In my area, in my price point and style of residence (condo): natural maple or darker stained shaker door, lower tier granite, stainless Euro pulls, elongated tile or glass tile backsplash, wood or ceramic tile floors (travertine-ish color),SS or black appliances.

Luxury house: raised panel stained (and glazed) cabinets, some "carved" details, fussy hardware, upper tier granite with ogee edge, full granite backspace or tile with feature areas at range or sink, wood or ceramic tile floors, SS or paneled appliances.

Around here the houses are each their own style and so are the kitchens.

You must live in a very unusual place.

I live in the Boston area. I would say in this part of the
country kitchens can range in many different directions.
I have lived in other places and here is what I noticed but
please know this is years ago so things have changed and I
did not live in 50 different homes per city just my
personal experience. Not intended to insult or offend in
anyway.

Nevada, CA and AZ
When I lived out west it was simplicity and sunshine. That
said my sister originally from New England has a Spanish
revival country kitchen.

Down south it was lavish and many details. And yes Atlanta
had the rich details in the wealthy neighborhoods
and clean lines in the City. My brother in Atlanta has
an asian contemporary feel but this is the apartment he
rents.

Maryland, VA and DC area...
DC area I found kitchens to be hanging on to the
Georgian traditional style. The wood work and tiny features
all fell to the old wise ways. A beautiful mix.
Imagine British Christopher Peacock works with
Handsome Will Smith.

NYC
micromini anything you could do to spruce it up. Pricey!!!
Clearly I was not there long.

France, tiny and efficient. Like some German auto maker
made the space. Frustrating at times since there was not
enough space for a week's worth of food. DH and I were not
there long. : *(

Boston area for what I have noticed is varied. Maybe no
more than any other city area but this is what my personal
experience has been.

City homes. Urban condos,townhouses, flats, ....
City young professionals seem to like the Chocolate
stained cabs, marble or white counters and some funky
contemporary backsplash. Well this is what the Design
center seems to showcase.

In the countryside of NH or ME it is more of a country
look. Classic Traditional white with soapstone or Honey
maple with Ubatuba. Wood floors. Family friendly with
a golden retriever sleeping kind of feel. Think kids,
dirty little hands, minivan and wolfe double ovens for
lots of cookies.

If you are on Capecod or the Lakes region of NH anything
from the truly ritzy "somethings gotta give" kind of
kitchen to the relaxed warmth of qxt swan oak mixed with
clean lines of the stainless.

Like Plllog we have lots of different kinds of kitchens
depending on your economic bracket and neighborhood.
I have never found the same kitchen unless it is a cookie
cutter neighborhood or a econmically challenged area.
And usually the folks want to improve, update, change, or
make it their own.

I do like this topic as it is so interesting to find what
others notice. thanks for posting.
~boxer

My sister's area in central PA still tends toward whatever kitchen originally came in the house for older houses. The newer houses tend to have oak recessed panel cabinets with arched or cathedral uppers, laminate counters, white or black appliances and vinyl floors. They would be called "dated" in this forum, but the style seems to suit the houses fine.

The newly developed condo kitchens I have seen in Manhattan's Barrio and Harlem (newly developed blocks complete with grocery stores and some other things for infrastructure for Manhattanites that want to own but have been priced out of anything below the upper reaches of Central Park) are natural maple cabinets, ceramic floors, laminate countertops and white or stainless appliances.

Here in New Orleans we run the gamut: funky unfitted, Big Box specials, professional "style", Old World, mid century renos in Victorian homes, and what I call "servants' kitchens" where it's about function, not form.

It's still, I think, quite difficult to get "cutting edge" things here.

I did once see a house where the entire kitchen was 80's peach. Oh, and tiled countertops are still done here. Not leftover from past eras, but still put in to remodeled kitchens.

Yeah. Turns out it is unusual. I always thought it was normal until I saw the rest of the country. Here nobody wants their house to look like the neighbor's. Elsewhere, if one neighbor paints a house a pretty color, within a few years at least half a dozen on the same block or two have copied it. Very alien concept to me. A lot of trends start here, though, so by the time things are "in" in another part of the country, they're just way done here.

Rather than talking sample boards, which really doesn't work here, I will say that the current trend, for the last five years or so, is reclaimed, salvage, eco, green, greenwashed (i.e., not green, but ersatz), etc., and lots of color. Most of the colors are rich and natural, warm, deep woods, tree greens, flower red-oranges, etc. Or else it's retro, chrome, black-white, enamel red, bright pink and turquoise. Or it's MCM, high gloss, desaturated neutral colors, everything behind doors. "Tuscan" started here, so it's way over, but there's still some crumbling castle going into some of the larger houses.

