By trying to buck the end of a current trend, you may put yourself squarely into the next one.

What goes around comes around : ) . Even those of us who don't give a whit for trends end up being in fashion and on trend every once in a while, it can't be helped!

circuspeanut, I wish we lived closer too : ) . Yes, I still have the OKM range and was canning on it yesterday. We got it 17 years ago from an old family friend who had been using it for firing porcelain doll heads; she had upgraded in her kitchen in the early seventies to a Kenmore electric range. For $25, we got a range (our kitchen had nothing) and our friend got the beast hauled out of the basement. I often find myself wishing for another oven, since the OKM is small, and at certain times of the year for another couple of burners. We found another OKM a few years after the first, similar though not exactly the same, and I am thinking about having them both side by side in the new kitchen -- eight burners, two plunk spaces (the griddles which I don't use), and two ovens.

I keep saying when I am done home schooling the kids I am going to learn to sew -- quilting, making curtains, etc. I suppose I should add upholstery and slipcover skills to my wish list!

lol about Derelicte, cp -- sort of a deconstructed (as in falling apart at the seams) Ralph Lauren : ) .

Becky

Funny you should say that about the 4 in tiles, pillog. I was thinking just the other day that the more I've liked something new in tile when it first came out (ooh--painted still life insets), the faster it fills me with ennui a couple of years later, and that four inch tile is never exciting but never totally embarrasing either. I still like the splash that a tile guy threw in for free for one of my neighbors about 8 years ago, which is just 6" on the diagonal with a line of rope through it.

That's good advice about not going too trendy in the finishes you can't change easily. If you select the things you like you will always enjoy them. My dark bronze faucet is perfect with the copper apron sink and will always look good because it works not because it was trendy at one time.

Most caterers set up in the garage now as they have their own equipment. A chef brought in for a dinner party uses the host's kitchen because it is usually restaurant quality even though they rarely cook.

Hilarious story about the oven cleaning.

Plllog - Maybe I should have kept my Gunne Sax dress just in case. It was red and while toile and looked awesome with a jean jacket and boots. Even though it probably looked hideous to adults I loved wearing that outfit. Thanks for the reminder.

Plllog, Thanks! I had no idea what CB2 meant. :D
Crate N Barrel, those are in "malls", right? That's actually good news. (I realize I do have shopping phobia...)

Since this thread is supposedly all about trends, and someone on here (...maybe in part 1?) mentioned Steampunk (...maybe in connection with RH too?), thought I'd share this rather interestingly decorated space.

Maybe THIS is the kitchen of the future??? ;)

Here is a link that might be useful: NY real estate listing

biochem101-

Thanks for posting the link to that kitchen, I FLOVE it, what a great space and interesting treatment of, well, just about everything. It's a little out of my price range (cough cough), but there are some very cool features in there to study.

And I agree, there's definitely a steampunk vibe about it.

sandyponder

A zeppelin! I'm told that zeppelins *are* making a comeback, but in such a small way that I can't see it as a trend. We saw one overhead a few weeks ago and had to look them up. Apparently, instead of zero zeppelins flying commercially (the post-WWII number), there are now two.

(I just checked back in after a couple days and saw what an off topic furor I had precipitated. Goodness. My apologies, again.)

Here's a trend I'm tired of: The inferior putting on airs and pretending it's not merely adequate, but actually superior.

It's 180 degree spin--the direct opposite of the truth.

People say "no one wants brown furniture anymore," because they can't afford it. Cheap Chinese crap has poor joinery, things don't line up right, the wood quality is terrible and the grain may just be painted on. The whole thing will start to delaminate in just a few weeks. Not only is this junk presented as OK, but it's actually considered superior, because it "fits our casual lifestyles."

Yeah, well, "casual lifestyle" is just 180 degree spin for lazy child rearing and disgraceful housekeeping.

Call me a revolutionary. But crap is crap.

LOL!! Marcolo, I'm sure you're right, but as others have said, excellent quality stuff is available at the second hand stores for those who are brave enough. :)

Biochem, thanks for that link!! I love it!! Something I dislike about a lot of houses with art exploding all over is that they seem disjointed. This all seems to have been done with an eye toward unity. Except for the master bath where it looks like Mrs. IndustrialPunk put her foot down. :) LOVE the dirigible!!

