to see how you'd react to family dinner at our house!

It is more difficult to express yourself in written communication. I didn't read the OPs post as overly negative, just that she is tired of seeing the same thing over and over.

My sister and I were talking about cars the other day. They are buying a new vehicle, want another Honda CRV. The 8 color choices are red, dark blue, black, white, light gray, med gray, dark gray and an even darker gray.

Remember when you had a choice that included several different colors and not just black/white/gray?

Yikes. Everyone is entitled to their opinion (and their kitchen). Something tells me you don’t play pickleball.

for sure, just pick what you like. I understand where OP is coming from , if they find themselves constantly using same materials and colors for all their jobs. It probably becomes quite monotonous. When we built the kitchen designer asked if I wanted stained or painted cabinets. I said “painted “. She asks, “white?”. When I showed her the color I had decided on she was so excited to be doing something outside the box.
Nothing wrong with white kitchens …or yellow or pink or green ones.

Funny, but there can be a lot of reasons for whatever style someone favors. I love a white kitchen, I love a modern kitchen, a traditional kitchen and a whole lot in between. Stained, painted....as long as it is well done, I can love it.

For me? It shall depend the house, and my client. I favor it appropriate to BOTH.

Visuals of absolutely everything move at the speed of light. The life of a kitchen was once twenty years! Rare that a kitchen doesn't feel in need of a redo in far less time, these days.

Do the kitchen you love, and the one that works for you. ........your house, and your budget.

I have a client now - we refreshed some typical nineties aspects of his large and traditional cherry kitchen last year, with the idea we'd revisit a possible change to a soft white. We changed out an awkward island, went to a painted/green, took out a looming soffit over that awful island. Cut back all the perimeter bulkheads, and .......

Now that the house from top to bottom has been taken from an old lady traditional, to kick ass wonderful, but still traditional?

I am inclined to leave that cherry alone, for many reasons not the least of which is his laser vision which can find a tiny spider in a deep forest from ten miles back. The layout is great, it looks lovely as is and I'm encouraging a change from black granite tops and splash? Wellllllllllll maybe just a gorgeous marble : )

Crack me UP!!!

Now, the trend in fashion is wide leg pants. I personally would never buy or wear wide leg pants. Personally, I Iook and feel best in skinny jeans,

May I like that one thousand times??

My GAWD.....the first issue?

You need to be 5'11", and a size two - essentially a straightened wire hanger.

They drag all over the ground, or they look too short.

My luck? I catch a toe as I descend a stair with a gigantic tote at a client and the fall takes me out of this business - one that is far more physical than you can imagine.

I do not go to a gym, to stay in shape- ONLY to float in fat ass pants that would accommodate someone 6 sizes larger.

I hope my white skinny pants from last season didn't die in their silicone pac embedded crate. I will not be caught dead in these floaters.

( trend noticed at gym: Either the up the crack yoga variety ;LEAVING ZERO TO ANYONE'S IMAGINATION......or this revived thick, hideous baggy, lumpy fleecy sweatpants look we all abandoned in the 80's! WTH WTH WTH !!!

Our preference was a mix of off-white cabinetry with darker wood accents. We only have one small window in the kitchen and felt the lighter cabinetry would brighten up the room. The original kitchen was medium/dark cherry, and it felt small and dark, no matter the lighting.

We built a Craftsman home on a lake in the mountains. We used a kitchen designer for the layout and cabinet dimensions. A friend who is a cabinet maker built our cherry cabinets and my husband did the rest of the work. He just finished the backsplash last month! We absolutely love how it turned out and would not change a thing. It's not for everyone (especially someone who would want a white kitchen), but it's a dream for us and I am grateful every day that we get to live here.

I sourced the field tiles from Macyntire tiles in Calif and the quote tiles are from Mission Guild Studio in New York.

This post caught my eye because I am just now looking into bringing some white into my stained wood cabinet kitchen, circa 2002 with a black island and black hood accents. Others may feel like black is back. So, while the white kitchen with wood may be worn out and overdone to YOU, it's a great kitchen to me.

And, I really don't know how to react to your pickleball reference. What do you mean? Do you even play pickleball? Because we love it here, and have a great pickleball family in our community that has united a group of unlikely friends that celebrated a huge Friendsgiving. Those are the kind of people that I want to invite over to my new kitchen for snacks and fun.

