There’s No Such Things As Timeless Kitchen Design
I spent last week going through boxes and boxes of random things in the sunroom to make room for the items I needed to move out of our home gym so that our gym-to-bedroom conversion can begin. And while I was going through those boxes, I came across lots of old decorating magazines.
I love to flip through old magazines to revisit old trends. I still find myself being inspired by things I see in those old magazines. But one of them really caught my eye. Since we’re going to be doing a kitchen addition in the near future, this special edition Kitchen & Bath publication was especially interesting to me. I was so curious to see if any of these kitchens would still look “current” today.
This magazine was from 2007, so it’s seventeen years old.
Probably the most interesting thing about it is that it cost $4.99.
I bought a similar magazine just last week. It’s has about the same number of pages, same number of features.
But this one cost $14.99. How depressing.
But anyway, back to the 2007 publication. What really struck me was all of the dark cabinets. Almost every ad in the whole magazine featured dark stained wood cabinets. And I was never a fan of those tiny square mosaic tile backsplashes even back in 2007.
But the ads featuring dark stained wood cabinets were numerous.
In fact, in the whole magazine, I don’t think I saw an ad that had anything other than dark stained wood cabinets. And the travertine. My goodness, so much travertine!
This was during the time I had my interior decorating business, and I remember these trends. Everyone wanted dark stained cabinets with a travertine backsplash, and they wanted their homes decorated to look like a page out of a Pottery Barn catalog.
All I wanted to do was decorate with color, and yet, I was stuck in this never ending dark wood, travertine, Pottery Barn hell with a side of “Texas Tuscan”. I couldn’t escape it.
I mean, these ads with the dark wood cabinets just seemed unending! Every ad!
And even when they tried something different, like this more contemporary look, it was still dark.
Then I got to the features. This is the kitchen from the cover.
At least it’s white and bright. It’s definitely the closest to “timeless” that there is in the whole magazine.
Here’s another before and after feature. I mean, you can tell me what you think. Is this timeless? I don’t think it is. The after picture looks like a before picture today.
I was also surprised to see just how many black and white kitchens there were in this one publication. The one from the cover is white cabinets with a black countertop. The one above is the same. And here’s another one below.
I remember this look all too well. Even though the cabinets are a light color, the room has a heaviness to it.
Even this kitchen that is much whiter and brighter has a heaviness to it. I think kitchens back then were a bit overdone. Things seem lighter, brighter, and simpler today.
This one was probably the closest I found to being able to pass as a timeless design, although I think a new coat of white paint would go a long way in this kitchen.
This one is just a no from me.
I think this one probably looked contemporary in 2007, but not today.
And I don’t even remember this being popular back in 2007.
This one could still be nice today with a just a few updates, like the ceiling. And I’d also remove those heavy corbels. I remember those being so popular back then, but I just don’t see them being used anymore.
So you can tell me what you think. Do any of these pass as “timeless design” to you? I personally don’t think there’s any such thing.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
Have you read any of Maria Killam’s blog on timeless design? I agree with her that it does exist, even in kitchens! But magazines need to sell and trends do the selling, so that’s what makes up the bulk of their content.
I agree 100%! Doesn’t Maria say something like, “Boring now means timeless later?” I am a fan. Maria doesn’t shy away from color either. I’m with her!
Oh I disagree about Maria and had to give up on her. She does the latest trends, ALL the time, trying to claim that she doesn’t.
Everything with her was a white kitchen, with very ugly old looking subway tiles. Is she still at that, as I haven’t looked in many years.
I’m 53 years old and since I was old enough to think about kitchens I’ve always wanted one with white cabinets. We’re about to build our first home after owning and remodeling MANY. I still want white cabinets. I don’t know if they qualify as timeless but I’VE liked and wanted them for about 35 years. Since I’m building a home for ME – I’m the only opinion that matters (and my husbands, but he’s cool with whatever). YOU have taught me that! It’s MY home and MY money going into it so I’m going to build it for ME! Thanks to you and your content I’ve stopped thinking about current trends and started thinking about what *I* like, so thank YOU!!! You really are an inspiration!
LOL! All I can think about when I see designs like the Go for Baroque, is who the heck is going to clean this kitchen? Not me! Can you imagine the amount of grease and crud that would accumulate in all that woodwork? Of course, strong cleaners are out because they could ruin the paint job. And then the City Blocks just looks ridiculous. Not to mention how much extra it will cost to have oddball shapes and slants in cabinets made. I lean more toward the simplicity of restaurant kitchens with stainless steel and easy to clean. I once saw a picture of a home kitchen that used large garage tool chests for cabinets and stainless sinks with drainboards as well as stainless movable prep tables. Talk about handling all the tools you need in a kitchen! Also very easy to install! Just roll into place!
If you follow trends, your spaces will never look timeless because trends by nature come in and then go out. E.g. subway tile is pretty basic, but using it in your kitchen WILL date it; it will not hold up as “classic” or “timeless.” If you pick what you love instead of what is on trend, you have a better chance of a timeless finished product.
I don’t agree. Boring old subway tile is timeless. Yes, it was trending for a while, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t timeless. It’s been used for over 100 years.
