Buyw hat looks wonderful in your kitchen...
I have a very old sort of robin's egg blue one....went with my kitchen at the time.....then my mother bought me a red one....to go with the new wall paper....then a friend gave me a yellow one because I had made her so many soup meals....I saw a white one on sale.....and had to have it!...I bought my daughter a green one of Martha Stewart design and it exactly matches her new Fiesta dishes...
Get what goes in your kitchen!
And remember, when you change colors....you need a new Dutch oven!
Linda C

Mine is black.....it was on sale....and black is "basic."

I usually pick red unless its on sale and I don't have that choice. If you are going for long term matching maybe not such a great idea. The shade of red changes every couple of years. I have maroon, almost orange (not the "Flame") and a couple of shades in between. Doesn't matter to me though. They're all great!

I just love the black. I got a "starter set" years ago in black and have loved it and the color since. Plus it always seems to go well with whatever else is in the kitchen at the time. Guess it's classic. It's probably not a consideration for you with a dutch overn, but it also looks good hanging on the big heavy pot rack with my massive cast iron collection. Of course I'm the only one that can lift half that stuff up onto the rack. Smiles. I just reminded myself this Holiday season how much I love the little dutch oven that came with the set when making the caramels. What a nice little workhorse.

COBALT BLUE because its my favorite color and goes with my kitchen

The piece I use most often is my Dutch oven and it is the gradient orange-to-red (Flame). My kitchen here at home has muted tones of natural maple cabinets and neutral/sagey granite countertops. The red is a nice pop of color. I think food looks appetizing in the red, too. Lots of the things I cook in it like beef stew, coq au vin, chowders, etc. are brown/tan. Red is a color that's supposed to whet the appetite. And those are my reasons for choosing the red.

....at our lake house I have cobalt blue. Up there I have white cabs and a blue stained island. Blue is a cooler color and I tend to cook more summery fare there. And blue goes with the lake!

Cobalt Blue is my color it goes with my cobalt dishes. But I am ordering the 9+ quart oval with my Amazon points and going to get it in white. That way DH will know if the white pot is in the oven he has to take it out because it will be too heavy for me. It was his ides so it works for me!

Claudia

The first piece of Le Creuset that I ever acquired was back in the early 80's - I saved enough labels from Planter's Peanut Oil bottles and got a very large cast iron enameled oval au gratin pan in Flame. I've never looked back! All of my Le Creuset is Flame, and I have persimmon Fiestaware.

Too late to redecorate now lol! It still makes me happy.

seagrass

I think it is something that doesn't have to go! I adore the Caribbean Blue which totally would not go in my house! Love the flame. Like white and black! LOL Red gives any kitchen a pop!

I have a green staub but am in the market for something larger...

Nuff said?

I love the aubergine and the varigated red. I have three reds, and one orange. Honestly colour isn't even as important as the pot itself.

Cathy I love your laundry room, and however do you get those down? lol, Great workout for the arms.

Shelley S.

I love a lot of the colors, but with my rose colored kitchen tile, there are a lot that clash. I settled for basic "boring" brown, but it is a nice neutral.

Cathy, I am in awe of your laundry room. I bet that I would have it looking like utter chaos if I was there for a few days!

Grace

Oh my gawd Mustangs! Are those ALL Le Creuset??? Whoa, lucky dawg :)

The 1st one I bought I chose brown...because I had an older white one that I got at a second hand store and I still can't get the outside clean :(
I found a small cobalt blue on sale...

I"d wait until I got to the store and decide then. Just choose whatever colour appeals to you the most.

Ann

I have the Flame color, id love it no matter what color...I got my first only a few months ago and just love to cook in it!

mustangs/Cathy - I have to chime in and say how much I like your laundry room. So cheery, lots of personality, yet uncluttered. Perfect!

It's interesting to me to read how/why people are drawn to certain colors in otherwise utilitarian objects. I have always been drawn to the colorful stand mixers in Williams-Sonoma's seasonal displays. I told DH I have the same visceral reaction to them that many guys have for spiffy sports cars. I picture a sunny yellow one in my kitchen, or a retro pistachio colored one, or cinnamon red! When it's come down to actually buying, though, the two I've owned in my lifetime have been basic white.....

amck,

Like you, I'm very attracted to the appliance colors depending on my whims of the day. I always buy white though. :(

It's because I'm fickle & know that if I purchase pistacho...3 years later (or, less) I'll wish I'd gotten the red. I HATE W/S for tempting me with all of that appliance p@rn! My LCs though are cobalt blue & red. I bought the blue first & now wish everything was red. (sigh)

/tricia

lindac wrote "And remember, when you change colors....you need a new Dutch oven!"

Gotta remember that! We had three pieces of LC in red and then our kitchen walls sort of changed themselves from white to green. (We took down the wall between the kitchen and the living room and to tie them together visually we continued the green from the living room into the kitchen. The red and green combo is not one I would have chosen otherwise, but it's grown on us.

