My house is almost 100 years old, so you could say that it is dated! Dated to the 1920s, with all the original unlacquered brass hardware, chair rails, moldings, plaster walls and strip oak flooring. Very solid, custom built and with high quality materials. Have we "updated" it? Sure--when the original green and black tile bathroom became unusable due to leaks we renovated it. The 1960s kitchen with the poor layout was also renovated. The termite-infested garage was torn down and rebuilt. BUT anything we did to it has been after lots of thought and respect for the period of the home. Always with a high quality of materials and workmanship. So someone can enter my home and think that my original built-in corner china cabinet is dated, or the dentil molding is outre, or the white recessed cabinet kitchen with the marble counter tops are no long "on trend," but I don't care. They are all done to my taste in good taste and quality, and I'm happy with it! I hope I never have to sell it and worry about "resale" (another irritating word.)

Jan:

Go in your closet. I challenge you to come up with 6 items you've been wearing yearly for a dozen years. Can you do it? Jewelry doesn't count. Most people can't do it, and it isn't due to fluctuating weight. My own list?

Yes I can. I'd say about 2/3rds of my tops have been worn yearly for a dozen years. I tend to wear out jeans and slacks faster than that. Or in some cases the hips outstrip the slacks, too... (oh well).

My winter jacket - I bought it mid-90s. I outgrew it and couldn't wear it for about 8 years - wouldn't fasten at the bottom. Well, I lost a lot of weight in 2011 - 12 -- and I've taken to wearing it again, and again.

I just don't care that much about clothing. I care about comfort, and as long as that's there (and in decent shape), I'm keeping them. AND using them. Oh, I do care about how they look when I buy them, but I don't have an auto-off switch when ten years passes, or anything that says NO it's turned DATED!

When it come to kitchens: Dated - this usually means, "I just don't like it and I saw it in the 90s." Or, in the 70s. Or in the 30s. Or again, "I just don't like it". Or, if it's someone selling something, "Here's the latest trend, try it."

I rather look at a kitchen and say, "I really don't care for that look". Or, "I'd like that look in the appropriate style house, and it just doesn't work here".

Dated is if you are still using an ice box instead of a fridge, or if your range turns out to be built in 1968 and uses old and unsafe electric technology to make it work (which as it turns out, was the case with my old kitchen range back at the old house). Dated, and HAD to go. Especially as I didn't want to burn the place down!

Dated is not having enough outlets in your kitchen. (Old place, ditto.)

I'm rather the type if I liked something way back in the 60s I still like it today. I can see wanting to change up things along the way - new colors, new designs and all. One does sometimes thrive on change just to shake up our lives or perspective, or whatever. Or something to make your kitchen more functional - especially as we age our needs change. Or we add or subtract household members - our needs change. Or we do things like take up canning - our needs change.

closet challenge was interesting..I'd say around 40? very quick look, without checking the drawers etc.

I'm counting only the pieces that were bought indeed more than 10 years ago.

Jeans actually serve me for a long long time. I'm very lucky in that. Also coats and jackets. Also shoes. If they're made well..

some of what I bought during last decade-I'd wear them as long I'm sure.

of course it can happen that a particular winter is very warm-and I don't wear sweater X this year. Or something like that

(we're in So Cal, and I'm often cold)) yet some winters can be too warm for certain sweaters still, unless one travels)

Shannon:

Or tray ceilings, which are expensive to install, and expensive to remove once installed. We should tell people they are dated.

I would just tell someone that they're expensive to install and remove - and that they won't add value to your home when it comes time for resale. I might even mention that I don't personally care for them (which is true when they were on trend, as well as now, when they are supposedly dated).

@jhmarie yes. people want to fit in and be liked. it's not a marketing trap. it's not silly. they do. it's basic human psychology. it has nothing to do with age or youth or high school. it's just as true with older people as younger people.

Not to get off topic but the more mature person (not necessarily in years) will recognize that doing thing "to be liked and fit in" is asking for stress and living life at an immature level. It is the source of the present day term "virtue signaling."

One should progress to being caring/ polite even online because one values the inherent worth of all people, not so one will be liked. (Someone's online presence / way of speaking can also be affected by the area they live - some areas of my country "blunt" speech is just the way people talk where others areas use more tact.)