White has always been very popular. Even 35 years ago I remember that white European slab door being popular. Heck, my mother had plain white cpbds 60 years ago. My neighbour just put in ebony, her daughter white in a new build, her sister honey toned, and another neighbour medium toned maple, so I guess anything goes right now. The magazines are showing a lot of white, quite a few dark wood (usually more contemporary in style) and a growing number of painted cpbds in lighter tones - grey, yellow etc (usually slab or shaker). I don't think cherry is as popular in this area as it is in the States.

I'd have to agree with boxerpup's assessment of New England and New York. I'm in Connecticut and kitchens here can vary widely. At my price point, newer builder's developments (cookie cutter) would have lighter cabinets w/ laminate. Custom or upgraded developments would have darker maple or cherry w/ granite. A mid century colonial or ranch at the same price point will often have the original kitchen - knotty pine w/ laminate. Luxury house? Well, a renovated farmhouse kitchen in Fairfield county with a sky's the limit budget would look like some of the more traditional kitchens on this forum - marble, soapstone, white cabinets.

In my area of Florida there is a wide range of styles and colors I think due to the fact that everyone is from somewhere else originally. Off white and white has been popular for years as well as natural maple, med maple and a sprinkle of oak. The last few years has brought cherry stained maple, cherry, some dark onyx stains, country French, somethingÂs gotta give type kitchens and in the newer high-end builder models ornate cherry. Since my partticular neighborhood started in the, I think, mid seventies and has had a gradual increase of home size and quality building from the early little wood frame ranches to mini mansionsÂthere is a little of everything.

I live in a northern VA suburb of DC, and the upscale luxury builders in my town usually put light cherry or other medium wood, craftsman type kitchens in. Even the most upscale builder does not do inset cabinet doors, which I think is interesting - it's the first thing I notice now when I see a kitchen in a very upper-end house. I guess at the $1 or 2M price point I would expect inset doors. A few of those houses have painted cabinets, but not too many. They usually have a polished dark granite with movement, pendant lights, subzero and wolfe.

I think in more traditional DC luxury houses, the kitchen would be much more formal than craftsman. Out here in the burbs, a typical expensive kitchen remodel would probably be wood cabinets with detailing, polished granite, and a detailed backsplash. Our own kitchen was a pretty upscale remodel, but we're the only family I know that has cream colored cabinets and honed granite.

There is most definately a prevailing sample board here. This will sound crazy, but 98% of every home I have ever been in in our area (Seattle suburbs) whether middle or upper class, in the country or closer to the city, custom built, high end, or builder grade - they almost all have natural oak cabinets. Most of the remainder is natural maple.
The newer homes do seem to have stained maple or stained cherry from what I see from the times I've gone house-hunting with friends in the market.

Wood is the most popular floor - again oak. Some hickory.

I have only seen 3 white kitchens - one melamine and the other 2 DIY paint jobs over the honey oak.

I think to get into the white kitchens one needs to get into a demographic I don't have much exposure to (but would LOVE to) - the older, renovated, wealthy/upscale homes closer in to the city.

At the higher end where I live you will find dark wood cabinets in alder or oak with painted islands in black or olive and sage green colors. Sometimes all the cabinets will be distressed in a dusty brown finish. The floors are limestone or travertine and the backsplash will also be natural stone. Granite still dominates for counters, most are busy and colorful and black granite is rare. Usually there are arches of native limestone around the cooking area and at the openings to other rooms. Light fixtures are iron candelabra and lantern styles. Think ranch house, real ranch not the '60's suburban model.

This look continues down the scale with some variations, but most homes reflect the sense of place. There are also folks who renovate and have a lot of fun with color and go in a completely different direction from their neighbors, especially in the historic areas. You will even find a few sleek kitchens in newer loft condos downtown.

Not sure about specifics in Twin Cities as far as "sample board" goes, but one thing that is certain: in summer the kitchen is oriented toward outdoor living. Food goes outside, dishes commute between outdoors and indoors. Stella d'Oro dayllilies and hostas are seen in landscape gardens everywhere.

Windows are very popular but are expensive because replacement triple pane is becoming the standard. Old sliding doors to deck or patio are being replaced by more energy efficient options, with more wood on them. Custom-made blinds or honeycombs are very popular. Tile seems to be increasing as a kitchen floor material. The color is white, beige, white-beige, brown-beige, brown, slate, beige, tan, beigey beige.

Ikea is commonly used as a kitchen materials resource by the young and by some sixty-somethings.

The stone countertop is extremely popular.

