Before our remodel last fall, we had creamy white cabinets with all white-white appliances, and it looked good. We changed to stained bottom cabinets and cream uppers, so we changed the appliances to stainless steel.

I think there's such a broad range of personal preference on this kind of thing. Personally, I prefer the look of stainless appliances with creamy white cabinets. I think the stainless is a neutral color and gives you more choices for granite. That being said, black and white are pretty neutral too. However, white sometimes clashes with cream and makes it look dirty. Also, black can be too heavy and tend to overpower a space.

I understand your concern about fingerprints. . . I have little kids at home and lots of little fingers! I have found that if I occasionally wipe my appliances down with a little oil on a rag, it minimizes fingerprints. I use lemon furniture oil or baby oil.

Some stainless steel is harder to keep clean and other stainless steel gets hardly any fingerprints due to more nickel in the finish that will not let a magnet connect. My Kitchen Aid dishwasher is beautiful and has a more white type of stainless steel that is shiny and magnets do adhere to it but it is so difficult to clean. My LG Refrigerator and my GE Café Oven has the more gray type of stainless steel that magnets do not attach to and it really resists fingerprints.

By the way, I prefer stainless steel appliances with creamy white cabinets but that is just my taste. I have seen some beautiful kitchens with white and beautiful kitchens with black appliances.

I think that it will depend on just how white your creamy white is. And I myself would want to have a counter decision first with creamy white.
I had (have) white appliances with off-white (cottage white) cabs and have grown to hate the combo. But this white has a really noticeable yellowish undertone. I still like it fine in my FR with the pine paneling, it looks quite white there.

I wish that appliance manufacturer's would give us different options. How I would love to see a bronze refrigerator. JennAir had bronze in their line up several years ago but it wasn't well received. It must have been too reminiscent of the old coppertone appliances.

Bisque and almond never quite hit the mark and are almost impossible to find. I would think that bisque or almond would look better with creamy white than bright white.

I am tired of ss but that is what we are going with due to the lack of other options. Black would have been too dark and I didn't feel white would look good.

You could panel some..... DW, Fridge, MW behind a door. That's my plan as I am tired of stainless. I am also getting a black stove.

I saw a website with "appliance art" -- decals to cover frig and dw; they had SS ones meant to convert white to a SS look (I thought the pictures were not attractive).
Got me to thinking, wonder how it would work to cover a frig with some of that stick on faux pressed tin then paint to match walls?

I am strongly considering a SSdoor frig that has gray cabinet which will be visible for about 3 inches and won't match any other gray that I am considering. So I may want to cover that part.

Thanks so much for the input!

One of the things I love about this forum is how no one rolls their eyes at the obsessing over details. And thanks raee for confirming my thoughts on choosing the counter first. My KD is opposed to that, but I have visions of myself driving for miles and miles with a kitchen completed except for the countertop!

Thanks so much for the input!

One of the things I love about this forum is how no one rolls their eyes at the obsessing over details. And thanks raee for confirming my thoughts on choosing the counter first. My KD is opposed to that, but I have visions of myself driving for miles and miles with a kitchen completed except for the countertop!

Panel them to match your cabs.

I also could not find what I wanted in appliance colors. You could use almost any material for a paneled fridge or DW, not just wood. Here is what I did (and DW is same):

As a bonus, the weathered copper shows absolutely no fingerprints!

Wow Angie! Gorgeous!

How did you do that?

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks everyone, you have given me a lot to ponder.

Island, do you know if some appliance brands are better suited for panels? I have seen some refrigerators with paneled doors that are so heavy they are hard to open!

Lynne, I hadn't realized Stainless Steel came in varying shades.

I'll be paying better attention!

crazybusy: Thank you! I made the panels myself. First, I let some copper roofing flashing get patinaed. Next, I cut some MDF panels to the size needed for the fridge and DW, and then wrapped the copper sheets around the panels. I also glued the copper to the panel with a special glue meant for copper. I still like it a lot!