One needs to grow beyond concern about being liked to be truly loving. Parents know this - they will often be disliked by their kids because the did the loving thing - said no to the snack, party, event or dress or whatever that wasn't in the child's best interest. "To love is to will the good of the other as other. It is to break out of the black hole of one's own self-regard and truly desire what is best for another." - Bishop Barron

Philosophy lesson over - on to dated - again.

People are concerned about "dated" for both good and not so good reasons. A good reason would be concern over maintaining the home's value. A poor reason is concern over being that home owner on HGTV where the couple walks in and says - this is so dated. That is the marketing ploy - what will your friends think of you if you have a "dated" whatever. Will you not "fit in" because everyone else has a shiny new kitchen. (Of course, real friends don't care.)

If one knows real friends don't care, then it is not an issue. So I have arched oak cabinets (and I really do) - I know many would call them dated - but so what - in the scheme of life my cabinets - clean and functional - are rather insignificant. For those with the budget and need to spruce up their home, they can come here to a free forum and get some thoughts - sometimes worth a great deal, other times worth the price paid:)

I don’t post much but read quite a bit. So much depends on neighborhood and price point. No matter what kitchen we put in this house whoever moves in (5 years or hopefully 50 years) will gut it. People gut high end off trend kitchens constantly here. We have had to renovate the kitchen, two and a half baths along with a whole lot of work outdoors and were fine with it.

On the other hand we are looking at buying a lower price point home in another state. I cringe when I see grey and white farmhouse in an old Tudor or bungalow. In that case, we are taking it off the list.... I don’t love (even like) modern farmhouse. After knowing how much renovations truly cost we are not willing to buy a home that will be completely dated in 5-10 years... and spend 25%+ of the purchase price to renovate or have to sell at a discount.

All of that to say, I think choices have greater impact at the lower ends of the market where people may not be willing to or may not be able to renovate.

I agree that "dated" is a Code word for not my taste for the most part.

I do think that once design gets dumbed down for the masses, it then is more likely to become dated because God is in the details so the dumbed down items generally lack the design beauty of the higher end version - e.g. the high end formica trimmed wood versus the builder grade ubiquitous cabinets that look ugly - but I don't think they were very attractive.

I find the tiled bathrooms that are common in old California homes to be charming - but these are "dated" but within the context of the homes they are lovely and refurbishing them will, in my opinion, be far more classic than redoing them in the ubiquitous spa marble look that many people think is "classic".

As posted above, dumbed down design which is then used willy nilly will also looked dated - e.g. the Tuscan kitchen in builder grade finishes looks "dated" but was always a poor design choice.

In terms of prediction I also think that many of the dumbed down design trends currently will look dated in the future - free standing tubs squashed into small bathrooms for example.

In terms of avocado green, harvest gold and the copper appliances that were the rage in the late 1960's and 1970's - these were part of a design aesthete that favored earth tones - think fern bars and macrame as other iconic design elements. Upholstery fabrics were also earth tones. Hell there were even Earth Shoes if anyone remembers those :-).

The bathrooms of that period can now seem charmingly retro - they have those very specific mosaic tile floors that were commonly done in blue, pink or yellow with matching 4" x 4" wall tiles and matching tub, sink and toilet :-).

The bathrooms of that period can now seem charmingly retro - they have those very specific mosaic tile floors that were commonly done in blue, pink or yellow with matching 4" x 4" wall tiles and matching tub, sink and toilet :-).

Hmm, I wonder if this a regional thing. The house I grew up in certainly had bathrooms like that, but it was built in 1960. By the time avocado and harvest gold rolled around, bathrooms followed suit. I lived for longer than I care to remember with an avocado green kitchen and bath in my first rental apt. I spent a lot of time trying to pretend that the tub was forest green, but it wasn't and refused to pretend to be. But certainly pastels were very old hat during the earth-tone era in the states where I lived.

ETA However, AFAIK it wasn't common for people to feel invalidated by anything in kitchen or bath so nobody cared very much, quite unlike today.. But I was happy when I was able to move to an older building with yellow kitchens and baths.

You can pry my avocado green kitchenaid mixer out of my cold dead hands. And yes, it sits on my counter, unabashedly exposed to the world (i.e. my cat and some occasional company) 100% of the time.

When I see a kitchen, I ask (1) is it functional; (2) does it fit the style/era of the house; and (3) do I like it? Note that #3 doesn't actually matter unless it's my own kitchen I'm looking at.

All this to say: "dated" is a pretty meaningless term, IMHO.