Clearly I need to be interviewing my next kitchen designer a bit more thoroughly, because obviously those attitudes show up and I would be appalled if I hired one that espoused your views and then posted a picture of my kitchen as her work that she was sick of.....

I really like the designer @jan moyer here that states " Do the kitchen you love, and the one that works for you. ........your house, and your budget." Isn't that the best idea for all of us? And if it happens to be white mixed with natural wood and gold jewelry, then more power to her.

@gra8fulgal "I am grateful every day that we get to live here." Isn't that a wonderful feeling?! Your kitchen is stunning. Wonderful job and congrats!

Gr8. Beautiful! Love the tile. What is the counter?

@eld6161 Thank you! The counter is a granite called Hawaii. We got it in Boise, ID, and were told the quarry is now closed. Not sure if that is correct, but we were happy to snag the last slabs they had.

@gr8fulgal your kitchen is stunning.

@vinmarks Awww, thank you! It took forever and a day to complete (especially picking the tile - I got over 125 different samples until I found the right fit!), but it was worth the wait :)

Gra8fulgal, your kitchen belongs in your beautiful home in the mountains , it’s beautiful.

Love the huge window..cleaning it… maybe not so much..,

We have those same views in our summer home.. similar but smaller window over the same kind of sink…find myself leaving all the dishes in the sink til the perfect time of day.. when the view is just beautiful

@btydrvn Me too! I leave dishes and then enjoy the play of light outside at certain times of day. Wishing you many happy mountain moments this summer :)

Thanks gr8…when you are home a lot… features like this kind of makes the daily chores more enjoyable..

How can white go "out?" 1.) It's a neutral. 2.) It looks clean and people love clean kitchens. 3.) It's a traditional classic. 4.) It goes with everything.

I agree with you, @Iris Graeber.

. Is a crisp white shirt ever dated? Do white classic Keds ever look wrong ?

What about white toilets and tubs?!

Lots of other colors have had a moment in kitchens and in baths.

The word may be moment:) some longer than others. Some left and returned in diiferent iteratiions. Some not so much! Brown sink anyone???

Overall? Probably white returns MOST often and so frequently….. we never even notice it may have briefly taken a hiatus. Short:)

No..white cabinets won't go out. It is not about "white cabinets" but the whole of the kitchen from the white cabinets to the different colored islands to the hardware and lightening to the countertops. They all start looking the same. None of the kitchens are memorable because they all look identical.

So true…hard to really put a name on how that happens…might be certain designers? ….But there is apparently a market for it…maybe clients with too much money and not enough individuality….?..or at an age where they just don’t want to get that involved ?..or just fall back on…”it takes all kinds”

In the Building Forum, when you have people building a new house, or in posts where people just bought a house and are remodeling or decorating and they are talking about resale -- and the house isn't even built yet, or they have just moved in themselves--that is what kills individuality. They are not doing what they like necessarily, they are doing what they think other people(who are unknown) are going to like. Most people don't have very well developed personal taste, they want to fit in with everyone else in their demographic, that's all.

I think that last sentence says it all…it is soooo hard for me to imagine not wanting to personalize your space to suit your own taste…let alone wanting your home to be just like anyone else’s…

" Like anyone else's"

If you're old enough to remember the book..

"Passages"....remember that?

It takes a long time to truly develop your OWN style. We've lots of late bloomers in that regard. The holy grail isn't as Passages", sort of repeating how you grew up, what Mom did or had. It's the mass market, the visuals, your PEER group.

So like it or not, there is lots of me too.

I can tell you for fact.....you can search long and hard and often, for a client who owned art. Real original art. Real rugs.

The fact? There are a zillion huge, wide open barns, with no soul, and no clue as to who resides. Ask for a book, art....anything as to who may actually live within? They have not. Nada.: )

Really though, there is not a whole lot of support for doing a lot of things in the kitchen forum or the decorating forums--only things within a fairly limited range of acceptability.

If you want to do anything out of the ordinary in terms of kitchen finishes "It's a really big investment, are you sure you want to___" "This will be dated very quickly" "This trend is already over" "This is a very dated look already".

