My advice would be to decorate with what YOU like. What type of kitchen conjures up "comfort" when you close your eyes? There are plenty of flashy, high dollar kitchens out there, but would you really want to spend time in them??? If you would, then go for it! If not, watch some old movies and find a kitchen you do love :)

For old movie "cozy but spacious" houses, I vote for "Love Letters", starring Joseph Cotton and Jennifer Jones. The cottage he inherits from his aunt is wonderful!

Give it up. (Said in good spirit) There is no such thing as trend free. Put in what you like and go for as much quality as you can muster. Thirty years ago I bought good quality bedroom furniture that I loved and I still love it. By the same token, a few years ago I bought the cutest very inexpensive-- cheap, cheap-- lamp and I care for it as though it cost a mint. The bedroom set has gone in and out of style at least twice. But, who cares. If you buy safe, but you don't love it, it will annoy you even if it only costs $10.

I was also going to say that I don't see anything about having what you'll love on that list. If you can walk in every day and be delighted, and love living in the space, it'll be of value to you, and someone else can change it later if they buy it and want to. I don't buy into guessing what someone else might want in my house IF I sell it.

You can't avoid trend completely, or it's difficult, because it so affects the options you have available.

I don't think anything structural or functional should be too cheap, as flimsy door hardware or cabinet boxes will not give you anything in the long run, except aggravation. I'd be extra careful with anything that's very difficult to change, like acres of tile. Cabinet doors, knobs, and wall paint, however, can be changed so easily and dramatically change the room's personality. If you have to buy an not-currently-trendy metal color for knobs and pulls to match the sturdy hardware, then so be it. I think style and good quality will overcome the actual metal color, as long as it's a real metal color. The same with wood types.

I like a permanent backdrop that will accept different wall color and/or accessories to brighten it up or calm it down. I don't think neutral has to be blah, and a "dress it up to make it yours" room doesn't have to be shades of BEIGE with white walls. Yuck.

I have NO idea if I'm giving you what you'd wanted in this thread. :-)

I think doing what you love is best, and that's great for people who actually *know* what that is. But a lot of people don't know what it is, or they can't differentiate it from an infatuation.

How many times have we heard "I loved this when I picked it out, but now I hate it!" (and its barely installed) or I liked this when I bought it and now, two years later I am so-o-o-o tired of it."

For some of us, liking something because we like it because we like it etc. is easy...for others of us, we like what we see because we see it and then we don't like what we see, because we've seen it(too much). It depends on how much you are influenced by externals and how much you are influenced by some internal barometer.

I tend to disagree that you can't avoid trends because it limits is what is available, *with some *big *exceptions.
The big one for kitchen is appliance color --if you really wanted harvest gold, you would have to get it custom painted, for example.

But in other aspects of design, I think that you could put together a room that was pure Miami Vice or Golden Girls with new furniture, new fabrics, new everything. Most of it is still out there. Brunschwig Fils has racks of teal, peach, seafoam and lavender fabrics an order away.

As far as quality, many of us will be stuck with something that is *not good quality unless you do a custom build and get to hand select materials and finishes. The state of building in the large suburban house and the "luxury" condo market in my area is hollow core doors and Schlage builder's hardware. (a $50-75 door and a $20 handleset).
Getting what you want means you pay for it. I wanted Greek Revival doors in the right proportions with a good hinge and a knob with some heft. $1000 a door and $100 for hardware and I had it. Thankfully, I only needed five doors, but I won't go on a vacation for years. Most people will Not do that, even if they could. All to end up with a door that looks like it was always here and I didn't have to do anything. Maybe at least with being trendy, it shows:)

Palimpsest I totally resonate with what you said about getting the correct doors even if it means no vacation for years. We're doing that with floor tile, and it's not like they're even that gorgeous -- but they look right for the house and anything else (even if prettier) wouldn't have given me that peaceful feeling of -- "yes, that's the way it has to be."