Steff, sounds awesome to me! :)

Becky, don't you think the kids need a practical arts unit? Where they could research upholstery, work out the math for how much fabric they'll need, especially for nap and to match patterns (not that you necessarily want a nappy, patterned sofa, but it would be worth doing the math. More math to figure out making the piping, history and culture coming up with different styles to suit different eras, etc.? I bet you could make a whole month of lessons out of that and get a new sofa in the bargain!

"With backsplashes, since they've gotten so elaborate, I wonder if one of the next trends is going to be foregoing a backsplash altogether, or doing a backsplash that is subdued."

hmm, since I still have no backsplash in my kitchen, perhaps I'm not just indecisive, but rather trendy??

Actually, I'm a bit perplexed by the reference to elaborate backsplashes. I think it overlooks the superior numerical strength of the creamy white subway vigilantes.

Actually, I think the elaborate ones--like those over-the-top Ann Sacks sculpted panoramas--might age better. But maybe that's because the vigilantes won't ever let anyone use them. Hmmm. Tis a puzzlement.

plllog, I feel a Lucy Ricardo "waaaah" coming on -- I *don't* want a month-long sofa project with a sofa (which has goose down cushions) unstuffed in the center of my living room for a month. One day I want my tired old sofa, and the next day I want a less tired, preferably newer sofa. I know, very shallow.

I will have to take photos of some things the kids made this summer for the fair, which has a "recycled project" category -- this year, the boys made a pendant light fixture with an old bathroom light from one of my husband's clients and some shed deer antlers (12 year old) and a candleabra from plumber's pipe fittings, spray painted black. Last year my daughter made a shabby chic bird house with broken china dishes and tea cups, and this year she made a recycled newspaper basket. So we're doing okay in the practical arts department.

Then again, maybe I just need a dirigible in the living room. But it has to be *comfortable*.

marcolo, one of the worst things about planned obsolescence is that people don't even need to know how to spell it anymore. That's what spell check is for, sigh...

Becky

Okay. I'll stop. I was misreading your protestations. :) If you don't want it, that's a whole 'nother story!! I was just trying to plump up the courage part. :)

So....have any of you used a flush mounted gas cooktop?

Marcolo, I agree with you. I think the designs that ultimately look the most dated are the ones that are slavishly followed by the most people. The much reviled 1980's arched golden oak kitchen was probably considered safe and classic back in the day, but the reason it's considered so horribly dated today is because it is so common and if you have a kitchen of that style, there are so many people out there who feel your pain.

Hm... Jilly, that's cherry shaker cabinets and white subway tiles, right?

I don't think most people pick their kitchen/decor choices because they are "in". They see something and think "Oh! I like that!" I remember people oohing and aahing over someone's teal (was it teal?) and mauve decorating back in the eighties. I never cared for the colors so wasn't impressed but other people liked it because it was so different from the brown/cream/orange stuff that "everyone" who had decorated their house ten years earlier had. So they went to the stores and found those colors everywhere. Lucky them - they found what they wanted. They may or may not have thought "This is sooo different! How cool!" They probably didn't think "Trendy." although some of us who didn't care for the colors did. Different perspectives, eh?

So you feel my pain with the arched oak doors? I have decided to embrace mine not because I have to but because I want to. They were custom fitted to the kitchen so not an inch is wasted and are in excellent shape with the exception of the pink toned pickled oak finish. Solid oak with finished paneled ends. Why would I send them to the landfill because someone I don't even know designated slab oak doors with arches as dated?

We are in the process of refinishing them and they are turning out great.

I am happy to see such vigorous defense of "brown wood", since I still own a lot of it.

Here I thought I was just so demoder all this time, and did not know it. That all my dinner guests were snickering into their pomegranate mojitos at my 60-something decor.

Tune back in in a decade, when we see how my massive "antique Belgian work table" (not a RH purchase, but probably made in a Guadalajara factory by students of the catalogue) ages.

Steff 1, that's sort of my point. When there's a look that defines an era of kitchen design, then it's easier to call it dated because there's so much of it out there. I've seen oak kitchens on here that look OK to me, but the owner can't see past all the oak hatred to see that maybe all they need to do is change their hardware or paint color or freshen up the backsplash and they'll have a presentable kitchen.

Years from now, GW's "one true kitchen" will be the one that gets mocked on design forums, and that's because there will be so many examples out there.

I think the things that are liked or disliked have become more like catchphrases in the forum and it doesn't matter what it actually looks like. I am not sure people even "see" it anymore they just read the words and hate it or love it.