@jslazart I thought I was the only person left on the face of the earth who liked "avocado" green. When I bought my current house, it had the original avocado green laminate countertops. I've always been fond of green, and when I needed to replace the counters due to damage, I searched high and low for a similar laminate. I was sad to see it go with my current remodel.

@writersblock - I think those 1960's/1970's style bathrooms were installed over the course of a decade - one built in 1960 was probably an early adaptor and one built in the early 1970's was probably towards the end of the trend.

And certainly these bathrooms were not considered to be dated in the 1970's when they were probably still the homes of the first occupants. First because they were still on trend and secondly because people simply didn't change bathrooms or kitchens for style purposes until relatively recently. I grew up in a house built in the 1920's and there were "cupboards" that had been built on site. Periodically the kitchen cabinets would be painted and new wallpaper would be put up. The white subway tile (yes white subway tile) remained and it was never even a blip in my mother's brain to remodel the kitchen so that it resembled my aunt's kitchen that had been built in the NJ suburbs in the late 1960's.

I lived in an apartment that had that horrid avocado green, everywhere. The shag carpets, the counters...the refrigerator. UGH. I love green, I have a sage/silver green in my kitchen but I hate that shade that reminds me of that roach-infested apartment so many years ago. After that, I lived in an apartment that had BROWN....everywhere. I hated it then, and I still do.

A theme or conclusion that is emerging (and I thought I was the only one that thought this, phew) is that a "look" works when it is honest to the period and architecture of the home, but becomes silly in the rear view mirror in other cases. When your house exterior is clapboard siding a Spanish terra cotta kitchen floor looks good when it's (ugh) "on trend" but tired in a short while, while the same floor can look absolutely timeless in an Arizona terra cotta, clay-tile roofed house.

And so it can be said of subway tile, granite counters, MCM everything, and a million other things. Some times it's right, and other times it's a tired cliche just waiting to happen.

@idaclaire the dated thing is also a joke between me and my husband. and yeah I don't care how attractive anything in the smeg brand is. there is no way I'd ever buy one with that name. I would never put something with a gross word on my counter or kitchen or anywhere. it might as well be the c word or f word. lol. just no way I'd pay for it. even if it was free I'd have to take a pass.

@jhmarie have you heard of keeping up with the joneses? :) it may not be an omg I have to have the latest fashion type thing but on a subconscious level it is always something that is going to be affecting a persons judgement and decision making process. Being accepted into a group or social circle isn't necessary for survival at this point in time but that is a very recent occurrence. even as little as 90 years ago we depended on a larger social circle for survival. it takes longer than one or two generations to get rid of an instinct we've developed over many many milenna.

I'm with the contingent that believes it's quality that matters more than style. If I were on the market if the kitchen is higher end and attractive for what it is and still in good condition and functional, I'd be ok with it regardless of style house it's in. if it's box store quality it's another story.

@jhmarie have you heard of keeping up with the joneses? :) it may not be an omg I have to have the latest fashion type thing but on a subconscious level it is always something that is going to be affecting a persons judgement and decision making process.

Doesn't have to be. Not one of my friends is concerned about keeping up with the Jones. We've had enough happen in our lives that we can blow that off. I can tell from the way you phrase this that you are coming at it from a different mindset then I am. I have a spiritual / people are capable of more than their genetic map outlook. One of my best friends is a psychologist and your psychological assessment would not impress her.

The present societal over concern with such things as "hurt feelings" and "fitting in" are signs of an immature society. Fragile egos do not handle stress or life in general well. While I advocate for tact on forums, to let a home decor forum affect ones mental health is childish.

I can provide a participation trophy if that will help:)

@jhmarie I don't get where you are getting some of these things. where do hurt feelings or fragile egos come into this? I'm talking about from an overhead perspective of the human race not individuals. and I;m willing to bet big money that if I knew more about you i'd be able to pick out ways that you and your friends identify with each other that makes you all feel like you belong together. traits and things you do to find acceptance with one another. it may not be keeping up with the jones in the latest tv set but I'm wiling to bet there are things you all do to nurture that common ground. for you fitting in would be finding other people of a "spiritual outlook" we are all slaves to our hardwiring one way or another. lol. I'm sorry if that hurts your world view. .: )

the other example is the way you've jumped on this, with the assumption I'm from some sort of certain age bracket or generation and are chiming in with a few others here (patting each other on the collective back for keeping it up)with the derogatory generalizations is a way of fitting in with others you have identified as your peers. (and you are all very wrong on that point for a number of reasons but if it makes you have the warm fuzzies with your friends I guess no harm no foul)

I loved reading this thread.

