I have read posts on people with Blanco white silgranite sinks and they stay white.
I currently have a light colored porcelain sink without any stains (almost 25 years old). I am replacing with a Blanco - but went with brown - not because of stain issues -just matched the kitchen better.
Others?

No kitchens are timeless, they will all end up looking dated in one way or another. The kitchens that really end up looking dated are the ones that use cheap builder components to slavishly copy the latest trends. I'm sure there are kitchens from the 80's that used quality oak cabinets in interesting ways that still look good. White cabinets are no more timeless than wood cabinets, it's just another look.

If you're not doing the kitchen for resale, then do what you like.

When you look at shelter mags...which kitchens are you drawn to? Look at houzz.com and bookmark kitchens you like. I personally think white sinks are lovely....I have a stainless undermount...but would have also like a white farmhouse sink. I just already had a lot of white going on, so a white sink wasn't the best choice for my kitchen. Nothing is timeless...but if you spend time thinking about what you like and what goes best with the style of your home and existing rooms, you will end up happy with your kitchen.

Go with what you love. Yes, I'm sure there would be potential resale issues if you genuinely love an all-orange kitchen or some other extreme look. Barring that unlikely event, I think all sorts of different styles can look good if they're executed well. Take residential architecture for example, I love the classic look of a Georgian brick house---but I also appreciate nicely designed Colonial, Tudor, Art & Crafts, Shaker, Victorian, and modernist houses and so forth. Go with what you love, buy the best & you'll cry only once, and hire good quality workmen, IMHO.

If you pick something that works with your house style, it will have less chance of becoming dated quickly. If your home is a cottage, then white cabinets and a more casual look can work well. If it's a 60's ranch with MCM touches, then white slab cabinets could work better. If it's one of those contemporary mash-ups of French and Colonial and and who knows what else, then something simplified and transitional would look more at home. Do some research on your home style before you start researching what kitchen will look the most "timeless" in it.

OP. White cabinets are indeed timeless as they've never gone out of style. It was also the chosen cabinet for the One True Kitchen for that very reason.

I think some of the buyer reactions on your previous house may have been specific to your area. Have you ever watched "Bang for Your Buck" on HGTV? What's hot in a Dallas kitchen is not a look you're going to find in a NH kitchen. Cherry cabinets are very popular in kitchens that go with a wood tone, but where you were, maybe they were still looking for oak. White appliances do seem to be universally the least favorite choice at the moment; however, there are some kitchens here where white appliances are the best choice for a fabulous kitchen. Have you seen the red stoves and bright blue refrigerators? Love them, but, sadly, they don't go in my kitchen.

Since you are designing for you and your husband, not for potential buyers, you need to do some thinking about what floats your boat, not Jack and Jill Lookyloo's. As previous posters have suggested, look at finished kitchens here, houzz.com, shelter magazines, and just react: like it, yuk, maybe. When you find that you're following a pattern of what you do and don't like, then you can start analyzing what it is that you like in those photos. Do keep in mind what will go with the style of your house. There are things I love that I would never put in my 70s basic rectangle of a house. As for white vs. wood, that is personal preference. One may be better than the other is your particular house style, but ultimately, it's just preference. I really like white, but I like wood better in my house.

Now is the time to really think about what you like and how you can accomplish that look in a style and price point that meets your needs. Don't rush! If you're not ready, don't cave and choose things you'll regret later just for the sake of moving on.

I think designers throw the "timeless" word around to ease purchasers minds of their purchase not being the negatively talked about item in 10 years.

Barring that you aren't selling in a few short years (and who wants to go through the trouble of a kitchen remodel then) I've learned from GW that you must get what pleases you or you will never be happy.

I'm actually not ecstatic over the cabinets we are getting but they go best with the other elements in the house. I like the cabinets enough and most everything else just doesn't seem to go with it. Stay true to yourself and true to the home elements and you'll be fine.

Here is a link that might be useful: No Such Thing as Timeless

I say get what you want! You will be spending a lot of $ and won't be happy if you worry about resale or even going with the style of your house. I live in the DC area and almost all housing here is colonial, not much of a choice. I just finished a modern/contemporary kitchen in my colonial tract house. I'm sure some buyers down the road won't like it, but no way was I doing a traditional kitchen.

As far as sinks go, I had white enamel for 15 years and would not do it again...stains and hard to keep clean. But anyone who wouldn't buy a house because the sink is white, well....come on...how preposterous....a sink can be changed.

More good things to think about. We're going with what we want and repeatedly drawn to the white/cream kitchens. Saw one today with a gray/white granite that I loved. We're meeting with designer #2 this week. When all is said and done, I bet we'll end with a small wonderful functional and beautiful kitchen...and I keep looking at the threads here!
Thanks!

The real reason that many houses are not selling right now is that there are so many houses on the market.

It is also likely that if you'd had a stainless sink, someone would have dislike that. Or a single/double sink and they wanted the opposite. If someone is complaining about the sink in a for-sale house, and it's a good functional sink, they're looking for an excuse to dislike the house. They SAY that but there's something else and probably bigger that's unsaid.

Or they're just browsing and playing games.

Or they're young and naive.

Or they're shopping outside of their realistic price range so that there won't be money left for updates to the house after signing on the dotted line.

The wood tone of the kitchen cabs is a bigger issue--this really does affect the darkness and overall ambiance of the room. No one likes walking into a room that is not inviting and emotionally satisfying. Was that really the case with shawn's cabs? I'm curious. Or was all of this a case of shoppers being "real estate virgin" buyers with skewed priorities? In that case, you can't ever win unless you lower the price.

[Personally, after seeing so many white kitchens in this forum as well as in the media, I find myself very much alienated. I look at them, admire them, but can't imagine myself living with one. DH would be entirely alienated as well. He has no interest in a white kitchen. He loves wood, wood, wood.]

Have fun stormin' the castle, shawn! And be sure to please yourself--you're the one who's paying for it!