I have seen cathedral arch oak door kitchens that I like perfectly fine and some that are as bad as the original poster thinks they are. On the other hand, I have seen kitchens that fit the verbal description of the ideal GW kitchen that I wouldn't take for free once I've seen the pictures.

Have been away from the GW for weeks while traveling in Quebec and here I find a discussion that sort of clicks with thoughts I had as we drove along the St. Lawrence River (or Fleuve if you're in the know). Such Karma!

The area along the St Lawrence has been settled for 300+ years by whites, mostly French speaking ones, upper or lower class. Today, there is a remarkable coherence in the architecture along the river. The community has done a few updates over the centuries, including affixing to the old Habitant's house a front porch with ski-jump curved roofline to keep the snow off the front step. Mansard roofs with gables became common during what I believe was the Victorian era and there was a stolid stone or brick style that seems to have prevailed with railroad barons, but these styles all live happily together and give the community an ethos of permanence and taste. "Modern" angular houses which did not follow the traditional pattern looked almost odd in these neighborhoods, even though they would have been considered very attractive and appropriate in my community. Interesting, though, that there were a few "McMansion" chateaux within the St Lawrence community--with all but the kitchen sink attached to the facade--and they were almost universally ugly and embarassing. I also giggled when I saw any of those sensible covered porches with a round end appended to it, rather like a see-through turret.

As we drove from Quebec to Ontario, the housing styles changed and the homogeneous charm of those faithfully historic looking houses faded. I was getting closer and closer to my home community, in Minnesota, and neighborhoods of more mixed styles became more common. And there was no longer the feeling that the people of the neighborhoods were involved in a greater thing, a really big group of like-living people.

So what does this have to do with the trendy discussion? Not sure exactly, but like pornography, I think I have a feeling for inappropriate design when it see it. If you know it when you see it, you're not being perverse or antediluvian and no big old Restoration Hardware tome should be able to convince you otherwise. If their stuff works in their photos, that's nice for them, but look at those phony rooms and then at your rooms. Unless there's an actual match, you have permission to look elsewhere for inspiration. Appropriateness and gut-level approval can be helpful guiding principles, but not trends and not commercialism. If you're looking for household design inspiration, ignore when "everybody's doing it" because there is a good chance that in time, everybody's gutting it" or "everybody's pitching it out." Go look at garage sales and note how many items used to be terrifically trendy and now they aren't worth $.25 to the person who passed them up before you arrived.

On a tangent note, I must note again, for the record, that 1920s-1950s mahogany furniture is a steal right now. Doesn't work very well in Mid-century modern homes but there are a lot of uses for it. It's got a timeless, classy quality and will surely come back into fashion when people get tired the above-referenced sofa and other things that evoke Dickensian factories, slums, and attics.

I tend to think that a part of whether or not something is "dated" depends on what you do with it and whether you use it in a conventional form or not. I think a great designer or someone with fashion sense can take something that's "out" and put a different or a unique spin on it and all of a sudden, it becomes cool. Kind of like the kid that goes to the thrift store and buys the jacket that's so uncool it becomes cool when paired with the rest of his outfit. I think this can be done with cathedral arch oak cabinets, shiny brass, or just about anything else that's considered to be past its prime. I think, too, this is why fashion trends cycle. Creative people will embrace the "uncool," put a spin on it and all of a sudden, it's back in vogue.

In addition, I think it is a lot easier to not follow trends if you have either a lot of time (and talent) or a lot of money. If you want to find something that is different from what is for sale at your local home goods, ikea, home depot, pottery barn, etc. etc, you either need to be prepared to pay for it, you need to make it yourself, or you need to spend a whole lot of time searching for it (or someone to make it for you). You also need to not care if no one else likes it and be able to not think about the all-important RESALE looming over your head.

And good luck trying to get most people to understand... if you are trying to do something different, you're on your own. I tried to get designer(s) to help us w/ paint colors for our house and one came back with a board full of tan and the other one just couldn't seem to stop expressing dismay at my blue and yellow cabinets, so now I'm back to doing everything myself (and spending the requisite time to do it). Meanwhile, my tile guy can't figure out how to create the patterns I want (no tan in the bathrooms either) so wants me to come lay out my tile mural and tile rug for him, and on and on...

Speaking of where to look for inspiration, i really like apartment therapy (horrible name for what they are). They are real people's homes, and they look like them, not like magazine spreads where every last ray of sun was staged.