I just have to disagree with the posts trashing metal kitchen cabinets. My Godparents had them when I was a child, and those things were indestructible. Their son crashed his bike into them (long story- he lost his tooth but they didn't even scratch LOL )

They looked like painted slab front cabinets, but they latched when you closed them. so I would imagine they also would be much better in an earthquake.

I thought they were really nice, and I still do. I would probably change them from canary yellow, but I would buy them in a heartbeat.

@Helen I'll admit my sample size was very low. I'm sure there were high grade and low grade just like now. the ones we had were sharp and the drawers will ill fitting and didn't open and close easily and they stunk. but, it wasn't a very nice house either so it wouldn't be a stretch to think they were the poorest quality made vs nicer ones.

Go in your closet. I challenge you to come up with 6 items you've been wearing yearly for a dozen years. Can you do it? Jewelry doesn't count. Most people can't do it, and it isn't due to fluctuating weight. My own list?

I just don't care that much about clothing. I care about comfort, and as long as that's there (and in decent shape), I'm keeping them. AND using them. Oh, I do care about how they look when I buy them, but I don't have an auto-off switch when ten years passes, or anything that says NO it's turned DATED!

I can come up with several dozen items of clothing that I've been wearing for 12-35 years, and some of the items (from Best & Company, Bonwit Teller, and I. Magnin) my mother wore for several decades before giving them to me.

And I have and keep wearing those pieces because I do care about clothing -- because for me it's hard to find anything as stylish and well-made nowadays for a reasonable price. I've found it interesting that a number of items, including sweaters, tops and dresses, have gone in and out of fashion several times in the past 35+ years : ) .

april, that was a great thread. Thanks again for starting it. And gee, I miss palimpsest.

Pick what you like and can comfortably afford. Tastes change, including your own. All we can do is make the best choices with the options presented to us in the moment.

On trends...

Prince Charles, on being told he was receiving a Lifetime Achievement in Fashion award from GQ, said, “Particularly because in fashion terms I'm like a stopped clock, in other words I'm fashionable once every 25 years."

Bunny Williams, when asked what the latest trend was, said she doesn’t follow trends - she simply designs pretty rooms.

If someone has no eye for interior design, hire someone who does. Choose someone who designs rooms you could move right into, and then follow the advice for which you have paid.

@beckysharp, what happened to Pal? I read more than I post and she is a frequent contributor that offers good input. Hope all is okay.

@jhmarie

i never implied using the term dated was not nice. I said it was not helpful because it's not really an answer to anything and is vastly overused. it basically means, "I don't like it" 90% of the time. I'm actually advocating people say I don't like it instead. or I don't think it works because.... and actually giving a detailed explanation which can be better utilized by the person needed advice. I know I'd rather people said to me, I don't like it, rather than giving me a generic, it's dated.. because what can you do with it's dated? nothing. dated means nothing.

and yes I think people use it as a tool of manipulation. Dated has become an emotionally laden word. So use something less so. it has nothing to do with hurting feelings or anything like that. it's a matter of being more clinical and precise in word usage. There are people out there who want to keep up with the joneses and fashion and be liked on that front. I've seen them here. They aren't me but I wish them well. and I would hope to help them achieve their goals even if they aren't mine. If I don't like something that is fashionable (which I mostly don't) I'm gonna say it. but I'll also say I see how others might share your enthusiasm, but you might find your investment turned to dust when the next fad hits and you find the need to follow that.

the way you are latching on to the feelings/unicorn aspect of this last paragraph is, forgive me, weird.

My point has nothing to do with not hurting diddums feelings but not misleading diddums into thinking that the opinions being offered to them are some kind of social bible they must adhere to which is the unspoken intent of most using the phrase "dated"

and yelling at people with caps? huh? what? your assumptions are just weird baseless and mindblowing... do you honestly think my feelings are hurt in anyway here? lol.

I don't think you've actually read a thing I've written. or if you have your reading comprehension is sadly lacking. if I sound very young.. you sound very ... old.

