White matt or gloss kitchen? Or something else?

[2019change]

Looking for advice. We have been blown away with the amount of choice for kitchens at the various kitchen showrooms. We only have a small kitchen and we’ve decided to make the kitchen living area open plan so we will see the kitchen the whole time from the living space. We have been given various conflicting advice from kitchen designers about whether we should go white gloss or white matt. We originally went for a white matt kitchen but it just looked really underwhelming when the designer brought it up on the CAD design. The gloss kitchen in one of the showrooms was really badly scratched and we are unsure how robust a gloss kitchen will be.

Has anyone got any strong ideas on either gloss or matt or indeed a strong option on something else - I don’t think a dark striking colour would suit as it’s only a very small flat. Are gloss kitchens generally a nightmare in terms of scratching? Thank you.

I would not go near a gloss kitchen if I had children. I can’t imagine how you’d stop all the sticky finger marks showing up. It would drive me insane.

Matt slab or shaker. Much more timeless and you won’t want to replace it next week.

Gloss kitchens are lovely if you live on your own. If you have kids or pets then be prepared to be cleaning it all the time with a micro fibre cloth or it will look shit.

Matt all the way for me 😂

I have had a gloss kitchen btw. It was beautiful. I lived alone 😂

To add I’d always appreciate a light coloured kitchen. We look at houses on rightmove sometimes and when they’ve just been renovated and the kitchen is a dark colour I always shudder. Perhaps that works in an industrial penthouse or a barn conversion with high ceilings. But a bog standard semi does not appreciate a dark kitchen.

I have a white gloss kitchen and I love it, no more difficult to keep clean than any other. I love it, it's bright, streamlined and I think it's timeless.

White matt. So much more classy and timeless than a gloss kitchen (in my opinion). Agree with previous poster, white matt slab. We had handleless. I think less is more when a kitchen is part of an open plan room so underwhelming would be good .

I thought matt showed marks more than gloss..

I've got matt and have the clean the doors twice a day as they show everything smear and finger mark

What about two colours? So navy bottom cabinets and white or dove grey top cabinets? White can loook very clinical - what colour work surface are you having?

I've heard gloss is a nightmare (I'm currently changing my kitchen too )

I'm in NZ so it may be different, but there is an in-between; semi gloss. It's great.

I've got white gloss, had it for 9 years so right through the kids being little, it has no scratches at all and is so easy to keep clean.

I wouldn't discount it for those reasons however I personally prefer some of the shaker/Matt looks now but I guess that is just my taste changing over time.