It does skew a little MCM, but in fact there is quite a variety and quite a lot of true creativity.

And that Marcolo is why the kitchen table that we are still using after our reno is one that came from costco via our ex-SIL. Because everything that we have seen in our price point, and, we're prepared to go up to $2000-$2500, is absolute crap. Maybe I'll hit the antique stores or try to find one of those 1950's mahogany tables.

plllog, I do like the old sofa and would like to save it, but don't think I am willing to sacrifice my sanity and months (years) to do it in the immediate future! It will go into storage, possibly in the basement, and when I am up for it, I will give it the old college try, I promise.

mtnrd, you run with a more hipster crowd than I do : ). I've always had positive reactions to my brown stuff, but then most of my friends have more dėmodė taste in drinks -- usually gin, a dry red (red stuff?), or our home-pressed cider. Then again, I can't remember a time when friends in my house, especially those enjoying my food and my booze, ever snickered at their surroundings...

Becky

It does skew a little MCM, but in fact there is quite a variety and quite a lot of true creativity.

mtnrd, one of my favorite kitchens is from AT, and was posted here, I think. Not at all MCM either.

Becky

Here is a link that might be useful: AT green kitchen

Steff, all the best with the refinishing.

We've discussed in other threads notions of permanence, and not trashing a kitchen just because it's outmoded. I really think that "builder's grade" has a lot to do with the current propensity to throw it out! Before ending up where I am, I had offered on a much more architecturally interesting house, which had, unfortunately, had the kitchen and bathrooms updated to suit the PO, and in a way which was totally not my taste, and not in the style of the house. Before they declined (too bad--it turned out a better offer than they finally took), I planned what I would do to work with what was there. It was quality. I wasn't ripping out perfectly good. I don't even have plans to retile my current master bath, even though the quality of the tile job is, um, "loving hands at home". It's poorly executed, but adequate, and serviceable, and (thank goodness) white.

I should say that I've never been fond of oak furniture. Ever. But I had no problem with the looks of the curved edge, no hardware, '80's, partial overlay slab, orange oak cabinets in my old kitchen. I objected to the rotting ones, and to non-drawerness, to the poor layout and general inconvenience, but I didn't do my kitchen over for the looks. It's a kitchen! I did invest a lot in the looks when I did do it over because, as far as I know, I'm going to have this kitchen for the rest of my life, so wanted to do it right. But as Steff brought up, I would be loath to rip out perfectly good cabinets that fit the space, etc., just because they were outmoded.

Florantha, I think your observations are very interesting. I have very little experience with housing tracts of identical little boxes. I did live in one in college, but it was so old that all of the houses had changed hugely and were quite individual, and one only saw the similarities if one were familiar with the bones. Outside of tract developments, in the West, where I'm from, usually each house looks like it's own thing, and totally different to the one next door. I get the point about the cohesive society, etc., that you were describing, but it just seems so Disneyland to me. When I've travelled East of the Mississippi and seen places with such singular aesthetics, I've gotten a little weirded out. They're also much greener places (i.e., rainy), so, together, more foreign and strange looking than France, Italy or Greece. It's sad that you get that wonderful jumble in Europe of the old and new because of war and politics, but it is the way of the world... It was fun for me to read your appreciation of it, because I would never have come to those conclusions myself.

Becky, I'm with you on Jason and John's kitchen, as featured in AT. I had posted before that they are my neighbors and their home was featured on the house tour a few years back. They are professional designers, of course, and their whole house is amazing. This is a definitely a case in which think it does take advanced design skills and experience to be able to pull off a charm-filled, high personality house like theirs without also turning it into an eccentric design disaster. One of my faves for sure!

I thought I remembered someone saying J&J are neighbors, marthavila : ) . I would be awfully tempted to break in for some guerrilla cooking in that kitchen...

I agree about needing advanced design skills etc to pull off the kitchen -- the whole house for that matter. It's a great example of beagles' point that it's much easier to march to the beat of a different drummer with a lot of time, talent, and/or money. Especially when it comes to choosing, and using, fab wallpaper in a kitchen. And they aren't just designers but high-powered NYC designers who count Christopher Peacock as a friend -- though the cabs don't look particularly Peacocky in green!

Becky

Thanks guys, I'm all better now. Just happened to be in the "if one more person mentions outdated oak cabinets...." mood.