Go in your closet. I challenge you to come up with 6 items you've been wearing yearly for a dozen years. Can you do it? Jewelry doesn't count. Most people can't do it, and it isn't due to fluctuating weight. My own list?

count me in as one of the people who don't really care about fashion in any way shape or form. when I was a teenager I went all vintage all the time. I dressed 40's 50's and 60's exclusively all the time. (only a few others were doing it. ) I gave up on that in my early 30's. and just bought whatever the store had that fit me fairly well. by my 40's I went exclusively jeans and sweats. I'm still in that comfort zone. looking at my clothes I honestly couldn't tell what is how old because it's all kind of generic to me. lol. jeans and tee shirts and sweats.. did I get it 10 years ago? 20? a couple years ago? dunno. don't care. as long as it's not dirty or torn it's all good. :)

Aurora Tee, he had enough of the shenanigans last year and departed : ( .

While I may agree that using the term” dated “ may not be helpful I think in most cases it is used benignly. It , like so many other catch phrases today is just to easy to use when a poster may not be very experienced or have a formulated vision in mind that they can put down to the written word. Perhaps a little patience and consideration on everyone’s part would help and trying to remember that this is a forum to help one another.

“Dated” is shorthand. Most people fully understand what it means. It means that something has gone out of favor and is no longer popular. One need not write a treatise about this or analyse why people generally prefer to not spend money on such. That does not mean they are lemmings, blindly following the latest trend.

i have clothes and shoes in my closet that are over 20 yrs old. They were classic, timeless styles when I bought them, and still are. I haven’t worn many trendy clothes in my life and the last time was probably in the early 60’s when I was about 21.

One can do what one wants in ones own house. Heck, spray paint your refrigerator avocado green or harvest gold - I couldn’t care less. But when someone asks if they should have their cathedral arched, golden oak cabinets professionally painted and install $4000 worth of new quartz counter tops, I’d advise them not to do this. Golden oak is hard to cover unless even more expensive prep is done, and they will still have those cathedral arches which many today do not like. They usually add they’re selling in 3-5 years and not replacing the pinkish beige tile floor. That’s lipstick on a pig. You may think otherwise, but that is my professional opinion. It’s free.

The whole design , remodeling and building industry is predicated on things being “ outdated”! We don’t live in a static world ( well most of us don’t)! This really is just a take it with a grain of salt issue or just SOB;)!

I'm laughing at this thread. Hubby and I bought most of our furniture between 1964 and 1970 because we loved the simple lines. of the Scandinavian and modern furniture available then. At one point I looked at a decorating magazine (this was during the decorated duck phase, maybe late 1980s) and I looked around and said to myself "all my furniture has legs, so dated". However, it fit our small house and I never thought about it again. Then a couple of years ago my daughter told me that our furniture is MCM and "in". The point is, we bought what we liked and never lost a friend by having "dated" furniture. In fact, friends of ours decided that teak furniture is dated, so we scored six beautiful bookcases and a lovely table/bookcase for behind the couch.

As some have said, elements of a house must compliment each other. The house that we have now was an expensive architect-designed house where no expense was spared. However in some ways it is a mishmash between MCM and colonial; my take is to play down the colonial aspect. It has "gasp" brass doorknobs. They are not the usual builder-grade doorknobs, so I decided not to replace them: Indeed when the powder room faucet gave up the ghost I hunted high and low to find a faucet that looked as if it had been there originally. I have also decided not to paint the metal on the fireplace screens black.

Bottom line, probably at some time or other some or all of my choices were dated. Some would look at our house now and point out dated items. However, it serves us well and is welcoming to our friends and family, which is what counts.

Go in your closet. I challenge you to come up with 6 items you've been wearing yearly for a dozen years. Can you do it? Jewelry doesn't count. Most people can't do it, and it isn't due to fluctuating weight. My own list?

I have clothes from the 1980's. If you buy for quality and no frou-frou, you can wear them forever. All my summer shirts are over 6 years old. My winter long underwear is 30 years old. My wool winter shirts are 10 years old. I have 2 pairs of pants that I haven't been able to replace that are from 2005. I wear them every day.

So, yeah, the "dated" term by professionals is a way of persuading folks to upgrade. Also often a putdown from a fashion sales person (a designer would come under this rubric) to a client. Because "dated" is not a compliment.

By an art historian, well, it would mean something entirely different and less fraught, but we're talking kitchen styles here, not antiques.

yvonnemartin, your house sounds delightful. would love to see some pics.

tangerinedoor, the word "dated" is used by EVERYONE here on Houzz, not just pros!