I agree Meredith. Subway tile looks like it belongs in a men’s bathroom in a cheap place like old, very old subways. What a yucky thing to have in your kitchen!
A couple are timeless with a few changes- countertops and handles. No such thing in the true sense because trends will always be a thing in design. But a neutral shaker is the closest you’re going to get to “timeless”
Im with you. Those contemporary/modern kitchens a big no for me. And the fastest to be dated of any style in my opinion.
I too have magazines from many moons ago. It is amazing how design trends just cycles around.
Kitchen design in my opinion needs to be personal to the owner, and equally important to keeping the exterior architecture of the home congruent with the style inside. There are too many people that are confusing the latest trends to be the only style that matters.
I personally find ‘timeless’ kitchens to be non-painted cabinet’s, they tend to be trendy. Every year a new color comes out. I personally love a great quality wood cabinet stained that shows the variations in the wood. I 100% agree with making your kitchen to fit your personal taste because if you are like me I spend tons of time in my kitchen. I love that my kitchen flows into our other rooms so I am always with family and friends whenever they are over. We never entertain without food and beverages.
Ah yes. Some saw “warm,” I saw “grim.” I hate anything dark and hulky in a kitchen, esp. black appliances, black countertops, and dark brown cabinets. Light, clean, fresh and welcoming are the kitchen vibes that resonate with me. If you read Laurel Bern’s blog, you’ve no doubt enjoyed following the development of her non-kitchen kitchen. It’s a perfect little jewel that feels infinitely timeless to me.
After getting over the sticker shock of your new $14.99 magazine, I think the only thing that’s timeless is if you still love your kitchen 17 years after the fact. I looked at the pictures from the 2007 one and I agree, things seems to generally be lighter, brighter, and not so overwrought these days. Of course, I’m not really a fan of the heavily and darkly veined stone on the cover of the new magazine either. I love it as a slab but it’s too busy for me to look at daily on a backsplash.
The 2007 cover photo kitchen is by far the best kitchen in the magazine!
I’m always drawn to a kitchen with natural light and clean, non-fussy cabinets.
Wood flooring is my preference and color with window treatments or accents that can be changed easily to update appearance. Designers want homeowners to completely tear out everything and redo everything but it makes more sense to me to just update appliances instead. They only last 8-10 years anyway.
My stove is 33 years old and still works and looks great. Hard to believe.
I think there is, but it’s relatively boring and would never be featured in a magazine. It really cannot have anything remotely considered trendy or it becomes dated quickly. A bit like fashion. There are always the classics but they’re rather boring and often colorless on their own. They’d never do for Kristi! 😅
I agree, no such thing as timeless. I confess though, my brand new kitchen is antique oak. Darker brown than gold oak but not black! It matches my furniture and most importantly makes my partner and I happy! I collect antiques and since the house is open floor plan, I like the cohesive look! I laughed when I saw the cover, that picture was a dead ringer for my mother’s 1950’s kitchen sink. (No thank you) 🙂↔️ but in design, variety is the spice of life!!
Your best bet is to have a kitchen that ties in with the style of your house, not necessarily strictly retro, but coordinated. My house is prairie style and the kitchen was done in 1992 or so in pale maple shaker-style pickled-washed high quality cabinetry by the previous owner. Except for the powder-blue countertops and very 80-90’s tile floor, it could have been recently done. Hoping to refinish cabinet fronts in the same finish, replace floors and replace countertops soon to set it up for the next 30-35 years.
PS. Fridge, oven and stovetop date from the early 90s also — Subzero and Thermador. We replaced the Asko dishwasher with a Bosch. Quality can be worth it.
I think the floor & backsplash tiles make most of these kitchens look dated. I would be fine with having most of these cabinets in my home today even though I do prefer cabinets painted more colorfully than white or off white. The City Blocks kitchen is a never. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I would have never wanted it.
Kristi, looking at those kitchens from 2007 and 2024 magazines in your post today, I didn’t see not one kitchen that appealed to me. It’s sort of funny how people label kitchens, and other rooms in their homes as timeless. To me I don’t think of any part of my home as timeless. What I like is what I go for, and it never enters my mind to think whether anything is out dated or timeless….or, if anyone else likes it. I will be 82 in January 2025 and if I could change my kitchen, I would make it look almost 90% like your present kitchen. Is it timeless?…..no. Is it perfectly beautiful?….yes. Is it too busy?…no. I would have it made bigger to fit my present kitchen space of 25′ by 18′ because our table, hutch, and such is in our kitchen. Would my family like it? I wouldn’t care. I love light colorful kitchens.
My grandmother had the most wonderful kitchen that I grew up in. Nothing was dark in her kitchen except the huge round table that she kept a colorful fresh tablecloth on, and the eight chairs. Her stove was a big white Jewell. Her cabinets were not real cabinets….they were tall stand alone double white cabinets all along one wall, a big white cabinet with flour storage bin, and staples storage behind a pull down door, with a white pull out counter top she used to prepare meals along the wall, she had white pie safes with glass windows along one wall. She had a white Sears fridge, and big white sink cabinet with storage underneath. She kept fresh clean colorful curtains on the big windows. That was back in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. Was it timeless?…no. But she must have loved everything light and colorful too because it was always clean and happy.