Our high-end homes have the same kinds of elaborate decoration as the ones you see in the demo kitchens of the various cabinet companies. Often rather dark because of golds to browns palette.

Menards and Home Depot sell a great deal of white appliances, esp. freestanding electric ranges. Buyers are the great unwashed.

I must live near steff 1. Limestone and some granites are quarried nearby. Beadboard is used quite a bit. Reclaimed long leaf pine is popular. Some use mesquite and cypress, too. I know of absolutely no white cabinets. A bit of taupe. Lots of shades of green and blue, often stains, sometimes paint. Lots of natural wood tones, too. Not so much black. Usually, the wood grain shows. Many live on ranches or in Victorians or in old homes that once had kitchens in separate buildings, now attached to the main home. (One such home had the wooden floors redone and discovered that the floors were comprised of logs flattened on one side to make a flat floor surface, but still round and rough on about 180 degrees. Surprise, surprise.) There are some who import Mexican tiles and Saltillos, too. We have our fair share of copper counter tops as well.

I live in Alachua, a suburb of the big rockin' city, Gainesville, Florida. My town is semi-rural.

Tile floors, light maple cabs (raised panel or shaker style) and laminate countertops are pretty ubiquitous here. Granite like Uba Tuba is also a big hit.

The micro-hood reigns supreme.

For higher end, luxury homes, honestly, I have not been impressed when in friends' houses or looking online at REaltor.com. I would say at the extreme end--million dollar homes (which is a lot of money for this neck of the swamp)--Tuscany or Franco influences are there. Honestly, I have not seen many "inspired" kitchens.

Things around here tend to be pretty standard issue builders grade.

In short: Micro-hood, tumbled stone backsplash, uba tuba granite, maple cabs, recessed lighting, islands are popular, tile flooring.

here in nyc, people like the white kitchen. the burbs, most people (and high end builder spec homes) tend to have medium stained cherry cabs w/granite & viking. we're moving the burbs and took our city taste with us...white kitchen, wolf appliances, etc. our builder said he would never build a house w/a white kitchen on spec.

In Florida I have seen a lot of kitchens with the fluorescent "light box" ceiling, at least in houses built in the 1970s-1990s. I don't know that I have ever seen this ceiling treatment in my area.

I did a sheet vinyl kitchen for a client where continuing the wood flooring would not have worked right against the cabinets, and everybody who heard this nearly had a heart attack--ceramic rules in her neighborhood. It was also very difficult to find a vinyl that was simple, high quality and wasn't trying to look like something elaborate.

I live in NJ, near NYC, where most houses were built in the 1920s. There is no new construction in town and lots of kitchen renovations going on. In expensive houses I see white cabinets with soapstone or granite counters or cherry cabinets with granite and high-end stainless appliances. In moderately priced houses, I also see white or wood cabinets and soapstone or granite countertops but without the high-end appliances.

The most common finishes I see in this area are natural stone, stainless appliances, and wood floors. Cabinets are wood - either stained or painted (no laminates in new or remodeled homes that I've seen.) I rarely see tile in the kitchen and often the wood floor is something really nice, like hand scraped wide planks or something rather exotic.

Kitchens trend toward traditional rather than contemporary, and often have formal touches like fancy molding, corbels, and chandys. I see alot of islands in a different finish than the perimeter cabinets, and almost every kitchen has an island.

I am in Central/Eastern Washington (Tri-Cities.) This area started growing during WWII, so there are very few old homes here (1940s, 1950s had some stock homes built, but there are a lot of new homes now.) I am building a new home and using Huntwood Cabinets (who is national, but based out of a different part of Eastern Washington.)

I am doing white cabinets, and the rep I talked to said she has only done white twice before... both in Seattle.
For every 100 MLS listings I see here for new-ish homes, there is only one white cabinet. There are 70 light/honey/medium-toned maple or oak cabinets. (Oak is low end builder. Maple is medium-end builder.) The remainder is dark-stained cabinets. A handful are Pacific Northwest themed.

Counters in the kitchen are granite. I have never seen soapstone or marble out here. The multimillion dollar homes have granite, except the extremely modern approach might have concrete (1% of the time.) Medium/lower end upgrades are tumbled stone or granite tile counters.

Flooring is a mix.... for upgraded homes, it might be tile + carpet...... or hardwood + carpet. A couple homes with a modern approach, again, have concrete as flooring.


All (luxury price point) homes built in the last couple years:


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Interesting thread.....Here in Utah, where we have snow on the ground for months on end, I don't recall ever seeing a white kitchen...ever. Not at upscale open houses, not in the annual Parade of Homes (where prices range from $500K to $2 Million), not ever. And I think that snow-on-the-ground has a lot to do with this! (When I lived in San Antonio in 1997-99, white kitchens were very popular, and I had one installed in the house I built. And that makes sense given San Antonio's heat and humidity -- it just felt welcoming to walk into the white kitchen from the outside.)