If it's wallpaper "You will get tired of that very fast", "I spent two years stripping ugly wallpaper and I said never again" "This will be dated very quickly"

If it's anything like carpet: "Carpet is disgusting"

If it's traditional drapes, "They're heavy/ they block light/they are covering a view/ they are dust catchers".

There are a lot pf words used to place nearly anything that actually isn't a currently accepted middle-of-the-road trend, in a very negative light.

Not everybody pays attention to trends. Sometimes a trend that is "over" still appeals to someone, or it may still be on trend in their area. Not everyone is fickle. Some people like things forever. Some people are clean. They don't wear shoes on the carpet, they don't have pets or spill things, and if they do it gets cleaned up immediately. Some people clean or vacuum a lot, and it's not because they have no life.

Essentially, if you want anything that is not pretty much some currently acceptable design practice, you are made to feel as if there is something the matter with you, your taste, your housekeeping.

Actually I think there is a whole world of design out there that is quite a bit different than what we see in here, but the people who do it aren't in here asking for advice. They either don't want it, don't need it, or have found if they ask for it, the primary advice is to talk them out of it.

It's pretty restrictive when people start talking about how many inches above a sofa or a table a picture must be, or what percentage of width of one object compared to another must be, or how many objects one is allowed to display on a table and so forth. All of those guidelines are reasonable guidelines, but they certainly aren't absolute rules.

There are no "rules"

There is what looks good, what makes you happy, what makes you want to come home every day.

You do not have to let the internet intimidate you, it's a universe of both good and bad. Gorgeous and hideous and an awful lot that is purely subjective.

There are designers who could take you where you are dying to go......and just as many who could disappoint you.

You can only do what YOU love, what your resources allow. In the end, you are the Great Decider: ) and at some point, you ignore all other voices but your own.

I don't think rules and guidelines are a bad thing, and I think some people need them to come up with a solution that makes them happy.

When a designer, or someone with good, very focused taste says "I just put everything I love together and it works" it's a little different from someone picking every finish they like and using them, so "do what you love" is not necessarily great advice for everyone.

When someone with focused taste puts together things they love, there is really a lot of discipline and discernment involved in that process, but it's innate. So it may seem very spontaneous, but I am skeptical that it actually is spontaneous. It's natural to them, but when things don't come to someone naturally, spontaneity may not turn out all that well.

I have helped some people who have gotten very annoyed with me because I don't let them use every single thing they like. Because every single thing that they like would not look good together. They may have good ideas for two or three different kitchens, but not one kitchen.

Or as I say? "It has a place, it's just a different place than in THIS room."

Occasionally you use the "no" word and while it stings at first? It doesn't hurt at all, at a final result.

Discernment and editing are the two most difficult design skills to master. Even in an over the top Mario Buatta room of it's era, more was not more. More was tightly correlated to blend into a whole.

You know what makes me happy is I caught the trend that matched my taste! I hated grey so much bc I’ve always loved light and airy. And guess who did a forced Reno in 2023? It’s like the design gods said…it’s your time now…go forth.

And here’s a funny story that tells me my taste has literally been the same forever…I sent my GC a photo of our powder room that looks like a slow leak that we had repaired still spread onto the wood. I was visiting what is now our rental property and sent him a pic to get his thoughts on next steps and he called me right away freaking out that it was our current powder room and what the hell happened?! I laughed and said I could see that happening bc both powder rooms look identical. It’s just that in 2012, I used light maple floors and in 2023, I did light white oak.

We laughed for a while and it reminded me that my style is my style. And I like it, albeit some people thinking it’s beige and boring.

And I’m sure my kitchen will look dated at some point…but not today 🤣

At the risk of topic drift--but the concept of "fitting in" or "becoming dated" is challenged here.

Many of the contents of this apartment are being auctioned at Christies. The apartment was designed in the late 1960s by Billy Baldwin and appears to have been kept more or less intact since then.

How much support would something like this get in the decorating forum were someone to present this scheme, and how much support would keeping something like this intact for 50 years would get, given that people start grumbling about "dated" in a little over 5 years.

https://www.elledecor.com/life-culture/a60429199/billy-baldwin-madrid-apartment-christies/

I've owned nine houses, a mix production construction, truly custom construction, and multiple historic renovations. I've always let the house guide the design, color and material choices.

