High gloss kitchens

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Are they easy to keep clean, and hardwearing? Saw one today which I rather fancy.

I love mine - bright spanking white and without doubt the easiest to clean/keep clean!

No. High gloss is definitrly high maintenance. I've also discovered gloss cabinets can bubble if steam-mopped (I was actually using a hand attachment), so you'd have to get off any grease by scrubbing. I hate our current kitchen...

I wouldn't go for high gloss myself. It must show up the slightest grease/handprint/wipe shape.

they are a bloody nightmare

We have got yes, cheap but practical regular white worktops on teh grounds that we can lift them and replace them at any time - and they are Sooo much easier to keep looking clean. You can use Vim, bleach, scrub away as much as you like. I lived in a house with wooden worktops once, they looked beautiful but you have to be so neurotic about water drops. In a kitchen! High gloss I would imagine to be the same, always polishing off after wiping clean. Sorry minstrels I should think they look very beautiful in your house but I wouldn't like al lthe work involved!

I have high gloss for the top cabinets and wood for the base and full height cabinets. The wood does not show the dirt at all but the gloss cabinets show up fingerprints and grease residue (even though I have a very powerful fan).

I love my gloss cabinets though, there are not too many to clean and they are lovely and bright. I have handleless cabinets and it took a bit of effort to train everyone not to touch the face of the cabinets

I thought the gloss might chip if they were base cabinets.

So my advice is to use high gloss cabinets as an accent feature rather than for the whole kitchen.

this is a very posh layout of the cabinets I have but wood at the bottom

We've had white high gloss (Ikea) for 6 years and it is great. Doesn't show marks finger prints etc. Low maintenance and thats with 2 small children.

Only thing is it might have had its day.

I love our vanilla gloss kitchen. Easy to clean with Windolene from time to time.

We also have white gloss IKEA units, just over 3 years old and I love them! No more high maintenance than previous ones we've had.

I have cream gloss cupboards. I do occasionally wash them with water and wipe dry to get rid of finger marks but its only now and again. Maybe as its a light colour they don't show marks so easily. I would have one again.

Now a gloss worktop is a completely different story, never again!

My mum's had white high gloss doors for 20 years. They've never been a problem to clean.

We're just getting the kitchen in our new house replaced (someone paid us £250 for the old one too, which was a bonus). We've gone for white high gloss doors. We want to maximise the light in there. It was a dark, dingy nightmare so we want the opposite of that.

Our black gloss doors are very easy to keep clean... but they are solid acrylic

IKEA here as well and ridiculously easy to keep clean (and I'm not domesticated)

We have the IKEA white gloss one - so easy to keep clean, I couldn't believe it really (we have small DC's). Don't really show up finger prints, etc - way better than matt doors which show up everything.

Our stainless steel oven on the other hand...... (lots of babywipes and buffing to remove the smeary handprints, but the kitchen doors need nothing!)

I had a high gloss white one for 18 yrs in my old house and we are about to replace the kitchen here in new house with another high gloss kitchen. I think they are easy to keep clean and always look good.

But then I'm not keen on dark or wood kitchen so maybe they are just my preferance anyway.

Our white gloss kitchen is fine. The sun doesn't shine directly onto the cabinets anyway so can't see every mark. Makes room look nice and light.

Lovely, thanks for the feedback. The ones we're considering are the acrylic type nocake, so thanks for that in particular.

Am wondering if I am brave enough to have aubergine base cupboards and cream or grey-beige higher ones....

I've had no problem keeping them clean, just give them a wipedown with windowlene and an eco cloth. I like the fact that there are no mouldings or ledges to gather dust.

I loved my white gloss kitchen in my old house, not high maintenance at all. Got a crappy beige one in my lovely new house, its on the "to go" list.