I'm not much interested in traveling anyway, or even eating out -- would rather cook right here in my kitchen.

I also agree it can take a long, long time to figure out what you really like and what will work best.

Maybe at least with being trendy, it shows:)

I wouldn't underestimate this. A lot of people do things for status.

For my kitchen, I was definitely someone who "didn't know what she wanted". I hired a designer, who put together three "looks." I picked the look that I liked the most pieces from, then tweaked a couple of things.

Is it trendy? Somewhat - I see a lot of schoolhouse lights lately, for example. The appliances will be white rather than stainless, not on trend. Is it "me" - sort of, considering I wasn't sure what "me" was before I started. I did have a preference for shaker-style cabinets, and I'm getting those. I didn't care for stainless appliances, so I'm not getting those.

Am I happy? Yes, mainly because everything is "fitting" together -- I like how everything coordinates and it's saving me a lot of work in figuring things out myself by fitting pieces into a framework chosen with the designer. She has also saved me a lot of obsessing over tiny details.

On the other hand, I have no way of telling whether I'll still like it in two years (or 15 minutes after it's installed), or what the gods of fashion and marketplace will think if I have to sell. But, neither following nor avoiding trends will save me from those risks.

Touche, Palimpsest, and bravo!!
I can tell the summer heat has melted the veneer of "forum decorum" and you are throwing the gauntlet to challenge status quo.

Bravo, again. I for one like to turn things upside down and think outside the box too. It's more fun that way. Of course, we have two houses built in 1948 and 1950, and not the much older home that you have.

I appreciate your comments coming at this particular time too. For I was toying with whether to add the subway tiles to a bath wall in DH's cape. Which would replace the 4 inch squares of mid century blues.

And I agree with the glass block shower wall, because it is sturdy and gives a modicum of privacy not available with the other kind of glass shower. I think it is time to revive the Glass Block Revolution. I rather like an art nuevo touch. What does the d.... stand for? I'm assuming it is "dowdy," but then I fly against the trends quite frequently. I think in the smaller homes you have to resort to different solutions to fit the space.

And yeah, I'm now considering keeping the old stick-built cabs on the sink side of my future galley kitchen. And I KNOW what counter top I want, have used it up north in the cape, and it is NOT granite, NOT Corian, NOT laminate, NOT soapstone,---it is Silestone STELLAR SNOW, a white with gray specks and sparklies in it which makes me smile when I see it. I'm spending too much money on THAT to change it, but who cares? The other side of the galley, the cooking side, will PROBABLY have a stainless countertop and the stainless IKEA cabs below, with simple shelves above. This IS, after all, a small kitchen, even when we knock down the back wall and take in the back porch. It won't be a design dream, but it will be well arranged and organized for our use in our declining years.

And I want to get a door lock set which opens with the click of a remote, like my car does. I love that, and do not want to depend on my memory to decide which key to use in the lock, or which code to use for passage.

As a trial run, I've frequently set up temporary solutions to test my ideas. Like the time I built a bamboo bed canopy frame from bamboo that grew in our river lots. It looked great with the Mombasa sheer netting over it, but one night the whole frame fell on us.....I'm sure it amused my landlordess, who was gardening outside early in the morning and had to have heard the commotion. But at least ONCE in my life I used a really exotic and romantic sleeping enclosure! And I did not have to worry about selling it after the exotic moment passed.

And about fashionable colors. Does anyone remember MAUVE?
Good lord, forget it! Regardless of the current trend, I know what I like and that is the way I go. I'm not "staging" a home with neutral colors, I'm living in it. And I do not have a lot of company, and I do not care to impress anyone by having a room with the trendy colors. I've never been a fan of anything in the blue spectrum. Pale lavender is as close to blue as I get. Maybe a smoked gray, which is the color for my second bedroom, but IMHO, blue sucks the light out of a room after dark, so depressing. Yes, I know it is a personal thing, but that's what we are talking about here.

