You've gotten some strongly worded responses here, so I will attempt to temper that and say that IMO a modern kitchen in a Colonial home is no problem at all. Plenty of historic homes have modern kitchens, and even if the white on white theme is super popular now it has also been done for ages. The kitchen is the one room in the house that is more about function than pure aesthetic, so to me it makes sense to defer to a more modern approach if needed. I mean, what if you don't want to be beholden to cleaning kitchen dirt out of nooks and crannies in your cabinetry? I will provide just one data point, which is probably not worth much, but I'll toss it out anyway. We grew up in a Southern Colonial style home in a strongly historic location. The home's interior was Americana-tacky when we moved in (plaid wallpaper, mustard yellow appliances). My decorator Mom redid the whole house in painstakingly beautiful Colonial style, which of course worked perfectly with the house. It was all the same colors you mentioned. But the kitchen was a strong departure and was ultra-modern for its time. She put in high gloss white, slab front cabinetry - and this is like 1974 when probably no one had heard of such a thing! It even had pullouts for all the lower cabs, which I think none of my Mom's contemporaries had ever seen. So the kitchen was sleek and modern, but it did include handpainted accent tiles, not quite Delft but certainly Dutch. These were small accents in deference to the house's style but the kitchen was undoubtedly modern. To get back to your original question, I think subway tiles would be fine but also perhaps a bit boring. Sheet glass is definitely too modern. I agree with the suggestion of marble tiles or something else with a bit of interest in it. You are asking good questions and even if you go with plain subways you certainly won't be committing any crimes! Good luck with all the decisions. :)

I've never had the $ to go with fads or trends, really, but 3.5 years ago when we bought our couches, the store we went to had a million fabric options and not a single one in the color I really wanted for my couches--I wanted a dark emerald and all they had was sage and hunter in the green category; the other 199,998 options were gold, red or brown. So I went with brown--even though my other upholstered (actually slipcovered) seating in that room was already brown. And that is why I am trapped in brown hell today. I understand that with kids and pets and shoddy housekeeping, brown is serviceable. I know that accessorized with things other than dog hair, dropped Crocs and a handful of Connect Four pieces, brown can be elegant and rich looking. But in my house, it's just plain brown. Snooze. I wish I had bucked the trend (what was that color trend that made all the fabrics red and gold? Tuscan?) and held out for the emerald sofas of my dreams....

Thank you everyone for your imput. I have really enjoyed reading all of these posts. In 1995 I purchased an eggplant leather couch. I fell in love with the 2" sample and the salesman asked me "are you sure you want that colour"? I said "Yes definetly" But when it came to finding anything that I loved that would go with that, there wasn't anything to pick from. When we moved here, I painted my walls a darker shade of the couch and just a couple of years later, all the accessories you could want, were in style. I stocked up on everything I could possibly get my hands on. Dishes, glasses, carpets, material for drapes (which I have to still sew) etc. That is not the problem because I have all these items. I also have a cobalt blue gas stove which I bought at the same time as the couch. I had to wait till colbalt came in before I could get my cobalt blue irridescent tiles for the backsplash. Now I am planning on painting the bathroom. I know you are supposed to choose a fabric or shower curtain or something and then choose the colour. But I don't know what I want untill I start to paint. I don't plan ahead or rather I can't plan ahead. Right now I only know the colour I am going to use and I know it is not in style and I won't find towels or a bathmat that will cooridinate or be the proper shade to complement.( I wish I could do white, but my DH is a mechanic, white would only be white for the first day and never again). I have a vision of gray to go with it but that colour gray isn't out and I have even been to the mill to buy some other material and checked out the dyes, hoping to find the right one to match. It is not out there or it too has come and gone. The shower curtain I will sew if I can find material that I can live with and love As for the furniture being black, I have wanted black furniture before it was popular as well. It's just that once I paint it black there is no turning back. It doesn't really matter to me whether or not it is trendy, I was just wondering what you thought. Same goes for the black granite. I want that for the kitchen and the bathroom upstairs to go with the black sink, toilet and tub. I also want a black wooden floor for the master bedroom.(I had black carpet in the basement of our other home and really loved it but not for the bedroom) to replace the aqua green which was installed in 1999 before that colour was popular. If only I could wait till it came in style my life would be so much simpler. lol. Although I have actually tried that when I repainted the house and went from eggplant to the very popular shade of grayish-green. I was starting to tire of the colour purple or because it was becoming popular, it doesn't really matter the reason. Deep down, I truly miss my eggplant and I am going to back to my gut feeling and use it again in a grayer version keeping in mind it now has to go with the blue stove and tiles. The slate floor and the pine and oak and black and eggplant accessories. So I guess the answer is exactly that I am SOL. because of the way I do things. Anyway, thanks again everyone Linda

Yes, jerzeegirl. I tend to kneejerk negatively against the whole term "out-dated". I think the bones of the house should dictate whether you go more traditional, modern, cottage, farmhouse, industrial, etc. To me, if the general style fits the style of the home, you're golden for decades. Of course, then your own personal tastes come into play as well. If you combine those well, I think a kitchen should stand the test of time quite well. I've been in homes with 80 year old kitchens that look fantastic. Sure, there may have been appliance updates and other tweaks over the years but if the original materials were good enough quality to still be in good condition and, of course, the layout is functional, and it suits the home and owner's tastes, why update just because of trends and fads? Of course, if the kitchen is crumbling or has a dysfunctional layout, go ahead and remodel but choose items that fit the house. Of course, I'm assuming here that someone bought that Victorian because they appreciate that style of architecture and so their tastes will match up with the types of kitchens that should be in a Victorian or Cape Cod, or Tudor or Ranch or MCM or whatever. When I say this I'm not really speaking about appliances. An electric stove with coil burners might be age appropriate to most homes but I doubt any of us lust for one of those anymore. And the last time we had this discussion, someone popped in with amazingly modern kitchens put into centuries old European buildings. OK, that contrast was striking and those types of structures were never built with any kind of kitchen as we know it today. so I'm not talking about those kinds of extreme situations. Getting back to farmhouse sinks, whether it's a good choice for a particular kitchen depends on the style of the kitchen and the owner's taste. And in 20-30 years when you redo your kitchen or someone buys your home and remodels, the farmhouse sink may stay or go. Don't worry about it. Do what you like and works for you and your kitchen's style.