Our last fridge (one we bought) was a sxs in white with a smooth finish white handle with metallic accents by LG. It was large and pretty. We moved here to an ugly, small, white sxs with yellowing handle.

Any geese with bandanas yet? ;/

Were the counters non granite?

k detective,

I laughed out loud. Literally. My mom had those when I was in high school and that was SOME TIME AGO.

Rene

it's a magazine. they have to change things around a bit, it's their job.
just let me know when they're featuring avocado appliances with orange formica counters. -wouldn't want to miss THAT.

It was essentially the white kitchen with (really nice) french oak cabinets. The countertops were carrera marble. Its a great looking kitchen. I've seen orange countertops already but they were either Mandarin Corian or Life!Cool Silestone.

"Golden Oak and white appliances" are just a provocative phrase in this particular forum that conjures up all kinds of things, it doesn't have much to do with how that kitchen actually looks :) The other two featured kitchens still had stainless appliances.

Well I for one am glad that oak and some color is on its way back. While I do love all white kitchens (husband really likes white kitchens) it seems everyone is getting them and although I'm finished with my kitchen I want to look at something new in design. I especially like QS oak and seriously considered it for my new kitchen, problem was it didnâÂÂt blend with some of my new dining room âÂÂdealâ purchases. QS Oak or I imagine French oak is refreshingly earthy, sensual and relaxing to me, I truly love it.

k detective, count me in the LOL crowd.

I've rented those houses on vacation. One made us cover up their pretty duck dusty blue/pink special prints with sheets before we left so they wouldn't fade if no one was there... It was in the lease and I was chicken otherwise I would have said these belong to the sun ...bye bye.

My smooth white fridge has metal handles, so I am not too concerned with them turning yellow. I have seen LG white fridges with stainless handles. I wanted to order stainless handles for mine, but they are like $200 per handle, and I need three. Not gonna happen. Oh well, it was a nice thought. OH and the Jenn Air floating glass series is verrrrry sleek and stylish. White with stainless handles and accents. The gas range is gorgeous, too, but the one I *almost* bought had downdraft, and I didn't want that.

But....what does the rest of the kitchen look like? Sounds pretty so far!

No cadet blue and mauve kerchiefed geese please!! If we have to go there again, I'm out!

i'm sure it looks beautiful. it would have to be if it were in HB. i'll have to look out for it. still not sure about the white appliances, i'd have to see it.

it's funny how when you put the word, "french" in front of oak it sounds a lot more palatable!

So who was responsible for the first goose with a kerchief? Is there a dusty blue mauve loving artist some where that is still alive that we can go hunt down and ask? Does he/she know what happened in a odd period in the 80's? Hopefully he/she has long passed and has asked for forgiveness?

My mom *had* (I have to qualify this with I HOPE she *had* and does not still *have*) a collection of these geese displayed. A few years ago, when my SIL and I took a roadtrip to visit my parents, we hid all the geese that were in the guest bedroom. We thought we were so clever and giggled like naughty children.

After we left, Mom found the geese under the bed, in a drawer, in the back of the closet, and one even behind the towels in the linen cabinet. She did get a kick out of it, and asked, "So I guess you don't like my geese?" and I answered "I thought they were really cute--IN 1989!"

LOL at the geese flap! (I, personally, have vowed never to have mauve or seafoam green in my house!)

It makes me wonder what my children will pounce upon in the future that is near and dear to my heart.

For home decor, Bob Dylan said it best, "Oh the times they are achanging."

I had one--a gift cookie jar. A rescue cat foisted on me by our vet tried to kill one of our keeshonds by pushing the cookie jar off the top of the refrigerator, where I had hidden the goose, I thought, aiming for the top of the dog's head. The dog dodged the missile, but the goose's head shattered. The headless body became a morbid catch-all for keys and mail for a few years. Then our real goose died (we live in the country) and the half cookie jar saddened me, so it went to live in the barn.
Wild goose chase aside, that pretty, tight-grained English and European oak never went out with the super high-end cabinet makers. Smallbone has used it forever in some of its cabinets. Green Demolitions has a Clive Christian Edwardian Oak Pantry on sale as we speak.