I'm not usually a fan of oak either and don't have any oak furniture. It helps that the cabinets aren't builder grade and they suit the house better than most other woods. The arches even work in here as the house has straight lines otherwise.

We get a lot of posts from people who wish their oak cabinets were different and can't change them for important reasons like budget or they plan to sell in the near future. My advice is go with it and focus on things that need to be changed.

Apartment Therapy is a great resource for achievable results. Loved seeing that kitchen again, the specific details may be hard to pull off but it is an excellent example of a kitchen reflecting the tastes of the owners.

I've posted it before, but the link below is my fave from AT (thought the LA loft that was the top 5 of 2011 is a close second!).

I liked the aesthetic of this place so much that I used their paint "scheme". Look closely, it's barely there. All of my walls in my new house are shades of white, with darker, creamy trim. It's one of my favorite details that I am sure no one notices!

Becky - hopefully I was only imagining snickering, in my decor-insecure little mind. Very few folks care as much as we here do!

Here is a link that might be useful: farmhouse slightly decrepit colorwashed

I am becoming more and more tempted to do a kitchen for somebody and choose oak cabinets. They wouldn't be right in my new house, wrong era, so it can't be mine :)

I'm still mad at IKEA for discontinuing my favorite door style. It was oak.

Is oak making a comeback? It really didn't go anywhere since so many of us have oak. Oak isn't as "out, out, out" as has been proclaimed and can work without trying to pretend it is really maple.

We always love the quarter-sawn oak cabinets in the mission style, yet there was a time when they were often painted in an effort to update them.

Martha Stewart included oak in her cabinets for HD. We discussed whether she was bringing it back or just going with something that a lot of homes already have.

I read with in the last year, but I can not recall where, that oak was still they most sold cabinet choice even if it is considered "dated". Some people most still like it... And qs oak is just beautiful I think!

It is still a common cabinet choice. The house my sister rents in Central Pennsylvania has oak cabinets and a laminate countertops and white appliances, in the type of a development that in my location would have maple cabinets, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances.

I assumed the house she was renting was built between 1990 and 1995 based upon its finishes. (And I guess, by the way it was holding up). It was built in 2005.

Common, indeed.

Although QS Mission cabinets are quite nice.

Yes, but when an oak fan loves oak to the exclusion of other woods, and the only finish acceptable, if natural isn't available, is honey, and if the floors are oak, the furniture is mission oak, and the walls are all lined with oak bookshelves, it does get overwhelming. Thank goodness the original pickled maple cathedral arch cabinets are staying in that kitchen, or there would be yet more oak.... When I visit, I feel like I'm an acorn in a squirrel's hidey hole.

So I was just reading about the Victorians' fascination with nature during (in reaction to) the industrial revolution. Sounds so much like what has been written about the origins of Steampunk. :)

I have a friend who told her daughter when the girl was about 15 that while her clothes were very eclectic at that time, she would be developing a personal style, and once she did she could have the money to buy "investment" pieces. (I.e., no designer priced trendoid fashions coming from the parental exchequer.) She also said that in developing this personal style her daughter should be aware that, "sexpot doesn't age well." :D I have known the exception that proves this rule; an elderly woman by years, who was still a twenty-something showgirl by figure (perhaps with help from good foundations), who totally rocked the sexpot fashions and made them work.

It makes me think though, that that is perhaps what we should be looking for--the cabinet equivalent of classic. Oak cabinets are the equivalent of the good navy suit. Cathedral arch panels are the equivalent of wide or skinny lapels and built up shoulder pads (the kind that shape the jacket, not just make it hang nicely). The arch may be totally out or right on trend, but the basic oak cabinet is never really out and never really the very first line of fashion. It's investment dressing, and appropriate on a day to day basis, even better with a classic profile (slab? simple raised panel? Shaker?) Whereas, the rustic, knotty pine cabinets with the batten joins, of the '70's-'80's, were more the shorts suit or Nehru jacket of the cabinet world. Very trendy, then very over. So...which cabinetry styles are the equivalent of "sexpot"? Modern, Euro lacquer might be the shiny, slinky dress, but what's the equivalent of the gold spandex disco jeans?

When I think about what might be the cabinet equivalent to gold spandex disco jeans, I start wondering which cabinet style will look foolish in the most houses. Gold spandex disco jeans look good on only a limited segment of the population. You need to be the right age and have the right level of fitness to make it look good. Most people look foolish in spandex disco pants. Spandex disco pants accentuate flaws.