Six months ago, I refreshed my current kitchen. I removed the Tuscan influence, replaced some of the appliances, added new lighting fixtures, painted the wood cabinets white and changed out the dark countertops. The flooring was a medium hardwood and there was just too much wood. This was done strictly for resale. But, it looks nice and fresh.

The next house is in an over 55 community. This means a production build with design choices limited by the builder. Because I will have wood look LVP flooring most probably in a medium tone throughout the home, I plan on white cabinetry. To have wood flooring and wood cabinets would just be too much wood. Once again, I let the house determine the choices. I am still wrestling with the countertops, granite or quartz. I haven't made a final decision. But, I will be guided by my late dear mother's advice, white always works. That goes for both kitchens, baths and all ceramic fixtures.

Thank goodness the grey trend is mercifully coming to an end. I didn't like it when it started and it still depresses me.

People baffle me.

When I went to my last formal class reunion (2004) there were probably 120 women there. I was literally the only one there who was dressed in something bright and happy. Almost all the women wore a little black dress. A few were there in pants suits.

I wore an A line floral print dress similar to this:

I stuck out like a sore thumb, but I loved that dress and it made me happy and I look and feel better when I am wearing bright colors and bold patterns. I had a wonderful night. I danced and talked and caught up with old friends and was completely comfortable and at ease.

Were all those other women truly as comfortable wearing that little black dress as I was with my floral print? If they walked into Bergdorf's, Saks or Neiman Marcus and didn't have the preconceived notion that they should wear a little black dress and were left to pick anything that made them feel like a 10 I wonder how many would come out with a little black dress.

Why are so many so afraid of just loving what they love and not needing to be told what they should love?

I have a sister-in-law that has beautiful light blond hair and big blue eyes, skin that tans in a minute and bright white smile. She loves icy bright blues and looks great in clear pastels. She is renovating her home and picked Revere Pewter as the main paint color. Don't get me wrong, I love Revere Pewter. It is the main neutral that I picked for my niece's home, but she loves muted greens and fall colors. My SIL loves spring colors. All her art and décor and everything that she is naturally drawn to is light clear colors. Why did she pick Revere Pewter. Because that is what is popular (small rural town, 5-10 years behind the metro trends). Her friends and the "design consultant" at the renovation center all rallied for Revere Pewter. It is a forgiving color. Her pastel art will be fine on the Revere Pewter walls. It won't make them sing, but it will work.

Come to think of it, she graduated with me and was at the same class reunion. She wore a little black dress.

Love that black terrazzo(?) wall in the Billy Baldwin apartment, as well as those library floors. And the Le Tigre chairs.

I think the walls are a faux finish terrazzo

From up above.....baffled

It is completely possible, that a blond with big blue eyes, who tans in a split second and has a smile the likes of a dentists dream?...........

Is a sexy , gorgeous bombshell in that little black dress, and feels as good in it as you did in the garden floral......?

The "pressure" to be different, veer from the crowd, is perhaps no different than the pressure to follow the crowd.

She might just looooove a little black dress: )

I know that every piece of clothing that has lasted the longest in my closet, every boot or shoe, or bag? Yup........it's black. Nobody has ever said I looked boring, and in fact, it is pretty much the opposite. Do what you do WITH what you have to do it with lol

This gal???? Can look good in a brown paper bag.

I get the sense that the OP was concerned less about what anyone actually decides to do in their own homes and more about boredom with ubiquitous designs in design magazines--sort of like how bored I am of seeing the same hairdo everywhere I go on all women, no matter the texture/color of their natural hair, or their age or body shape,etc. Sure there are the outliers, but the "current" hairdo (no matter what the new name for it is) has been pretty much the same for decades now as what Jennifer Aniston was wearing 20 years ago...

I want to flip through magazines and see something new, in kitchens and clothes and hair. That doesn't mean I am going to run out and copy it.

When we decided our kitchen for our new home, I looked at inspo pictures and it was hard to see variation. Gray was dominating-and I don't like it, no matter how available it was. The design I fell in love with was already more than 5 years old, and is obviously even older now since our home took so long to build. I'd understand that it might bore visitors/designers if their kitchen and everyone else's was the same. I'd still love it.

Re: the Billy Baldwin apartment, I always appreciate and admire the design history and perspective that palimpsest (best user name ever) brings to the conversation.