So, in Utah wood kitchens with granite and SS appliances are the rage, and have been for several years. Popular woods are alder and cherry -- both stained, and left natural, with some subtle glazing. You'll find oak cabinets, too, but not usually in the more expensive homes. You won't find painted cabinets...people here want the warmth of wood, and the ability to see its grain. Lots of back splashes made of interesting tile (glass tiles really haven't caught on yet) or granite. And granite counter tops are found everywhere. Kitchen floors range from wood floors to porcelain tile to travertine.

Styles range from traditional to country to western modern...No cutting-edge Architectural Digest modern or NYC modern.

For the Chicago/Illinois/Wisconsin/Indiana area, the post above from Chicagoans hit the nail on the head. That's exactly what I see. Furthermore, contractors/tradesmen here will almost entirely use regional name brands, and resist others. For example, Kohler (out of Wisconsin) is King, and my contractor was quite doubtful about my Grohe faucet, regardless of how high-quality it looked. Similarly from him, why isn't my sink an Elkay (located in suburban Chicago)? better than anything else according to him. My plumber scratched his head over my Toto toilets, with grumblings about how Kohler has been his toilet of choice for 30 years. My electrician would only use Juno (headquartered outside of Chicago). My Waste King disposal was met with disbelief from my GC--how could I not buy Insinkerator (made in Wisconsin); he'd never installed a Waste King in his 20 years in the business. I got very tired of explaining and defending my choices. The local contractors here seem more old-fashioned and set in their ways than the more sophisticated ones I read about on this forum from other regions.

I'm in a newer town in central FL. In some of the older homes (old here being 5 years ago! lol) you see a lot of Corian counters and builder grade cabinetry in an orangey maple color - I see it in a lot of houses so it must have been popular. That's what I have in my townhouse and I'm trying my best to get away from the standard builder look without remodeling the entire kitchen...

In the new homes and models I see a lot of darker cabinetry, espresso to almost black in color and granite countertops.

You don't see many kitchens here that look custom and there isn't much variation in my opinion. To me, everything has that builder look in every price point. Kind of boring is you ask me :)

Oak, Oak, Oak, and more oak! I live in rural/suburban Ohio and it is all you see. We are putting in a white painted maple kitchen and when I tell people this they look at me like I am insane, it totally cracks me up! I have honestly never seen a white kitchen in my area and I was a real estate agent before becoming a stay-at-home mom so I have been in my share of houses. There is a sprinkling of maple and some cherry in higher end homes but mostly honey oak, I supposed that has a lot to do with the fact that we have a large Amish community near us and people just go completely nuts for anything Amish which is always oak.
As for counter materials higher end houses have corian and very few have granite, I have never seen any soapstone or marble and I would say 90% of the houses have laminate.
Flooring is laminate, tile, or hardwood with laminate being most common...oh and the microhood still reigns supreme.
So I am going pretty far out of the box of normal for my area and everyone may hate it or think it is strange but I will love it :)

mgkinz - same here with the corian & granite, i don't think people here have even heard of soapstone! and i never see marble either...

microhoods are also big here too..

and laminate as well...lots of tile and laminate...we put laminate in our home b/c we didn't want to "over improve" with wood and the laminate fit better in our budget - but now i kind of wish we just did the wood anyway, oh well!

i'm thinking of putting in a white subway tile backsplash in my kitchen and i bet i'll be the only one in the whole town with it - although it seems to be popular in magazines and on the web...

Have to disagree with Boxerpups about northern New England, which I suppose points out the difficulty of answering a question like this.

Oak, pine, or maybe maple cabinets. Not white.
Formica countertops, with Corian if budget allows.
Vinyl flooring. Think mud season. Not tile.
Low to mid-range appliances. Usually from Sears. Just try to find a Miele or Wolf dealer north of the I-95 or I-89 corridors. No disposals, warming drawers, speed ovens, wine fridges, or other frills.
Lighting and hardware from Home Depot.

This is not a wealthy area, and kitchens and homes are modest, functional, and not trendy. More atypical, upscale kitchens are to be found around the pricey resorts, beaches, and ski areas.

kitchendetective - Central Texas, of course! You wrote what I would have had I continued writing more.

beth4 mentions white kitchens being popular in San Antonio and I'd have to say that may have been a short lived trend. White really doesn't work that well with the style homes here and white kitchens are certainly rare now.