I don't know, but if it's true, my next door neighbors may be glad to hear it. ;-)

Yes, it's back. Only call it "cerused" or "limed." I have not yet seen it on kitchen cabinets, but it's only a question of time as it's on lots of furniture these days.

Haven't seen it but could be. When I did my kitchen four years ago I opted for very dark cabinets - same as my thirty year old kitchen - because I felt it would look right with the rest of my house. Plus I liked dark cabinets because they weren't popular at the time. Well, low and behold - by the time my kitchen was done more and more people were getting "espresso" cabinets. Most everything seems to come around again eventually.

Yep, it does seem to be coming back. I did a double take, too, the first time, but I always did like that look (although not so much in a kitchen).

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....
Please noooooooooooooooo.....
It wasn't pretty then, it ain't pretty now...

> I have not yet seen it on kitchen cabinets

Oh, that's mostly where I've been seeing it. First saw it on the cover of a recent issue of some decorating magazine in the supermarket. "Is that Mills Pride on the cover?" was my first thought, but lo and behold, it was a brand new kitchen from some big designer.

Sorry, Pharoah.

My old pickled cabinets are at the Habitat Restore in Maryland if anyone wants to be ahead of the design curve! ;-)

Kat :)

kimiko232 - if you don't like them you won't like them whether they're "in" or not. If you're planning to sell the house soon then that's a different issue but if you're planning to stay and enjoy your kitchen then you shouldn't be scared to replace them.

I just took mine out last year! My opinion is that they're like avocado green, which was ugly in the 1970s, and calling it sage green didn't make it any prettier; calling pickled "limed" or "cerused" (whatever that's supposed to mean) will not make it any more attractive. JMO.

The good news for me is that maybe we'll finally be moving away from dark gloomy blackish brown -- oh, excuse me, deep rich gorgeous espresso -- cabinets and furniture. Again, JMO.

Blue

I saw some I liked and some I hated, but I prefer true white or true wood. Anyone about to rip out oak should feel the next big trend coming!

Thanks for the laugh, Kat!

Do you watch Absolutely Fabulous?

Don't be like Edina, with her size double whatever bottom squeezed half into some violently colored, clanking fashion victim getup wailing "But it's Lacroix daaaaaaaaahling!!!!!!"

If you thought they were pink and ugly yesterday, seeing them on the cover of a magazine today doesn't make them any more attractive in your kitchen today. Unless they ARE more attractive TO YOU. (So sorry to hear about that piano-on-the-head event. Feel better soon!)

Yeah, if you don't like them, definitely change the color! I "helped" (I put this in quotes because I was in high school) design my friend's parents' kitchen in the early '90s and it had pickled cabinets! With a mix of light and dark grey Corian countertops. Who knew that kitchen might be come back in style...

Kitchen cabinet makers are still making pickled cabinets. I ddn't know they stopped at some point. My sister put them in her kitchen 4 short years ago.

I don't know if it was the finish the company she bought from used, but her cabinets faded and changed color within months. They were solid maple, but they sure didn't look the same after a few months. To my eyes they were ready for a painting.

kimiko, by all means paint your cabinets white because white kitchen cabinets will always be around for lots of people and as far as I'm concerned are one of those timeless features.

My old kitchen. Ugly. Couldn't pay me to have a pickled anything in my house again except maybe a pickle.

Here's what you'll be missing Traci! This was before we moved in and the other people had stuff stacked on the counters waiting to pack it up!

There were also lovely matching pink tiles that are now in a stack on my driveway...hurry...they're going quickly! ;-)

Ironically, some people down the street from me have pickled cabinets and bamboo floors and it all looks wonderful!! They have very tropical decor and lots of natural light and they added some cool glass block to the sides of their island that is back lighted and I have to say it is truly gorgeous...so maybe there is hope for the pickled wood comeback...just not in MY kitchen!