Here is a link that might be useful: Oak!

The only white appliance I recall from that HB spread was the white painted 48" Viking range, and that ain't your momma's 30" Roper...

sandyponder

I have a white range with ss handle...FiveStar!

OT.
Read this thread from the point of view of a budget-restricted or non-kitchen-obsessed person. There's a bullying tone here that explains some of the discomfort by a portion of the GW readers and their reluctance to make a post.

There is a difference between taste and price. Not fair to confuse the two.

Florantha, I can understand that...there is a certain orthodoxy in the kitchen forum regarding what constitutes a "good kitchen". To me I have found it to be more about layout and function having very restrictive parameters although the stainless thing does get a bit, well...I was told by someone in here that I needed to "crawl back on the throne I had constructed to my huge ego" because I happened to be in the white appliance camp in that thread. She pretty much disappeared after that so she may have died of the hemorrhage she had over the white vs. stainless debate.

I also agree about taste and price. In my first kitchen I used a cheap white refrigerator that I picked because it had NO handles or plastic on the front. It still kept things cold. Its tough though, to express good taste when something You like isn't even available at the price point you are looking. Have you tried to find a nice, plain vinyl for a kitchen lately?

I don't think a non-kitchen obsessed person would be reading this thread to begin with and if they were, I doubt they would be offended by it,,,they just wouldn't understand what the big deal is about. It would be like me trying to understand the viscious arguments that music buffs get into over whose version of a song is better.

so, really I was just making a statement about how there is nothing new under the sun, not start WWIII over dressed up geese.

I didn't read anything offensive in this thread. I feel like I missed something;)

I think the original point is that decor rotates and what is passe today is the must have item of tomorrow.

For the record, I still like geese, even the ones in Federale garb. However, I've yet to understand the stainless steel appliance obsession. I have them in my kitchen because that was what was easily obtained in my area. I find it to be very neutral in the whole kitchen design and an element that recedes in my eyes. It's good that color is being reintroduced to appliances.

KD, that oak pantry is GORGEOUS!

I like white appliances, and that is why I chose them. I think they look classic, crisp, and clean. I also have a few stainless appliances. I think white and "silver" look smart together.

I would LOVE appliances with color--like Big Chill colors. They are just waaaaay out of our budget.

I like white too. I don't like cheap (construction, not taste) yellowed/will yellow plastic white, but there's nothing wrong with plain ol' white!

Florantha, my apologies. To Doonie as well. I have nothing against geese per se, but the dusty colored ubiquitous kercheifed geese from the '80's always bugged me. In jumping on that meant-to-be-funny bandwagon I didn't mean to insult anyone who has/had and likes them.

I thing the problem that a lot of people have with American oak is that it's a very strong look that is hard to adapt to changing styles, and in cheap, builder grade or worse cabinets, which were ubiquitous in the '80's following the oak revival in the mid-'70's/early-'80's, a lot of people associate oak with nasty cabinets that they were stuck with.

Carefully crafted, high quality oak, in a purposeful design rather than generic slap together, is a completely different story.

An artist I know, who was tops in her field, took a workshop so she could learn to use pink. No matter how much a color, a grain, a finish might not suit one's self image, excluding it from the toolbox is only handicapping oneself. They are all equally deserving.

Actually, my 20 yr-old KM fridge is white with black/chrome handles. Nothing has yellowed over time (except my teeth, according to my dentist). Range, DW and compactor all match. But I'm looking at SS for replacements since that is what the range will probably come in (GE or Elux). The cabinets will probably be white since the whole kitchen is dark (no direct sunlight).

The white LG sure does come with metal handles :)

IMO they have conquered the primary problem with white appliances --the "color matched" handle that doesn't match and only gets more different.

