It is very popular now, and will be in style in a few years, but may be less of a thrill by then. We went with a retro look too and could not do such a huge expanse for our fridge set (30" fridge, 30" freezer) in ss because it would have looked more modern than white and we wanted white to match our vintage stove. We did get a ss wall oven and micro shelf, but the micro itself is white. Our dw happens to be black so it ties in our floor which is black and gray and the black window part of the wall oven, and when our bs is installed, the black edge tiles will also bring more black in. We did not like how the white version of our dw looked and got ours at a steep discount as a floor model. Our island venthood is ss as well.
You do not need to have every piece match, esp if you are looking for an older style look. I love how our kitchen is more eclectic. I think that if each material has a buddy/mate (or 2) in the kitchen, it is fine as long as the colors don't clash (like almond/bisque and white)...

Maybe, but only until the tide turns which it always seems to. I'd say buy what you like. Nothing wrong with white!

SS is still popular in my area. It is considered top of the line to buyers (besides panels, I guess.)

I think if you want to appeal to the masses who aren't totally kitchen obsessed like many here, it's the right direction to go in...

With that said, fridges are not considered part of the home where I live. Generally, they move with the seller.

Have you looked at the Big Chill fridges?

Personally, I like it best when the refrigerator and dishwasher are paneled and almost seem to disappear. In a similar vein, I like wood covers for range ventilation hoods. For ranges, my favorite look is colored Lacanche. That said, if I go ahead with my kitchen remodel, I'm re-using my current stainless steel dishwasher and range. It's cheaper to get a metal range hood than a wood enclosure for one. In that sense, maybe stainless steel has now become the budget option!

I'm guessing that most people think of SS as more high end even though these days you can get just about anything in SS. I think you should get what you like. It doesn't sound like you're planning on making a decision that would turn off prospective buyers when you do decide to sell.

I just read this bit about buying appliances and thought it was interesting.

Here is a link that might be useful: Buying Home Appliances - Should You Consider Color or Go Neutral?

It all depends whether you are going for form or function. All appliances are not created equal, and many do not come in a range of colours or finishes. If anything will do as long as it is your preferred colour, then get what you like. But if, for example, you are really into cooking and want a super duper range, you may have no choice but stainless.

We went stainless for the fridge, and the fingerprints drive me nuts -- wish we had gone with classic white.

I agree with people that stainless will be out of style eventually, but in your 6-year timeframe, I imagine that it will be a good bet/still popular.

Once enough time passes, stainless+granite will look as dated as avocado green refrigerators look to us now...

Hopefully not Crampon! I have stainless stove and micro but I went with paneling for my fridge and dishwasher for that very reason. My stove does not show finger prints and I thought that the new ss all did not as well.
I like the look of ss because to me, it goes with everything.
A friend of mine has white appliances in her white kitchen. It looks great and if I was not a GW member, I would not even have noticed that she used WHITE! So I think if done well, anything can look good.

As a recent house hunter myself I can tell you if I was looking at a house with a new(ish) kitchen, I'd prefer to see stainless appliances, but what was most important was that they were matching. All white, all black, or all stainless. For me nothing screamed "I reused old appliances in my new kitchen" than having them not match. The exception would be paneled front that were designed to match the cabinets.

there are different "stainless" finishes-many are smudge free. I didn't want stainless but got it anyway[fridge]. with a soft cream cleanser with soft cloth-it's cleaned every 10-14 days or so- and over time I think there is a slight patina so now I notice the fingerprint and oils don't adhere to speak of. I'm surprisingly pleased.

On the finger print issue, we use these stainless wipes on our fridge. I think they're by Weisman? They work great and keep finger prints off. We paneled our dishwasher but couldn't afford a built in fridge so we went stainless. A fridge is such an easy swap that if someone doesn't like it, its not the end of the world.

I think you should go with what ever finish you love. I love how on HGTV when the buyer says "Wow! stainless appliances" and they don't care about the brand. Just the looks. If your kitchen is tasteful and you have good appliances it will help sell your house when you are ready.

SS has been popular since the early 90s (now much cheaper than they used to be). I dont see the popularity ending anytime soon.