I love every room in your KRISTI DIY home. Glad you enjoyed looking at all of the magazines and memorabilia you have. It’s a good thing to do that….puts things in perspective for us.
I would have LOVED your grandmother’s kitchen — it sounds like year-round comfort and joy. Was it a Hoosier Cabinet she had (built-in storage bins, drawers and shelves plus a pull-out enameled work top?) I had a Hoosier in one of my long-ago apartments and got a ton of use and enjoyment from it. I have the lower half of a vintage Hoosier in my garage now, but don’t have the kitchen space for it. I keep thinking I’ll find a place for it eventually.
I have a fairly new kitchen that was renovated in 2019. I still love it 5 years later, but I think the only timeless element is probably my split-brick floors. I’ve had them for prob 20 years and I just don’t see them going out of style. Color trends, cabinets, tiles, countertops, etc will forever be changing though. I’m just hoping my Shaker cabinets hang in there with my floors. Everything else will probably need updating in 10 years.
A 15 year life expectancy on a kitchen doesn’t seem unreasonable I don’t think.
I’m hoping to be around in 20 years to see how everyone feels about white Shaker cabinets. I can see how they might seem to be timeless compared to those dark cabinets with fussy moldings.
Timeless? No, not really. By the very definition of historical trends, it’s impossible to create a kitchen that’s NEVER going to look dated. The trick is to pick whatever styles YOU will like, or find easy to update, over the years. That’s what I’m going to do in my kitchen!
I remember those kitchens! Mostly because I was redoing my own mid-century kitchen in white oak when everyone was doing cherry cabinets and black granite countertops. I do think the 2007 cover kitchen is relatively timeless, except everyone has moved to so-called “timeless” brass hardware or even worse, black. If you match the kitchen to the style of the home, I think that’s usually pretty safe.
Love the contemporary kitchens (especially “I think this one probably looked contemporary in 2007, but not today.”, which still looks fresh to me), but otherwise, I will definitely pass on the rest. I am just not someone that likes traditional design – whether it was from 1920 or 2020. 🙂 Modern and contemporary always looks at least decent to me, though.
This very day I was poring over a couple old kitchen books (published in 1998 and 2006 respectively) which I’ve borrowed from my library for the very purpose of seeing what stood the test of time! Both books leaned toward country style, and I’d say about 20% of the kitchens shown still held up today, at least for a casual-classic style house. The most successful ones had wood floors – tile is SUCH a timestamp, even if it’s just on floors! – and plain solid toned counters of some sort, and were painted something in the realm of white.
There were also some that looked like the current English country trends of right now, with putty green/gray/mushroom colored cabinets and plenty of natural wood elements.
Simple lines in recognizable styles that have been around for a couple centuries make it hard to tell just when a kitchen was put in. So yes, I DO think there are timeless kitchens that can shift comfortably enough with the trends over a couple decades.
Lots of dark brown kitchens and white huge, castle looking kitchens. No there is no “timeless” because styles change, colors change, shapes change, and desires change.
Did you keep all these magazines for another 17 years, or did you let them go?
Nothing is ever timeless because tastes and culture are always changing (independently of marketing trends). There was a time when kitchens all had swinging doors to hide what was going on in there when the lady of the house had a dinner party and invited her husband’s boss over for dinner. I mean, that was a thing! Over the course of time, the kitchen has evolved to be part of entertaining–we expect people to participate, or at least observe, while meals are prepared as we chat. Kitchens have changed because the whole idea of what constitutes service, entertaining, and propriety all changed, and will change again. And again. These days, the only thing I consider when looking at a given kitchen is what it would be like to try to clean it: if I spill something or splash something on this, will I have to clean every surface in the room? A timeless kitchen is one that will look fine if I just wipe one cupboard door!
My favorite kitchens always have white or off-white cabinets with either butcher block or marble or granite countertops. That’s pretty timeless to me. Of course, I’ve been around the sun 75 times, so I’ve seen many styles come and go. It’s nice to be able to choose out of the many different popular styles through the years. But it’s the work triangle, the appliances, and the organization that really makes a kitchen function. Each to his own!
I was just talking to my husband today about how I don’t like our backsplash. We picked it when moving into our house in 2011. Yep… travertine. I’m over it.
My personal feeling is decorate your home the way you want it to be and it will always be in style, ‘your style’. I don’t worry about whether it is timeless or not. We remodeled our kitchen with new cabinets using the same layout as before with off white cabinets. I’ve never grown tired of those off white cabinets but there are places they are looking a little tired…like the pull out trash door and the doors under the sink. Painting them may be in our future. I still love our kitchen and our home the way it is decorated. I don’t worry about what is currently in or out as all things tend to come back around again. The important thing is our home with filled with things we love. You being an interior designer, I can understand why you are interested in current trends. I love looking at design magazine pictures to gain ideas. I’m so excited for your new plans and can’t wait to watch them unfold.