So, I'm thinking of cabinet styles I've seen that don't do the house justice. I've seen Euro-style thermofoil minimalist cabinets that make the rest of the house look shabby in comparison. I think that cabinet/kitchen style requires a house that is equally sleek and uncluttered. I've seen photos of ultra modern minimalist kitchens that look out of place because you can see clutter on the countertops and clutter through the doorway to the dining room and maybe the window frames in the kitchen are more traditional in style and you start to think, "Hey, house, who do you think you're fooling all gussied up with a modern Euro-kitchen??"

I think there are people who get that style of kitchen thinking it will change them, but it doesn't.

(Please note that I love minimalist euro kitchens, but I know I'd never pull it off.)

I think the equivalent of classic might be whatever goes best with the house. Sometimes that's pretty obvious, and sometimes, unfortunately it may not be.

Any house that had the right kind of kitchen to begin with, would probably look okay with a Version of the original, interpreted in whatever is contemporary to the time the kitchen is remodeled. I don't think it needs to be a slavish copy either.

I did a very modern contemporary kitchen in my 1840 apartment, and although it is pretty minimal, it will age because modern/minimal will change. These apartments were outfitted with modern contemporary kitchens 1965 version and the idea was still the correct one but the 1965 version of materials was what looked old. I still think they looked better than the semi traditional kitchens that replaced most of them, but 1965 modern at least needed to be replaced with 20xx modern.

(I think a kitchen with cabinet and millwork details a la 1840 *could* work in these apartments if a full room were dedicated to them. But, as they are tucked into a corner of a large room I think simple and non conflicting with original details is the way to go.)

Gosh, now I feel bad for not liking oak. I have never like oak because I don't like busy things in my designs. I don;t like frous frous, curlicues, paisleys, anything that has a busyness to it's look. I guess from now on I will stay off the oak kitchen threads or put a caveat in my opinion.
I apologize if I ever offended anyone. I don;t think there is anything wrong with oak.

Firmly, and for the last 20 years, and forever, in the white kitchen camp.

This thread, and the first part, reminds me of a dinnertime conversation around the table, with friends and wine - meandering around, on topic with slight deviations and then back on topic.

Blfenton, Worry not! There are people who abjure navy blue suits too!! It's okay not to like oak! But, yes, it's probably worth mentioning your dislike if called to critique it. I do that with things I consult on. Sometimes it's something that I know I have a prejudice against, like the colors melon and mint together. I just hate the combination! I know that people love it because they do it all the time, so I bow out and say that if they want to go that direction, they have to make their own judgements.

Palimpsest said: I think the equivalent of classic might be whatever goes best with the house. Intriguing. I've always agreed with you about making the kitchen go with the style of the house, but I'm trying to wrap my head around classic. Interesting thought. ...

Palimpsest also said: Any house that had the right kind of kitchen to begin with, would probably look okay with a Version of the original, interpreted in whatever is contemporary to the time the kitchen is remodeled. I don't think it needs to be a slavish copy either. Thank-you for this forumulation! That's it! That's what I meant up thread when I described the fantastic, inexpensive kitchen in the tiny Hollywood flip. The kitchen was obviously new, but it was pretty much the kind of look you'd expect to see in that kind of house. Slight change of doorstyle with new cabinets, obviously new style appliances, but the overall look very first half 20th C. and proportioned correctly for the small house.

Jilly, I was thinking about the disco jeans. Sexpot cabinets, instead of sexy. Thinking about gold. Into my mind's eye pops something straight out of the '60's: White Provincial cabinets with raise lozenge panels, gold picked trim, and gold mirror marbled with gold veins. Sexpot cabinets, definitely. :) Ghastly, but kind of cool in a space that can carry it off. :)

Plllog - Great description of the sexy kitchen, it could only be from the era of pedal pushers, big hair, and high heels in the kitchen. I have seen some current kitchens in the round with mood lighting that looked pretty sexy though.

Palimpsest's definition of classic and appropriate is the best! Very helpful too, Shaker style maple or white just wouldn't work that great in my Texas vernacular shed style stone house. I'm not a rustic Mesquite/Alder cowboy kitchen type either so the oak stays.

bflenton - It's okay not to like oak, I don't like oak. Since I've made the decision to stick with the existing, it's not a problem if someone else doesn't like them. The discussion is really about getting rid of cabinets mainly because they are out of style and replacing them with more currently popular style cabinets only to eventually see those styles change too.

