Home design: is gray here to stay?

Decision making isn’t my strong suit, and we are building a new house so I need help, especially with the kitchen design. My husband does NOT like an all white kitchen. I REALLY like the look of light gray cabinets and he’s on board (though if it are up to him he’d go with dark wood - that’s a no for me). BUT, do you think gray is here to stay, or is it on its way out? I’m nervous to commit to it and 10 years from now the house be really dated by the gray. White is timeless, IMO, and I feel like I could soften it up with countertop, backsplash, fixtures etc. What to do??

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Cherry is timeless. Just my personal opinion. Cabinets can always be repainted or refaced (we did the latter in our new to us house by refacing the cabinetry in cherry; could not stand the painted cabinets).

Go with what you like, not what a hypothetical future buyer will like.

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Agree with the cherry, if you can afford the cost.

But to answer your question, a couple of designers’ blogs that I follow seem to indicate that gray is on teh decline. But if this is your forever home, who cares? You can always re-paint to a neutral or warm or off-white ten years down the line prior to selling. OTOH, if you might be selling in a couple of years, I’d go more neutral now.

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I had a designer I work for say the all-white kitchen has had its moment. I’d go with the grey and then just repaint if you tire of it. Solid wood cabinets are beautiful and timeless but $$$$.

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I would also go with gray over white. And I agree that you should go with what you like. We redid our kitchen in 2013, and we have cherry cabinets. I still love them, even though I am aware that darker wood cabinets are “out.” They make us happy.

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Unpopular opinion: Nothing is timeless about kitchen design. Everything has its moment and then looks dated as soon as the next thing is having its time in the sun (including cherry cabinets, which, tbh, I think always look beautiful but are currently not en vogue).

That said, I currently have gray cabinets (we had them painted about 4 years ago) and still love them.

Edited to add: Also, if you wait long enough, most trends come back (except for avocado-colored appliances, LOL).

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I define “timeless” as something that has a tendency to come back more often than the rest of the group. Little black dress - check. Bell bottoms - uncheck. :wink:

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Gray is still a neutral and neutral colors are timeless. Even though people are saying white kitchens are “out” now, I did a search and found pictures of white kitchens in design websites for every single decade, beginning with the 1920s. While I wouldn’t make every single element in a kitchen gray, I wouldn’t hesitate to paint the cabinets in any shade of it you want. We bought a house two years ago with dark brown cherry stained cabinets. While I never would have chosen them, they are in good condition, good design and a high quality brand so I’m changing the granite countertops to a soft white quartz and putting in a white backsplash hoping they lighten up the kitchen. I can always have the cabinets painted sometime in the future if they start to look worn.

I personally hate brown. I hated it in the 1970’s and 1980’s (when it was everywhere) and aside from wood furniture or floors, would never, ever have
brown upholstery, tile, countertops or paint in my home, no matter how much on trend it was.

If any future owner doesn’t want gray kitchen cabinets (or white) they can easily paint them to their liking. Get what you want in your own kitchen.

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I’d just get the Kitchen you like now. If it needs to be painted for resale, it’s not that huge of a deal. Enjoy your new place!

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Agree about enjoying the new place yourself!

Also would note that a designer I know said the cherry cabinets are coming back.

As are bell-bottoms! :slight_smile:

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I should add that we just sold our last house last summer. The kitchen had all white painted high-quality shaker cabinets and pale gray countertops. It sold for just short of $100k over the asking price after receiving 6 offers. Gray and white are neutral enough that I don’t think either of them would ever kill a sale.

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We built our house starting in 2012. When we were choosing the kitchen cabinets our budget was pretty tight so I invested the money in the more expensive cabinet boxes rather than an expensive wood species. So I have a beautiful designed kitchen of natural solid oak. We like the light colored wood and I felt if we decided to change it the all we’d need is a refinish either of stain or paint. By doing the cheaper wood, I have more bells and whistles like soft close, pots/pans drawers, custom pantry. This is our forever house unless our only child settles down somewhere far away. With such a huge investment, longevity was important to me versus resell value. Good luck! Kitchen shopping was my favorite part of building this house.

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We opted to do a very light grey in our kitchen a few years ago. I absolutely love it. Honestly in most lights it can almost look white.

I also agree that good quality wood cabinets can always be repainted later.

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It’s a bit tricky. The house is in Florida, so I feel even moreso that the overall look should be light and bright. We also have cherry cabinets and lots of wood in our current home, so different is appealing. It will initially be a seasonal rental/second home with the long-term goal of it being our retirement home. BUT, with aging parents and my oldest heading who-knows-where for college (she’s applied to schools in 9 states) I can’t confidently say that it’ll be our forever home. We are a bit limited in options - it’s a semi-custom builder so we have 6-8 cabinet choices in our price range.

As others have said white kitchens (at least the cabinets) come back regularly. I’d agree that wood also comes back frequently. I personally hate gray kitchens. I think you should do what you like. I have white cabinets and white subway tile (on the timeless side of things) and celery green walls (definitely not). I also have a fair amount of open storage which many people hate, but I love. My island is a Boos butcher block with a tomato red base. My kitchen makes me happy. I’m quite sure whoever buys this house will change at least parts of it.

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I would go with white if white and gray are the only options. I personally dislike gray indoors.

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Do what YOU want, especially if you are going to paint them. Paint can be easily changed.

People have been saying for a long time that stainless appliances are going out of style, but every new house I have seen recently has them.

Attend to the trends when/if you decide to sell on something as easy to change as paint.

I don’t have gray cabinets, but I like them, particularly if art/furniture/accessories bring in the warmth that can be lacking sometimes with cool colors.

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What style of house are you building? I agree that you should go with what you like.

We finished our new home in 2020. We have a Mediterranean style home and I wanted a warm feel to the kitchen. I opted for a light brown stained Knotty alder cabinets with a brown glaze and my Island is painted with a cream color and the brown glaze. I also went with granite counter tops. All not within the current kitchen design trend 2 years ago. I have gotten nothing but compliments on my choices and as long as I am happy, that is what matters.

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I think designers get tired of trends a lot sooner than actual people. They look at this stuff all day long and their business model is predicated on novelty and change!

I think it’s a lot easier to “colorize” a white or gray kitchen than it is to accessorize a darker wood kitchen to make it brighter or more neutral. I’ve seen gray kitchens which are ultra high end, and ones done with the bottom of the pricetag elements- and they can both look really tasteful and beautiful.

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I’d go white. Dark woods are really pretty but depending on the house design might not be what you want for a “Florida look” . Gray…I don’t like gray at all…so maybe I’m not the one to say. It doesn’t strike me as neutral unless in a bedroom environment.

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