Kitchen units that won't date

[SpongeBobGrannyPants]

Grey is so popular at the moment but I worry it'll look really dated in 5 years. What colour of kitchen units and worktops would you go for if you wanted something that was a bit more timeless (or not look passé after 5 years!), yet still modern?

We got a new kitchen 6 years ago - matte white painted (not wrapped) slab doors, oak worktops and floor, and red tiles. It's a bit Scandi-looking (as is the rest of our late-60s house, I guess!), but to me just looks plain and reasonably ageless. You could make it even more neutral by having white or grey tiles, I guess, but I think the red looks great with the white and the oak. We worked on the principle that your kitchen can't look dated if it never looked ultra-fashionable in the first place

We have white slab doors - I had exactly the same in my previous house, and they haven't dated in 15 years, although the fashion has moved to dark colours.

But someone mentioned handles....we have long thin bar handles which are out of fashion now, but they are very difficult to replace without leaving holes to fill.

Wall cupboards are also regarded as a bit dated nowadays - shelves are in.

Clean, simple lines are more current - anything too "embellished" (mouldings, pelmets and twiddly bits) will date.

I would say, simple, stylish and not too extreme. Add personality to your kitchen with other aspects like art, colour schemes, accessories. Very dark, bright and fussy details date, also features that are essentially style over substance: little fences on shelves, "pilasters", fake mantelpiece shelves, worktop round the ends of units, curved units, extreme large handles, enormo-drawers. In-frame kitchens unless in period houses.

Cheap kitchens date more quickly as they start looking tired, but then maybe that doesn't matter so much.

SpongeBobGrannyPants we have a Howdens Greenwich kitchen in Cashmere (was here when we bought the house). It's a lovely colour and style but the DIY kitchens Carrera Cashmere knocks spots off it for quality. Greenwich is a 15mm melamine faced door with a plastic edge strip and you can see the join. Carrera is a thicker door with a smooth seamless paint finish. I ordered a sample because I want to add a couple of matching units.

The colour looks good with a black worktop though, adds a bit of contrast. With oak worktops I'd go grey, white or off white.

It's funny I think brilliant white Shaker style looks a bit "wrong" too, Gloss Shaker even worse!