I don't think oak cabinets are a navy blue suit. I think they're men's pleated khakis with baggy butts paired with a short-sleeved "dress" shirt.

Why must we go back to '80s builder grade McMansion kitchen architecture? If we accept that we can't think of anything new as we descend into national dotage, then can we please revive choices that haven't already been beaten to death in kitchen cabinetry? How about Dorothy Draper inspired cabinets, or art nouveau or deco, or maybe chinoiserie?

what's the equivalent of the gold spandex disco jeans?

Tuscan painted, glazed, and, um, "artfully distressed" cabinets? With grapes and grape leaves handpainted at the top? Corbelled and crackeled...

Or, some of the more corbeled, columned, pedimented, hand rubbed French country/chateau cabinets from, say, Habersham?

You need to be the right age and have the right level of fitness to make it look good. Most people look foolish in spandex disco pants. Spandex disco pants accentuate flaws.

And regardless of young and toned you were at the time, and how great you looked in them back then, later in life you are invariably embarrassed that you owned them, let alone wore them. Or danced in them. In public.

mtnrd, yes, you are hyper aware of furniture, decor etc. anyway and with the remodel on top of things, everything would be magnified. Just don't be so quick with the mojito refills if they're not behaving!

blfenton, don't feel bad about not liking oak : ) . It's all part of that wonderful meandering conversation (love the way you phrased it). Time soon for Part the Third, yes?!

Becky

If I'd ever had the figure to make gold disco pants look good, I'd hang a huge photo of myself wearing them right over the living room fireplace.

I like oak, and our house is probably close to plllog's overdoing it description, since I do have mostly oak mission furniture and oak bookcases, and am going to being getting brand new oak cabinets in the kitchen remodel. However, the wainscoting and flooring in the house is all douglas fir, and the new kitchen cabinets will at least be a very different stain and design than my current 80's cabinets (although not shaker, which is too plain for my taste). My wife initially resisted the oak cabinets and we were going to go with Cherry, but in the end she agreed that the QS white oak fit better.

I do agree that the best thing is having the kitchen fit with the style of the house. I imagine the all white kitchens with inset shaker doors in the crammed together spec houses down the street from my parents will look old fashioned after a while, but then will become a prime example of early 21st century architecture, just like my oak fits well in my 1909 California Bungalow (if I didn't like stained wood I would have been a masochist to have bought the house).

I do it hard to totally escape a design reflecting the time, which isn't altogether bad. Having some unique touches and a sense of style is the important part. Popular styles in the wrong setting and checklist cheaply built kitchens in spec homes definitely date the fastest and look the worst once dated.

Marcolo, I didn't mean bad oak. There's nothing wrong with ordinary oak. I don't care for it. You don't. Many of us don't. Good oak may be boring, but it's fine.

I think if we all had Chinoiserie cabinets they'd loose all their possible charm and just look ungapatchka. :)

But I guess people in So. Cal. really are better looking. :) I was never the disco jeans type myself, and could never have carried it off. You need John Derek hips for that. Very rectangular. But I had friends who looked great in them, and that aging showgirl who proved the rule wore them into her '70's with great style and aplomb. :) I don't know that I ever saw her house, but I wouldn't be surprised if she rocked those marbled mirrors to good effect as well. :)

Greg, I'm sure with the doug fir floors your mission oak looks perfect and period. And the qs white oak kitchen sounds perfect for the style too. Pal's "classic". It's when every wall is covered in oak bookcases (three rooms) and the floor is the exact same oak, and so is the furniture, that it gets to be Chez Chip 'N Dale. :)

So, I have meetings Thurs. Please feel free to start a new thread if you want one. Try to have just one person do it, though, okay?

Why don't we do "Dorothy Draper inspired cabinets, or art nouveau or deco, or maybe chinoiserie" because 90% of the population has no idea what you are talking about or know what it looks like. Oak cabinets, good or bad, hate or like, are in our decorating psyche and are probably seen by many as a sign of strength, long-lasting (think oak trees), hard-wearing furniture.

And the ten percent who do have some idea of who or what this style connotes, probably don't live in a house that would support an art nouveau, art deco, Draper or chinoiserie kitchen.

Since this is one forty nine, unless its been started I will address this in part iii.

Oh goodie! I've always wanted to have the final say in a retired thread. :-). On to part 3!