@Diana - I agree that the actual term "dated" is used by both professionals and lay people who frequent design forums.

However the term "dated" as used for kitchens and bathrooms specifically is one that really has its conceptual roots in the world of professionals - e.g. those who make money by getting consumers to want "new" things. The idea that kitchens and baths make a "fashion" statement is a very new one.

I realize that people have always liked the idea of keeping up with "modern" design trends. Gas light fixtures and built in "sanitary" Kohler bath fixtures were advertised to people as something desirable and covetable. There was a reason that avocado fixtures or pink bathrooms became iconic style elements of a certain period.

However, I don't think it permeated to such a mass consumer level until fairly recently - at least as it pertained to kitchens and bathrooms which were expensive to make "fashionable" and therefore were viewed as functional. Of course with kitchens, at some point they became living rooms and an integral part of home decor with open concept homes and therefore fair game as a reflection of the inhabitant's taste in a way that a bathroom or kitchen wasn't judged in a older style home.

My favorite article of clothing is a dark, olive green, mid calf, winter coat with a silk lining from Louis of Boston. It is made of soft, silky, close weave, mid weight Italian wool and it is as comfortable over a suit getting in and out of the car as a snuggly bathrobe is over pajamas. It is not too heavy for a cool fall or spring day, and the close weave, lined wool is super warm on a frigid, windy winter day. Half of the people who have seen it over it’s now +30 year life have asked where I purchased it - as in “how can I buy one?”. And they are still asking. The lining has been replaced once, and except for a little rub on one cuff, it looks almost like new, even though I have worn it fall, winter and spring for over 30 years. It is stylish and timeless. I believe there are well designed kitchens that are stylish and timeless too, even though they aren’t the current trend.

I would actually quibble a bit with the OP's original thesis. Mostly as the possessor of a quantity of vintage ephemera (The Farmer's Wife, Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, Modern Priscilla, etc.), I would argue that while individual elements may cycle in and out of fashion, particular combinations of elements scream out their era. Little elements that get used today only when one is trying to create a feeling of being OF that era. Visuals, for reference:

1930's:

Everything from the color combos, to the style of cabinets, tile work and wood cutouts pins these firmly into their time. Yes, we still see glass front cabinets. Though they don't look much like this. Yes, tile countertops are staging a comeback. Yes, inset drawers are still a thing. But this kitchen is so dated it's period correct.

And I doubt there are many people who's hearts go pitter-pat for the older style of plain plywood cabs, whatever the hardware may be.

1940's:

(Disregarding the anachronistic border). Again, the cabs are perfectly suited to the kitchen, but no one NOT doing a restoration is using these. Or pieced laminate back splashes.

1950's

It's possible to embrace the vibe and make them charming, but still

Knotty pine? Crazy multi-level counters with angled edges?

1960's

Rock walls, cabinets hanging in the air, and no wax vinyl!

1970's

My retinas find this one painful. I remember those lights, though.

Oh

Oh, and the Coloniawful period. I don't think there are many people clamoring for those spindles...

Wait, this may have been the fake mediterranean. I forget. I think Coloniawful had copper light fixtures with cutesy hurricane shades.

80's?

Some raised panels, and the ubiquitous wallpaper border. Oh, and microwave carts.

Or the uber-country style that required a close personal friendship with a Lonnaberger consultant:

And the geese...

Tuscan:

Too soon?

And I would venture to say if I wasn't way too lazy to go grab a stack of magazines and scan some old ads, I could make the point that REALLY stylish kitchens of their day were even more likely to telegraph their year of construction.

That isn't inherently a bad thing, and eventually we get enough distance from a style that it starts to feel more charming than dingy and out of fashion.

I would agree that some of it is the fact that only in the last 20-30 years has it been at all commonplace to gut a kitchen that simply isn't stylish anymore. In fact, it's only the last 100 years or so that even HAD a room with cabinets affixed to every available vertical surface that we would recognize as a more-or-less modern kitchen. It's entirely possible to create one of freestanding furniture-style pieces instead, if you want to.

However, "dated" does communicate something specific, even though the term is vastly overused.

I think "design fatigue" is really what most people are expressing when they see yet another iteration of an overdone and nearly the end of a trend-cycle style.

Oh! Louis of Boston!!! I used to go in that store and simply drool!!! I never could afford anything in there, but if I could have, this is where I would have shopped. Yes, timeless things - never faddy or trendy - and very high quality. Lucky you!!!

