Modern or shaker

[Catmatrat]

What is the way to go with kitchens now?

A nice glossy modern job or a shaker style?

gloss is well out imo, on the modern matt, veneers, mixing textures and colours.
shakers are (as all will say) can never go wrong and....safe
Pick what you like and create a room that you will love to walk into 20 + times a day and spend alot of time in.
Dont be afraid to mix the modern and shaker also, looks fab.
Play around and dont get sucked in with the boring showroom stuff

It seems to be all inframe or handleless IMO.

If you want gloss, the acrylic faced gloss that looks a bit like a slab of glass on the front is the way to go. Greys, blues, cashmere. There seems to be a lot of matt grey slab around too.

I think we're going shaker. It looks a lot like the 15 year old kitchen we're replacing if I'm honest.

Following

Be careful with the quality of handleless doors. They need to close properly and line up. I would avoid gloss but shaker suits most properties.

We're having a handleless shaker...dh liked handleless, I liked shaker. We felt this was a good compromise!

I've got a white gloss handless kitchen that came with the house and I hate it. I would love to change it but it was newly put in when I bought the house and it would just be an unnecessary expense at the moment. It was about a £30k kitchen and I've had nothing but trouble with the push close drawers not closing, currently 4 aren't closing. If I ever renew it I will get a shaker style with handles.

I man looking at renewing our kitchen within the next year, and I am going shaker. Stainless steel long handles, as I find them much easier to hold than knobs. It’s something that would have been available years ago, not at all fashionable, but it will last well and work with our lifestyle (two children, heavy use, emphasis on practical and heard wearing).

We too are just changing and I’m almost disappointed everyone has said shaker-I’m so bored of it as everyone has it but I don’t know what else to go for!

I like shaker but only colour I like are white and grey. White with Black already dated and grey with white everywhere so get dated soon ...

I like white gloss with handles but looks like it is on its way out too... Don't like handleless or dark wood kind of modern two tone kitchens as they remind me of my office cubicle!

Don't know what to get. Matt slab with handles... Are they easy to clean or not?

Anything currently fashionable - colour or style - will probably look dated in a few years.

If you're staying long term, then have whatever you like, but if you might be selling in the not too distant, then personally I'd go for a timeless shaker style in white or cream, since it's less likely to make buyers think they'll want to replace it asap.

whatever you want, there are only a few choices anyway; shaker, gloss, painted wood or metal.

think about strength of construction, avoiding design stupidities (handles that catch clothes, whizzy storage gadgets that eat space) and ease of cleaning.

We're going white matt handleless. I would have liked shaker but our kitchen is an awkward shape and we have to have lots of narrow/different-width cupboards - I think shaker can start looking too fussy when that's the case. We had gloss in our last place and the finger marks drove me mad. I do worry about our choice this time round looking dated in a few years.

I'm going for volcanic rock with a stainless steel island top. Looks lush.

geordiepidge,

That is such a good point about shaker style. Really helpful. Thank you.

I think it depends on your home too?

I have an Edwardian property and have had a sage shaker style kitchen put in, looks beautiful.
But we used to live in a modern flat where a gloss kitchen would have suited better.

With a wooden shaker you can always get it re painted if in a few years the colours is not in fashion or you fancy a change far cheaper than a new kitchen. We got a quote from a spray paint company and it was £600 to paint a large kitchen add new handles and it can look like a new one. With gloss you are stuck with the colour if in a few years you want a change.

i agree that it depends on your house style too.

There are more and more in frame slab fromt kitchens around (1909 in frame slab or Benchmarx Chelsea for example). I think these are good half way house - look more modern and unfussy than shaker but have that craftsman touch of being in frame.

In frame is less space efficient though, and harder to change or respray if you want to down the line.

I totally agree with minipie and was going to suggest an in-frame slab.

While solid acrylic doors and laminated acrylics cannot be resprayed, slab doors (eg on true handleless or with handles) are easier to respray in gloss or Matt lacquers than shaker (no detail, rebated panels, etc.).

I don’t think gloss is out but I do think Matt has become much more popular than it used to be. Metallic finishes, real stone, ceramic, concrete etc veneers (as opposed to cheap melamine “effect”) are still popular at the top top German and Italian ends but there is a lot of mixing of texture and colour as was said above (ie a solid colour and something with texture rather than just two tone colour scheme which is getting dated.

I totally agree with minipie and was going to suggest an in-frame slab.

While solid acrylic doors and laminated acrylics cannot be resprayed, slab doors (eg on true handleless or with handles) are easier to respray in gloss or Matt lacquers than shaker (no detail, rebated panels, etc.).

I don’t think gloss is out but I do think Matt has become much more popular than it used to be. Metallic finishes, real stone, ceramic, concrete etc veneers (as opposed to cheap melamine “effect”) are still popular at the top top German and Italian ends but there is a lot of mixing of texture and colour as was said above (ie a solid colour and something with texture rather than just two tone colour scheme which is getting dated.