I don't know that white is ever outdated. It's never totally in fashion and never totally out. I don't know where you'll find "offwhite" appliances, though. It's usually white or bisque.

I have just gotten rid of all my off white/almond appliances. They were 18years old. Maybe you would prefer black appliances.

I find the term "appliances" to be a too generic for a question like this. If you're talking about an oven or pair of ovens, stainless is probably OK, because the amount of stainless after windows and so forth isn't very much, and you don't tend to have a lot of things getting the stainless dirty.

For a refrigerator, on the other hand, this is a huge deal, because there is a huge expanse of whatever the material is. And everybody in the house gets into the fridge on a frequent basis, including a lot of busy tiny hands. :-)

I would put cabinet panels on the fridge. And the dishwasher. It matches, and isn't going to go "out of fashion" before the cabinets. The takes care of most of the potential expanse of stainless in the kitchen. Unless you're getting a cooktop that allows you pick from a pallet of enamel colors, you probably don't get much choice there. Ovens are mostly stainless or black these days, and I suspect you're going to pick out your oven based on cooking performance and price, rather than on color. So that takes care of the ovens. Which covers pretty much the whole kitchen, unless I missed something major.

I was in the appliance store today and I really liked the GE Profile Bisque appliances. But my design is for creamy white cabinets & black counters, and I guess only black or white or stainless appliances would work.

White cabs can work with bisque/off white appliances. It all depends on how you carry out that color combo in other parts of the kitchen. For example, you could utilize that combination effectively just in the way you paint your walls, ceiling and trim, or in the color choices you make for your lighting, backsplash, cab hardware, and countertop accessories, etc. Especially with black countertops, I think this could work quite well. (Can you tell that I've been thinking about this very topic myself?) BTW, Susan Serra, CKD briefly touches on this subject on her blog. While she talks about the very real challenge of mixing whites and getting it right, she also feels that an intentional mixing of whites and creams can look quite lovely. At the link below, scroll down to her discussion of a Viking range and mixed white color choices.

Here is a link that might be useful: On Mixing Cream and White Colors

I completely understand your dilemma. Some of our countertops are a light Caesarstone called Desert Limestone, and for a while I was making myself crazy trying to figure out if GE bisque=Kitchenaid biscuit, etc., so that I could match the appliances with the countertops. Finally, we went with white fridge, ovens (although there is a lot of black in the ovens when you look at the windows in them), and dishwasher, and a black cooktop (no other choices). When I look at the colors together now, I am quite pleased with our choices.

You know how all of those varieties of "white" on the paint samples look light by themselves but make a really nice contrast when you put them next to white-white trim? If you know what I mean, that, to me, is how the light countertops work so well with the white appliances.

I guess I wasn't completely clear in my original post. I didn't mean white cabinets with bisque appliances. I was thinking of cabinets that would be close to the color of the bisque appliances.

solarpowered - By appliances, I mean oven, dishwasher, and refrigerator. The panels are definitely something to think about.

vedazu - I would love to see pictures of your kitchen if you have any.

Laurie

I went with 'ivory' appliances with off white cabinets, and I really like the look. They aren't matching shades of off white, but they seem to go together to my eye, anyway. I would just recommend that you see your cabinet color next to a bisque appliance before you commit.

Here's a picture:
{{!gwi}}

klb - What kind of stove/oven is that? It's gorgeous! I just had an ordinary oven in mine, but the style of yours really makes a statement in the kitchen. What kind of dishwasher and fridge to you have? Just wondering how you matched those with the oven.

Laurie

Hi Laurie--the range is pretty, isn't it? It's a Lacanche (the 'Cormatin' model). There are many enthusiastic posts on the Appliance forum if you want more information. The hood is from Modernaire ventilating--they were able to color match to the range color, since it is a standard 'RAL' color (RAL 9001).

For the dishwasher and fridges, I went with cabinetry overlays as other have suggested. Since my kitchen is teensy (7x10-ish), I think the cabinetry overlays give a better illusion of longer runs of cabinetry. In a normal or large kitchen, probably not as much of a consideration.
I'm really happy with how the overlays turned out--very discreet! Here are a couple of pictures (sorry, I haven't gotten around to taking new pictures with the backsplash complete....)

Here is my dishwasher (18" wide model next to the sink)
{{!gwi}}

And here is my undercounter refrigerator setup--fridge/freezer drawer set, plus a second 15" unit (you do what you can in limited space!)
{{!gwi}}

I personally strongly dislike stainless appliances, so that is my bias. I don't like the (to me) industrial look or the fingerprints. I also don't like the look of black refrigerators much, they remind me of yawning black holes. Smaller black appliances don't bother me so much. I don't think that the old "almond" is too attractive, but I think white or bisque can be lovely. A white or bisque refrigerator could blend quite nicely with your cabinets. If you can swing it financially, my favorite look is to panel the refrigerator and dishwasher, and choose white/bisque/a color (I chose cobalt blue) for your range/oven/hood. I think bisque could look terrific with off-white cabinets, even if you can't afford high-end appliances like that gorgeous LaCanche. I don't think white/bisque looks dated. One potential problem is that you may have trouble with matching colors if you choose appliances from different manufacturers.

Laurie,

Just FYI, Bluestar ranges are available enameled from a pretty broad palette of colors. And, while I'm not 100% sure, I think you can get Bluestar to custom match a color.

This service may be available for some other range lines, as well.

... and I see that KLB already mentioned that LaCanche will colormatch for you. (Although with a very serious price tag...)

The biggest drawback to bisque appliances is finding them in the first place. Way too many manufacturers have completely discontinued the color with no replacement at all or limit the choices found in that color to just a few that you may not even like. If you're in the upper budget spectrum, it's less of an issue. But, if you're middle America, it's a problem.

klb - Is the dishwasher to the right of the sink? It doesn't look like the size of a normal dishwasher, but the pictures may be deceiving. Does, what looks like the cabinet door, pull down like a regular dishwasher door would? I'm just fascinated by the look because I would have never known it was anything other than a regular cabinet.

Laurie

Replacing bisque appliances one at a time, what color appliance will fit in until all are replaced? Need to replace over the range microwave now! thank you.

Joyce Purnell -- start a new post if you want answers to your question. Most people aren't going to bother looking at a 16-year old post, they'll likely assume it's spam or have no relevance to what's going on today.

So you want a quick answer send a picture so we can see white always works unless you want stainless