Perhaps I should not bring this up but I have seen Two spreads that had a room with mauve carpeting in the past year or so, and they weren't little girl's rooms. I don't think any individual color is what contributes to things looking "old fashioned" (I refuse to use the D word anymore except in relation to someone I went out with) --but rather a combination of things that make it that way. Teal is also a color I have seen featured in paint ads of late.:)

Please do keep bringing these things up. I find it very interesting.

Speaking of mauve, my new dining table arrived the day after Thanksgiving instead of before. So I had to put two old mismatched tables together. Had to rescue a mauve tablecloth out of a bag of to be donated stuff. Everyone couldn't understand why I didn't want to keep the mauve tablecloth for the new table.

Actually there will be purple in the room in the form of Vikingware which I have always liked even as a kid.

Yeah, but is it *dusty* mauve (teal)?

sandyponder

The mauve carpet was the mauve I remember from the 80s.

The teal I am seeing now is the urban version of the teal that was around in the 80s, not dusty but an urban saturated teal. I went to an engagement party in 1990 at the wealthy relative of a friend and I remember being struck by the 30' sectional sofa with matching ottomans that ringed the media room (the first I ever saw). Yards and yards of teal leather. I also remember someone having a teal leather suit that was double breasted with large gold buttons...

ack*** geese, mauve and teal. If they are coming back what happened to sunny yellow countertops? I prefer simple grained wood to oak and stainless steel appliances. I am going crazy and using sandstone counters and an ag glass backsplash. Don't figure the sandstone will go out since it has never been in. For your kitchen, I think you shouldn't worry about what's in or out (unless your doing for quick sell) and don't worry about mixing finishes. It's your kitchen choose what you like and enjoy it. You're not doing your kitchen for others to use. In the end all that matters is what you think and are happy with.

I see Florantha's point but disagree that the TKO discussions around here amount to kitchen snobbery. I think that all of us, regardless of available funds, are trying very hard to make our renovation look good as long as possible. Despite different tastes, the words "classic" and timeless" come up again and again. So to a certain extent, we are trying to stay ahead of the latest trend, (impossible!) thus squeezing the very most time with our kitchens before it begins to feel outdated to us.

Gosh, sharing laughs about kerchiefed geese shouldn't offend!

Florantha, I'm blizzardy St. Paul too...Oh, my! I loved your White Castle pic.

My old whirlpool has white handles under the peanut butter and jelly. I know 'cause I scrub them off from time to time.

When I first found this site EVERY SINGLE KITCHEN had an island, granite, pendants, and stainless. Not only was that not my style, it wasn't my price range. I had a 1950 kitchen remodeled quite nicely - in 1970. It was time for it to retire. It had a peninsula. I hated that peninsula from the first day. It's gone now. When I went cabinet shopping I was looking for oak. Oak is my favorite wood. I veered sharply when I saw the hickory shaker. I lived through avocado/orange/gold/brown. I ducked the mauve/blue. I've found white. Love white. Easy to decorate around, easy to keep clean, looks crisp all the time. My kitchen was never in. I'm accessorizing with 1930-1950 kitchen stuff. So is it dated? I hope so! It's not easy finding that stuff we threw out in 1986. If I would have saved half the stuff I threw out from my parent's house, I'd be retired right now. As it is, I'm buying a lot of it back at a price I sometimes can't afford.

Since it's blizzarding today, I'm baking! So far French bread and baklava. Reading the cookbook but running out of steam.

Completely OT--Pinch-me, I'm baking today, too, as the snow falls outside. It was supposed to be the day for the annual extended family Christmas cookie baking marathon at my cousin's house, but no one was able to drive across the city for it. So I'm making do at home, baking about ten cookies at a time in the toaster oven in the temporary hallway kitchen.

Earlier today my husband braved the snow to walk a block and a half to the convenience store for eggs for me, and didn't come back, and didn't come back. I thought I'd have to send a St. Bernard with a cask of brandy around it's neck. Of course, he had just stopped to help push out a stuck car. He and three others were unable to budge it, though. Reinforcements were on their way with shovels. It's that sort of day.