I'm also going to spend more money than I should to get a 24 inch Bertazzoni gas range, because I want it, and it will fit in this new kitchen and is big enough and powerful enough to cook the way I like to cook. Which is not too much and not too often. But I love good machinery. And I fell in love with things Italian after a trip to Tuscany.

So, ummm, let me see what else....oh yes, if I want to do solar hot water instead of tankless water heating, I like it. If I want a sistern outside the kitchen catching rain water to do the grass or veggie garden, that's what I'll do. If I compost veggie scraps etc, I can make room for that feature. And if I want a garden window to grow my potted herbs inside, I think that will be something I'd add over my sink too. And if I want to paint all my woodwork white and have shuttered cabinets instead of solid doors, well, that is something I like too. If I want to have an earthen roof on my garage, and DH doesn't oppose it too much, we'll do it.

I think that is about it. Hope I did not get too personally specific if you intended this thread to be generalities.

I think its hard to get inspired because after looking at so my kitchens on the web it starts to almost bore you (at least it did me) many are just a variation of another and I craved something different. I knew I had to start looking at things differently if I were to ever decide on what I wanted to live with. For me a couple of things started standing out, little things like how I liked one big light that would make a statement as apposed to a lot of lighting hanging down, I knew I often changed colors or decorating so the kitchen would have to be able to live through that in an open plan. I knew I couldnÂt have a bunch of big expensive appliances because there was no room. What I did know is that my kitchen needed some nice quality cabinets. I knew that no matter what my house decor was, there was always some light shade of yellow somewhere. I knew I liked contrasts of light and dark and knew I liked colorful art on the walls. And that is how my creamy butter yellow uppers w/some mirror & lower dark cherry kitchen was born.
I was thinking along the same lines of what you posted. So, I am doing a DIY to save money. IÂm doing a little of what others are doing, IÂm adding a glass backsplash tile. If I get tired of the butter yellow colored uppers I can change the color. Most of the kitchen is not what you will see elsewhere though (try googling transitional creamy butter kitchen cabinets with dark cherry and you will get next to nil hits). Most of the bases have been covered AND IÂm getting what I want.

When I was first starting my kitchen plan I went to the finished kitchens blog. I didn't find a kitchen I wanted but I weeded out the things I didn't want. And that's how my plan came together. Some of the things I chose are now common in the new kitchens I see posted. Who knew!

I read an article about people like me. I wish I could find it again. We genuinely don't care what everybody else is doing. Too self centered, I guess. And that's the end of the story.

Hm... I do think my almost finished kitchen is as untrendy as is possible. The bamboo is the trendiest part, and it doesn't look like the trendy bamboo. Oh, and the Karbon faucet--but I chose it for function, rather than style. It doesn't really go with the rest of the kitchen. So maybe as a trendy item it's fizzledish. Mine is definitely the because I like what I like that I like stuff. It's also possible to do an a limited budget. What it takes is a lot of creativity and daring that most people don't want to put into something that is their largest asset.

...And I think of the little bit of stainless steel I have (ovens, cooktops faucets) as functional too. My knives are also stainless.

In terms of trying to please a client, though, I get your other rules. People like to be "in fashion" so a judicious use of #1 can never hurt. Subway tiles are classic. They'll be "out" soon, but out in the way that brass is. It's not that they ever go away. Just sometimes they're the latest thing, and sometimes they're just an alternative. (Now mauve? We can hope that that never, ever, ever resurfaces as a trend.)

#2 is an interesting one. Mine certainly fits that, including the time frame. But I think it can be done in newer places as well, and, with a little restriction it can be done in an historic home. I mean Poggenpohl would look stupid in a brick built Federal in the Northeast. But a modern kitchen along the lines of Cat_Mom's could be made to work with some finesse. And while Tuscan would also look stupid, there a many elements of it that could work in a Federal house. Just run the most beloved elements through an early American filter. Acanthus leaves and cabriole legs aren't period but they can look grown in place over the evolution of the house. I think the important thing is to make sure the kitchen makes reference to its setting, as we've discussed before, and looks evolutionary, rather than plopped in place.