--Doug

RED, and only Red. LOL

Linda

Thank you all for your responses, and keep 'em coming. One thing I am surprised is that no one mentioned the Le Creuset yellow colors, Dijon and Citron. I am looking at these colors because of what LindaC said about getting a color that would look good in my kitchen. My kitchen has white cabinets, oak floors, and the kitchen table is pine, but my kitchen's wood chairs are painted a muted dusky yellow that has a lot of brown tone, and the chair seats have cushions in a Provencal check print with a shade of yellow that is classic Provencal, and is somewhere between the Le Creuset Dijon (not as mustard-y) and the Citron (not as pale). Since no one has mentioned the yellow colors, does that mean there is a reason they are not popular? If so, tell me!

But also, I have to consider that a Le Creuset pot will last many years, and I will likely redecorate/move and have a different kitchen(s) in the next 20 years or so! Having said that, I know that in all my past kitchens, I always had a touch of yellow somewhere.

I am drawn to the Flame color, because it's so classic Le Creuset, but it wouldn't go in my current kitchen. Then the beautiful blues, Cobalt and Williams-Sonoma Azure (don't know if they're the same). I also liked Coconut-nj's suggestion of Black, which I would have never thought of, but certainly it goes with everything, and could look quite dramatic! Oh sheesh, I STILL don't know what color to pick!

So, keep writing in with your faves! Thanks.

shannonplus2 - I like the yellows and think they'd look great in your kitchen. I think one of the reasons people might not have gone yellow - at least me - is that it's not as forgiving as some of the deeper tones (flame, cobalt, etc.) when it comes to cleaning the outside.

I keep my Dutch oven on my stovetop from Sept. through May because I use it so often during those months. It gets little splotchy brown spots on the exterior that don't wash off easily, but because of the dark hue of the pot you don't notice them unless you look closely. I think they'd stand out on yellow.

I've noticed Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa on Food Network) always uses an ivory colored pot on her show. I love how it looks, and how the food looks in it, but it would be a high maintenance choice. I'd either keep it stowed away or continually work to keep it looking pristine.

Easy question for me - RED! But, all the colors blend together so well that if you buy more down the road, they will all look so good together.

When I got my first red color>piece, my thinking was that red would be versatile because it would fit with many themes: Christmas, Valentines, 4th of July, Chinese, Italian, etc.

I like the flame (OK, and many of the others).

I didn't realize they should match anything but I guess if you're going to serve from it or leave it out in the kitchen, it shouldn't be a terrible color fight.

I don't have room to leave anything out so it didn't even occur to me why one wouldn't just get whatever fit their whimsy at the moment!

I have 2 of the flame color,but absolutely LOVE the carribean blue at WS,and limey green color.

Shelley

Actually, the strategy I use most often is whatever color is on sale. If there is a choice, might as well go with what I already have. I just bought some pots that I am IN LOVE with, they are both orange as there was no other choice.

Thanks for your comments on my laundry room. The color scheme was necessary to accommodate the need to store the partial collection of the Dansk Kobenstyle pieces, which I understand now is referred to as "vintage". I probably have every piece they ever made. On the upside, it's easier to heft, but on the downside, it doesn't cook as evenly or retain heat as well. I'm stuck with them and will eventually eBay them.

Cathy, your laundry room is a dream!!! Ok, now that the jealousy is out of the way, I'll add my two cents. I got a LC dutch oven in flame last year because that was the one color both my dh and I were drawn to. Once we figured out he liked the red, I had license to buy any of the LC pieces I wanted! Of course, I'm much more frugal than my dh, so I'll not be buying anything else soon.

Every time I walk by an LC display, I have to stop and drool at all the lovely colors, but I keep coming back to the red. I guess it's all about what you're drawn to, no matter what anyone else says!

You may see if there's an LC outlet near you. We have one about 70 miles north of us and it's well worth the drive. As you'd expect, they're "cosmetically imperfect" but I'll be darned if I could find the flaws in any of pieces I looked at. You can save about 40% off retail price at the outlet, so you may check around.

amck- have you tried an enamel specific cleaner? Staub, LC and others sell them with their products. They're not for everyday cleaning, but if you have stubborn spots or burned on anything, they'll take it off in seconds.

Ok, maybe that was more than two cents worth,
Bri

When I bought my only piece of Le Creuset (a frying pan) all they had was the deep orange colour, so that's what I bought. I would have loved blue, but would have taken black if it had been available, because it's practical and goes with everything.

I work at Williams-Sonoma, so I look at all of these different colors a LOT! For years now my favorite color remains Lemongrass, which is a lime/parrot green. It is just so fresh and happy, I don't think I would ever tire of it.

When I think of LC, I think of either Flame or red. To me they are the most classic LC shades.

Actually, the only colors I don't like are Dune (sand) and Slate (grey). The other LC colors are so vibrant and these two are so drab, they (literally) pale by comparison.

