Just my opinion, but I don't care for it. I learned a lesson when I bought all avocado green appliances back in the '70
s. It's not long before they're passé. I like white appliances and when I replaced mine I stuck with white. It's the only color that's hung in there forever.

But I guess it won't be long before all those house hunters on HGTV are whining about the "dated appliances"--meaning SS.

This is the nonsense that gets propagated to get people to buy new appliances. SS along with white and black are timeless. SS has been around for decades in home as well as professional kitchens.

Weissman, you are so right!! My parents did a re-model back in the late 50's and installed a SS wall oven as well as a drop in SS range~needless to say, they were way ahead of their time. The Frigidaire was pink and built-in.

I have SS and would not hesitate to use it again, but i'm not into trends.

I don't like SS, and never have - so white's the way to go for me, but that's my taste, I don't think it has anything to do with trends.

I don't follow trends but I do like the new gray finish. But I love gray and like matte finishes (other than my shiny granite). I think I will stick with black when I have to replace my range someday.

Its marketing. If your appliance works fine why would you replace it unless it was for looks? Everyone is afraid of looking dated so if they convince you SS is soooo over then people will run out to buy something new.

Appliances have a life of approximately 10-15 years, so I say ignore classics and get what you like. This does mean, however, that you buy all the appliances at one time...if you stay with white or stainless, you can get a longer life out of the look. To me, black appliances seem a lot more dated looking and less classic than white.

There is no right or wrong appliance color. It all depends on your kitchen and the look you are going for.

White would not look good in my kitchen except for maybe the fridge which has no cabinets around it. Black appliances blend in more with dark cabinets, look mysterious and sexy (IMHO). I like the look.

The more choices the better.

I haven't been shopping for appliances recently, can't believe my new kitchen is already 7 years old! I stayed with white then, as I had a fairly new white fridge and had bought a white MW in anticipation of the reno. My Mom couldn't believe I kept the fridge and didn't switch to SS! (Mom, you taught me to be frugal, why were you so surprised! LOL)

Part of my thinking, was, that if and when we ever put the house on the market, we would just buy all new appliances, and probably do the more mass appeal SS then. But, I really like that slate look, (we bought Titanium washer and dryer), if I liked it as much in person, I could see going that route if I ever replace everything... As BB stated above, unfortunately, appliances have a relatively short life span, so chances are we will have to replace them...

It would be nice to have more than Three options, no matter what they were. But if 35% of the appliances sold are stainless, that means 65% aren't, which means black and white could the other rough 1/3 each ( I would imagine panel ready is a pretty small percentage overall)

I can't believe only 35% are stainless steel!

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But also it shows that GW is really a sub population. Here SS is probably preferred 80% of the time, and some people consider it the only real choice.

This post was edited by ineffablespace on Sat, Jan 25, 14 at 17:35

Where is the 35% SS number coming from? A google search found differing %s.

90% at the local showroom is stainless. They show what sells. In the proportions that they sell them in. It ain't going away any time soon.

We struggled with stainless steel-I know its "in"(at least for now) but its just too industrial for me-it looks good in a lot of the kitchens I see posted here, but we ended up going with black. Like someone above said, we have dark cabinets and it just seemed more elegant for us. It's interesting to see that "new" color as it seems SS has been around for a long time.

I don't see what is so different and new about "slate". If the article hadn't told me the appliances in the picture were "slate," I would have thought they were stainless steel.

In my local showroom, which is independent, they are pretty evenly split between paneled, white and stainless for fridges, with no black to speak of. But they deal mostly with the highest end and apartment grade with very little in between. The town where my parents live still shows predominantly white fridges in the local showroom. The suburban showrooms I have been in show essentially nothing but stainless or built in.

There has to be a fair amount of regional variation. If you sampled the cars on the streets around me you would think that the car market was dominated by Honda and lower priced BMWs with a very weak showing of the Big Three.

I love stainless, but the streaks can be annoying. especially on the fridge. That said, I splurged on a colored range is red. I adore it. Makes me happy to boil water. And yes, I polish it lovingly like a guy w a new car :)

Slate has been available for 2 years now. I was expecting to see something colored.

I like the white ice but will choose stainless for my current oak cabinets and future creamy white painted cabinets if we remodel. I'm not sure white appliances would work with the warmer colors in my house.

The slate looks a bit too industrial or something for my taste.

Definitely don't like the black appliances I have now, and they're not easy to keep clean either.

I remember seeing slate before too.

I think the percentage of SS is low because not everyone is replacing all of their appliances at the same time.

Maybe if they looked at kitchen remodels (buying all/most new), the SS percentage would probably be higher.

Even if I liked the slate (looks intriguing), there aren't enough brands carrying that color. I wouldn't want to be locked into one or two brands. Although I guess you could do paneling on some things and not others....