Here is a picture of Audrey Hepburn on her wedding day in 1969 (2nd marriage). She was wearing Givenchy.

That dress would look just as good today as it did at that time! It's a bit shorter than many dresses today, but if one has good legs one could still wear it. That's what "timeless" looks like.

Don't blame the pros for all this "it's dated" stuff. People today like change. They no longer buy a house and live in it for 40-50 years, even if they stay in the same location. Heck, they don't even stay in their marriages that long! Now that kitchens are part of the living room, they're going to be changed more often as everyone who comes to ones house sees them. No one really worried that much about an old kitchen when guests stayed out of ones kitchen. It was a "kitchen" not the LR. Now it is both.

When my parents built their house in the early 1950's, colored tubs/toilets/sinks had come back with a vengeance. They had been around before, but they were very high-end and not widely used. Oh, how my mother wanted green fixtures in the first floor "family bath" (only bath on the first floor!)! But color was an uncharge and she couldn't afford to do that. Boy, was she glad she didn't! That white looked better and better to her!

My 1948 house's main bath has white wall tile with a black border. The floor is black/white small square tiles. I'm SO glad it has these and not a heinous color like the powder room in our St Louis house! It had Taxi Yellow tiles with a black border. UGLY!!!! I used epoxy spray paint and made it white. Should have done it sooner...

I love my Glacier White Corian countertop just as much today as I did when it was first installed 34 years ago. Corian was the "in thing" at that time. It's now "out of fashion", but a white countertop is NEVER out of fashion and the material, never out of fashion in the UK and Europe, is coming back in the US as people realize how bullet-proof Corian actually is, and when countertops with less "movement" are becoming popular once more. I've never cared if Corian was "out" - I have loved it for its durability and I consider a white countertop the equivalent of a great white blouse or shirt - never "out of date" - a classic.

@hollystockly, fun read ty for the pics and you're not wrong. I'll reply more tomorrow. but what I had at the ready right now in response to what you wrote was this article from 2000. I don't think you'd ever see something like this printed today. these are out of order dunno why.

I agree with the premise, they do on the whole look better than they did before. however, I don't think any of them reflect actual current fashion of the year 2000, but are just working with common style kitchens on how to make them more bright, cheery and useful. that ethos was not dead 20 years ago. I think a lot of people are still looking for this kind of help.

The painful retina pic could be inexpensively updated. Rid the room of the wall paper and flooring and one could bring it into this century quite easily. Some of those cabinets featured above are just plain cheap and that will never improve. I understand the desire to keep your home looking like it isn't a time capsule but when people start spending the sort of money it takes to swap out cabinets, QUALITY cabinets I stand aghast at the waste. Upgrading is one thing but what we do in the name of fads and fashion boggles my mind.

Alisa, I think the primary difference is that the mainstream mags don't buy those pieces nearly as much. You find them out on the blog-o-sphere:

https://www.blesserhouse.com/budget-kitchen-refresh-makeover-reveal/

https://refreshliving.us/updating-a-kitchen-on-a-budget-15-awesome-cheap-ideas/

https://mytexashouse.com/budget-friendly-kitchen-decor-refresh/

In general, it seems like a lot of the lower budget ideas tend to appear and STAY part of online content. It probably has to do with what marketing departments say motivate people to buy an issue, vs. the cost of generating online content to fill out a website. Much of the material available on a lot of magazine websites is stuff they get from bloggers for the mere cost of a mention or some sponsored posts.

While I'm not a big fan of just taking a big ol' can of Annie Sloan to good quality cabs from the 90's, if you've got a ca. 1955 plywood kitchen why not go ahead and paint them fun vintage colors? Wallpaper the back of your glass fronts? Etc., etc.

I do always find the vintage vs. dated divide a little fascinating. When we were looking for our first house, we had to pass on a fascinating place that had the original 1920's metal kitchen. It also had two "secret passageways," and came with the original architect's drawings for it. How many other houses from that era got "made over" and those metal cabinets pulled out in favor of something more "modern"? Then time and fashions come back around.

This is another fun spin through kitchens in time:

https://historydaily.org/photos-old-kitchens-1860-1970-2

And an excellent piece by Laurel Bern on the Unkitchen, as well as kitchens before cabinets ruled.

Consider the goals of MSM:

1) MAKE MONEY
- sell advertising
2) Serve readers

Notice how many Women's magazines have the Helpful Shaving Tips right across from the page with ads for razors and shaving creme. No articles on going Naturel, there's no money to be made there.