Nicole

I have lots of LeCreuset and I love all of my pieces - and colors! Most of my pots are red, but I do have one brown, one Dijon yellow (great sale piece), one Williams Sonoma green, and my most recent piece was a dune colored pot. I did have two pieces of Lemongrass color, but gave them to my daughter as the color did not wear well with me. I also love the flame color, but don't have any flame color pieces at this point.

Don't limit yourself, buy what you like.

The OP here. I am so excited, I wanted to report back on what I decided, and what I ended up getting! Sorry this post is looong, but I can't contain myself!

Well, not only did I fret over the color, but I couldn't decide which french oven size to get. And as I noted in my OP, I could only have one. The economy has not been kind to DH this past year, and so we have been very careful, but he really wanted to get me a Le Creuset that I've been pining for.

I narrowed it down to the 7.25 qt. and the 5.5 qt., and ended up determining that the 5.5 quart round oven would be most versatile for my style of cooking and my family. Most every place had it priced at $220. So DH said $220 would be within our budget, but no more than that.

I made up my mind (or so I thought) to get the Black Onyx color because black is dramatic and also would go with everything (as an aside, LC also has a "Black Satin" color. Black Satin has a black interior; I wanted the Black Onyx because it has a light interior). I found out that LC has an outlet store in Pleasant Prairie, WI which isn't very far. I guess an outlet store is where they carry Le Creuset "seconds". I went there today, and wouldn't you know, they're having a sale over and above their already discounted prices.

And then I fell in love. With the Dijon color that is. The store had JUST gotten in a bunch of Dijon cookware. Sure, the Black Onyx would go with everything, but that Dijon was just SOOO sunny, and seemed sooo french. The saleslady at the outlet store was extremely helpful in pulling out a 5.5 qt. Dijon french oven with the least flaws. The one I got, frankly, I can't see the flaw without my glasses. I believe it's a miniscule dot on the lid that you have to search for to see.

But wait, there's more. Due to the sale, I was also able to buy the stainless steel replacement knob (for when you want the pot to go into the oven at higher than 400 degrees), the 10" balloon whisk, the book "Le Creuset Cast Iron Way to Cook", and the Le Creuset Cast Iron Cleaner. Now remember, DH said my budget was $220. Well, I got all that, including tax, for grand total of $194! (Hmmm, what to do with that extra $26...what to do...)

Tomorrow I am making the Coq au Vin recipe from the Le Creuset cookbook I bought. I can't wait.

Thanks everyone!

I see you picked the Dijon - good choice! I had not seen it before and think its beautiful. (I did not like the Citron)

Just for comments - l I think Cobalt blue is a classic sort of kitchen accessory color because over the years country kitchens, white cabs etc. come back into style and blue looks really wonderful with that. Also "yellow" sunny walls are popular in kitchens and blue looks good with that.
I have the Flame and occasionally think I'd like to switch, but then change my mind. Its classic in its own right as one of the original colors of a pretty old name in French cookware - now too trendy for being copied by Rachael Ray, Mario Batali etc. but I like the sense of tradition it gives me and I believe orange is supposed to induce hunger? (not that I need any more of that:)

Any of you with Red that no longer goes with your decor can send it my way. Or black or white or. I want to help you all have perfectly match decor. :)

I have ONE casserole dish. :( I would love to have a ton of it though. Mine is French Blue (I think). It was a gift from all the people in the office last year for Christmas. My color choice? One of each and I would have them on display. I don't know where, but I would display them. LOL

I'm wondering if the new Citron is the same as the old discontinued Yellow. That's what I have, and if I buy any more I'll want that. Too bad it's exclusive to Williams-Sonoma, so not likely to show up at Marshall's. I like all the colors except that lime green.
Shannon, you got a wonderful deal. Enjoy!

Yea Shannon! You done good girl. But I can't understand getting excited about pots and pans! Of course I am kiddingsize>

I am so excited about the Berghoff outlet near me that I was trying to entice Shaun to come across the state to go shopping for her new pots and pans.

I meant to mention that you are lucky to find the stainless steel replacement knob. They have been sold out everywhere for months.

Mustangs,

You have an email sent by me on another matter but I wanted to say I appreciate your comment regarding the Dansk cookware. I love the look of the Dansk and was just about to bid for one on ebay. Now am thinking I should stick with the Counstance (msp) or LC. My Counstance is from the 50s and I just dropped the lid on my stove burner and put in the first dent...boo hoo

Thanks again

Sue

I'd pick the one that looks best with the foods you're most likely to cook in it. If you make a lot of tomato-based stews and soups, and would serve out of the pot--then the greens and light blues might not be the best choice. If you cook vegetarian stuff, I think black wouldn't be an appetizing choice.

I have the red and like it very much.

RED of course. LOL

Linda

Sue, enjoyed our email chat.

Cathy