Kat :)

Wow - I've just enjoyed reading this thread! Mainly because we all have really different opinions and because that's what makes life interesting! Pharoh hates pickled, Blue is not into espresso, writersblock always did like pickled and me, while I agree white is classic and lovely, I don't even open the finished kitchen posts with creamy white cabs anymore because I've just seen too many lately! It really will be interesting to see what becomes the next rage on this forum... lascatx could be correct, OAK! Kimiko - take all this to mean that my advice is the same as others have said - you should do what you like! Cheers, from another -Kim

There's pickled and then there's pickled. Interesting, well-executed finishes that emphasize the grain of excellent wood have probably had a following even when not featured in the design mags. Mass produced, short-cut white washing on not-so-great wood, well, not. Many design mags have been featuring Swedish and Belgian furniture. I see the cerusing as an outgrowth of that trend. I think some is quite attractive, but I cannot bring myself to bring it into my home. Mom didn't like it when I was a child, LOL, and my adult associations are still with the 1980's cheapo tract home limed oak cabinets. Maybe I'll get over it someday! BTW, I've noticed fabric sellers have now started to cal avocado "avocado," instead of "green tea infused dusty ochre on a rainy day in the Blue Ridge mountains," etc.

My 1980's pink-toned pickled oak is going to be painted over soon. Kitchendetective is right. The mags are showing quality, timeless style. Anything less is not worth keeping when you plan a redo.

btw, it's almost impossible to refinish, I tried it on a bath vanity.

hey, wait a minute. i have been thinking (maybe i shouldnt).

Is shabby chic really just the 90s version of the 80s pickled craze? I see similarities - paint over wood!

I had the pink pickled maple. They painted up beautifully! I really don't mind pickled--but I sure did mind pink!
{{gwi:1578119}}
{{!gwi}}
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It is, but its not on the same woods, nor is the technique quite the same. The doorstyles and hardware are not really the same either. So its back, reinvented.

I know I was totally blown away when I was reading my magazines.

In my house beautiful magazine, (may 2009, it shows this really pretty kitchen towards the back with the inset doors and a thick butcherblock on an island. I was about to flip the page when I saw the picture on the next page. It wasn't the kitchen, it was the painting in the kitchen with a pink pickled frame. I just about gagged. Then, I looked closely at the kitchen and it was all pickled cabs, but they called it bleached pickled wood. I will say, they look much better than my typical cathedral shaped pickled maple doored kitch.

I remember pottery barn did a pickled/ grey look to some oak cabinets last year I think. They called it a distressed weathered like old driftwood or something. I thought they looked pickled, just a little greyer.

I found two other pictures one in elle decor (several in there) and the other in western interiors. Ahhh!

I have always liked white kitchens and figured I'd be destined to get one. But now, just about every page in every magazine, every blog, and every redo show are showing white kitchens.

I know everyone says it's a classic. But, now I wonder if my classic 80's kitchen (which was purposely redone in pickled wood in the 2000s. I guess who ever designed it was a few decades off.) will become the classic late 00's kitchen.

Typical late 2000 kitchen= white inset cabs, soapstone counters, bin pulls, white trimwork, etc.

Early 2000's kitchen = dark walnut cabs, stainless bar pulls, granite counters, etc. (I like both, by the way!)

I know that I shouldn't be swayed by current trends and just do what I like, but it just seems that every time I make a "final" decision... a new "fad" comes up that I just love and want. Apparently, I'm too wishy washy and really don't know what I like.

I should just buy some regular orangy oak cabs and be done with it. By the time it comes back in vogue in a few years, I'll be ready for it. :)

Just a thought! :P

No matter what finish you get, it's going to date. White cabs from the 80s and 90s look dated already if they have the cathedral arch. Colors and finishes come and go, but believe me, they'll find a way to make anything you do now look "wrong" in ten or fifteen years time, so I just wouldn't worry about it. I'd get what I like and stop caring about whether it's trendy or not once it's in.

Things will look dated before 5 years at the rate the world is moving unless we do enter a long, long period of economic downturn.

I think the pickled thing is first, that most pickled finishes are pinkish,or maybe grayish at best, and second, the mottled finish, both together, are just harder to decorate "around" than wood tones of browns, golds, russets--or a painted finish. So it really drives your other choices, of what you can use next to it, more than other finishes. I agree that it's almost impossible to focus on what's "in" since that won't stay the same.

and I guess some of us are destined to be dated no matter what we do :) Let's see - paint over wood...check. Getting rid of Oak.... check. White cabinets with the Cathedral Arch... check. Maybe I should stop by Kat's and rescue her pink tiles and just be done with it..... LOL.

Seriously, get what you love, do whatever is attractive to you. Nothing is ever going to be just right with everyone, thank goodness. Variety is the spice of life, right? No matter what the trend is, it's your kitchen and you know what tugs at your heart. Although, I can honestly say, I have never leaned toward Pickled anything or Avacado Green, although I do have Sage paint on some of my walls :)