There is much more money to be made selling cabinets/counters/flooring/appliances than there is with cabinet & appliance paint and new knobs.

following

This is an interesting read ...

Go in your closet. I challenge you to come up with 6 items you've been wearing yearly for a dozen years. Can you do it? Jewelry doesn't count. Most people can't do it, and it isn't due to fluctuating weight. My own list?

I've actually saved and still wear some pieces I got from my mother. I can think of 5 of her pieces and she died 5 years ago. And yes, I have sweaters, jackets, etc that are well more than 10 years old that I still love wearing and still get compliments on

Here is a picture of our new kitchen. It was done in????

Kitchen from Hell transforming into Kitchen from Heaven · More Info

Thank you Holly, for so eloquently communicating exactly what I was thinking, but illustrating it so well and thoroughly. You are one smart woman and a great communicator. I love the term "design fatigue."

Creative Visual..... I would guess 10-15 years ago. I do not know that much about Kitchen styles but that looks like some of my friends kitchens done 8+ yrs ago.

CV - at a guess? 8-10 years ago, or so. Looks like maybe knotty alder? Linear glass mosaic, and the sort of alabaster-look shade on the light fixture were my major clues.

Mrs. S - Aw, thanks! You're very sweet.

I view it through a bit of a lens of the world of costume, too - but further back that Jan and Anglo. I used to do quite a bit of research into historical dress. (16th century continental Europe, primarily). And trends moved SO much slower then, because everybody kept clothes for years/decades. Not just a particularly good piece or two. And there was a lively trade in used clothes. Then, when a piece had worn out beyond repair, it was cut down for someone else to wear. Heck, when I was small, Mom used one of Dad's old Navy uniforms to make me a little wool jumper. She said you couldn't buy fabric that good, so why waste it?

Now, I'm the first to admit that for every dress I make for my girls, then save carefully in the closet, there are probably a half-dozen jeans-and-t shirt outfits at least. To say nothing of the extra cheap Old Navy and Wal-Mart items I put on the little one, in the full knowledge that she'll destroy it before she outgrows it.

But most of us sense, deep down, that translating that "throw away" attitude to something as big, fixed, and expensive as a kitchen just feels... wrong. And I think that's what's at the heart of the recent fixation on what is and is not "timeless." We are perpetually bombarded with images of gorgeous new kitchens and the subliminal message that if we don't have something that looks similar, we're somehow "behind." Which is the impetus behind a lot of the posts here trying to make all sorts of kitchens from all sorts of eras into "modern farmhouse" kitchens. All the while, trying to rationalize the mad rush to change by insisting that this or that element is "timeless." It isn't, and it won't be, especially if none of it relates to the house as a whole but it helps us quiet that little voice inside going "Waitaminnit... a shiplap backsplash won't make the morning toast more quickly and it really doesn't GO with my marble fireplace..."

I'm rather hoping (possibly somewhat in vain) that we'll see a... hmmm... slowing down? is maybe the right phrase?... in the constant flurry of ripping out quality elements only to install cheaper, but "of the moment" replacements. Is there hope in the "slow living" movements?

Every woman's magazine since the invention of women's magazines has been a constant parade of tips on how to improve the nest. But that advice has gone from "Here is a pattern for the cutest vegetable trivets to crochet!" to "Tear out and replace your backsplash in a weekend!"

So here I stand on my dusty little wooden carton in the street corner amongst the pedestrians rushing about, trying to hand out pamphlets with snippets from Gil Schafer's "A Place to Call Home" and Russel Versacci's "The Roots of Home" in the hopes of restoring a sense of time and place to our built environment. Rather than trying, like Disney's Tomorrowland, to constantly represent tomorrow while tomorrow keeps catching up - and then passing by. Leaving a slightly tired and "dated" looking Tomorrowland that isn't quite even Todayland.

Go in your closet. I challenge you to come up with 6 items you've been wearing yearly for a dozen years.

Sadly this is not a challenge for me. Buying quality clothes, not caring about TRENDS or FADS, becoming an adult no longer growing, same job for 15+ years...all reasons one's wardrobe may not change as often as some....I recently donated an outfit worn mostly only to church, a few times a year, classic lines, think "little black dress" classic and when I realized how many years I have worn it I forced myself TO LET IT GO!!