#3 works really well. There's a psychological term for it, but I forget the name.

My auntie used to do #4 with her dishes. She liked to throw them when she was angry so bought them at the dime store. I also know people who have IKEA, and have different doors that they pop on and off for different moods. You could actually do that easily with any Euro hinged doors.

My big advice is to look at kitchen magazines from 5-10 years ago to see what is currently really in style, that's also in them, and NOT get them. Those are the things that are going to look dated.

I mentioned in my other thread that it is easier to avoid some trendiness (as much as you may like them), or embrace some trends that will not end up looking too 20XX-specific once the trend has faded, ---if the house provides a strong personality.

The white kitchen with subway tile will always look okay in a house built up to, say, the Depression, and in certain styles of 2000s houses, because it fits. The espresso kitchen with bar pulls will generally always look ok in a contemporary house built from the 1950s on, or a contemporary highrise. The Clive Christian butter yellow pilastered and bracketed kitchen with ogee edged counters may wow people for a few years even in the wrong house, just because it is so current, but then it will look more discordant as time goes by.

However, a lot of us have houses that do not have a strong architectural identity, particularly on the interior, and that sort of open-endedness can make it difficult to decide what to do.

Okay, new rule!

Stay away from highly decorative permanent fixtures that have no function. They're hard to clean and they don't age well.

Re However, a lot of us have houses that do not have a strong architectural identity, particularly on the interior, and that sort of open-endedness can make it difficult to decide what to do. : I think that's where my location fails me. Every house is different here. Every kitchen is different (though there are some national trends that peek around the corners), so strong architectural identity only really applies to art houses, almost all of which demand modern of some sort, somewhere between MCM and SciFi clinical. Um...Poggenpohl.

What kind of clothes do you wear--a personal look, a classic look, nothing intentional at all, or the "in" thing? I suspect that kitchens generally trend in similar ways. I like the idea of mixing high-end and modest, trendy and classic, restraint and quirk. On the quirky and modest thread, we talked about "comfortable, authentic, and unapologetic" as guiding muses and I still think it's a good summary of a certain kind of kitchen.

The Sweeby Test is a good thinking tool. Your wallet is another one and your future plans and retirement stash are important to consider too.

I am a big believer that interior architecture --which a kitchen is-- should not trend the way fashions do. The marketers push it this way, but, how many of us would want to be presented with the exact wardrobe we wore 15 years ago? $40,000 in appliances and cabinets is not like a $100 pair of shoes. But I do think people sometimes go through the same process in choosing fixtures and finishes as they do a pair jeans.

Palimpsest, you make a great point, but what I think Florantha was saying was that you can look at your taste in clothes for cues to knowing what your kitchen style is. It's not an absolute, but I remember Redroze mentioning a correlation with hers, and while I affirmatively do not dress like my kitchen (ack!!) the thoughts behind them might be similar. My wardrobe is quailty, well fitted, not afraid of pattern, lots of color, functional, and comfortable, as is my kitchen.

Though, thinking of shoes, I have to admit to being something of a shoe slut in my youth. And I don't get rid of them unless they're worn out or mistakes. There was a fashion themed event to which I loaned some of my 15-25 year old pumps for the decor, and people were picking them up to find out what they were. (I only loaned one of each pair--I'm not stupid!) Several messages were passed to me inquiring where they came from. Have they ever been out of style? Sure. And I can point out the little details that indicate fashions past, but they're still very cool shoes. Pumps are classic.

If this kitchen is like my wedding dress - there is no way that I'll buy it twice. I loved it back then, and thought it was a timeless classic that I would enjoy seeing in pictures for years to come. If I had to live with it today, I could do some alterations and the quality of the raw silk would still make my heart sing. That veil would just have to go. Likewise, my kitchen needs to have quality materials with a bit of the trendy accessories that can be tossed when the time is right. BTW - the shoes are still to die for.