Plastic (White or black) is not a high end look.

I'm always a little confused by the prevalent idea here that everyone watches HGTV. I thought a lot of their trouble was that almost nobody does. I certainly wouldn't feel compelled to take what HGTV says into account when prepping a place for sale, not anymore.

While I agree that SS is still by far the most popular, I'm noticing white being featured more often these days in ads and such where they never showed white as the featured color in recent years.

You can get SS at Home Depot or Best Buy. It's not "high end."

House Hunters has been exposed as a fraud. The "buyers" are not looking to purchase the houses they see. They are already in escrow on one of the homes, which is the one they "choose" at the end. The other houses are put in front of them by the producers, who also tell them what to say. The show is meaningless and unimportant.

The issue with white fridges tends to be the execution. Stick with the better-looking glass front types if you can. Avoid the worst of the clunky plasticky handles. Why manufacturers don't realize this is a mystery.

On a purely philosophical note and from looking at the contributions to the 15 Design Around This threads, I get the impression that people are open to, or looking for something else. --But good options for something else have not come along yet.

I did a white fridge in this kitchen, which had a black range and DW, although there are two kinds of cabinets as well. I don't think black would have looked quite right and she did not want stainless. We used the one she had, but if she had to replace it she said she would probably get another white one.

Hopefully the Metal Handle will come back instead of white plastic.

Actually nobody has ever said, "why didn't you get a black fridge?" and she has the type of friends and family who have no problem pointing things out that they don't like.

If you are selling in six years your appliances will be considered older then anyway, so get what you like and what works best for you now. The other thing about white is that they sometimes do not work well with some white cabinets so be sure to bring a sample door with you when you go shopping.
In six years what sells kitchens may be very different than what sells kitchens today so if you are hoping to do a redo for future revenue you should rethink it for you will not make a profit on this project so really take resale out of your design equation and do what works for your style home and in finishes you like. contrary to what hgtv tries to convince us of, not every home buyer is generic. For every buyer who likes white kitchens there is at least another one who will not buy a house because of a white kitchen so you will never be able to please more than 50% of buyers no matter what choices you make so try to please yourself only.

House Hunters has been exposed as a fraud. The "buyers" are not looking to purchase the houses they see. They are already in escrow on one of the homes, which is the one they "choose" at the end. The other houses are put in front of them by the producers, who also tell them what to say. The show is meaningless and unimportant.

marcolo, it's so painfully obvious. "I can just see myself..." not watching anymore.

While I like my range stainless...I really, really don't like my fridge in stainless. But there it sits, in all its counter-depth, fingerprint-smudged glory. If it hadn't cost so d@mn much more, you can bet your fanny I'd have a built-in with cabinet panels! I tend to agree with Marcolo....I think the problem is with the way most white fridges look...if I had found a lovely one, I would have bought it...but if it were that nice it once again would have probably cost too much! :)

My white fridge I bought in 1999 has that alligator skin texture and its whiteness is blue-tinged next to my creamy cabs. As frumpy as it looks, I would keep it over a visual goddess that was noisy. That's got me worried.

People like stainless because people are easily brainwashed. the manufacturers can put almost any color appliance, within reason, in a magazine, shown in a fancy kitchen and people will buy. Then they start fading out some of the other colors and people are brainwashed into thinking this is the thing EVERYONE is doing so they must like this too. And little by little they do start to like it. The manufacturers dictate what we will like and what we will put in our kitchens. Plus, if there were too many colors, they would end up with too much inventory just sitting there, so they need to narrow in on just a couple. Think about it, do you ever see an ad for black appliances??? Why not, they still make them. But they want you to only buy the stainless, less loss for them.

I agree with you up to a point msartemiss. But the drive towards stainless appliances was originally fueled by high end, commercial grade appliances for the home and the desire by consumers for less expensive models that still maintained the commercial look. This is still quite popular and manufacturers have tried introducing other colors like bronze and slate to compete with SS and have been unsuccessful so far. Despite what some bloggers/designers have said every year for the past 10 years or so, stainless steel is still the most popular and desired appliance color choice today.