Will freestanding baths and Shaker kitchens be 'so last year' next year?

[FlamedToACrisp]

There seems to be a massive craze for old-fashioned freestanding baths (the sort where you can see the legs, with a rolled edge) and 'country cottage-style' Shaker kitchens. They'd be quite appropriate for my Victorian cottage - but will they just look dated, rather than in keeping with the period, once the fashion has gone? Any alternative suggestions?

OP they're not a current craze they've been around for decades. Shaker style kitchen is a staple for kitchen design, certainly not a phase or fad. Agree grey gloss is certainly a fad that will hopefully pass soon.

Roll top baths have been around forever too, another classic.

And to think I was thinking about replacing my shaker style kitchen which was installed in 2001! I think I'll save myself some money and enjoy it as a classic. It's much nicer than grey gloss anyway, in my opinion.

I can't fit a free standing bath in the bathroom, which is just as well as I don't fancy having to clean under and around it.

Shaker is classic, especially if you go for a very plain design. Agree that it's the colours that date but if it's painted you can always change.
Roll top baths are lovely but only in a decent sized bathroom IMO.

I'm getting a navy blue shaker kitchen soon. I think the colour is very now and might date but I have had a navy wall for a few years and still like it!

It's a south facing room with lots of light and i'm hoping the navy blue will hide tea stains and fingerprints which I have hated on previous white kitchens.

I probably will stay in this house until youngest leaves home in many years so I don't need to worry about appealing to anyone else's taste.

Roll top baths. Love them but not v practical so went for a boring modern one.

Omg I'd die for a freestanding bath! Love them so much! We are looking to move to a Victorian terrace though so fits in perfectly!

Does your Victorian cottage look dated ? If you decorate in period it will never go out of style.

Shaker kitchens have been in since the 90s and in a period cottage will never date.

Free standing bath though needs enough space and a decent shower to be any good. Also not popular when your elderly mum visits and wants a rail to hang on to.

Shaker kitchens are this year?! They were the in thing when I renovated my first house in 1992, I've thought they were dated ever since.

After my experience of that kitchen, I've never had anything except a plain slab door since, all those little edges collect dust and grease.

Why does it matter whether it goes out of fashion. Get what you like- not everyone else.

I've loved my very simple Shaker style kitchen every day for almost 16 years now. It's natural wood - Red Alder which has aged beautifully to a golden honey tone. A lot of people were going for painted wood at that time, still in Shaker style. I had to talk DH into spending a lot of money on the kitchen but not going for any fancy bells and whistles (he'd have gone with all the fancy carving etc that was available). I think I will probably be carried out from this house in a box at some point in the future and I hope to still be loving my kitchen until then!

Then the gloss kitchens came in, I think you need a very large kitchen to show these at their best. When I bought my house in the early 90's, there was a hideous, decrepit melamine "kitchen" which always comes to my mind when I see gloss kitchens now, the kitchen barely passed muster to secure the mortgage and I initially put in a very basic white/grey kitchen in a small space until we got our dream extension.

Shaker style has been around for ages, it doesn’t date if good quality and well designed. Too many accessories/ carvings/pointless features date a kitchen more.

I agree both these things were a craze when we did up our first house in 1998. Have they come round again already?

DH and I were minutes away from signing for a new shaker style kitchen in 2004 when DH suddenly pulled back and we didn't. We then moved away for a decade (rented it out) and we when actually replaced the kitchen in 2015 it was exactly the same style of kitchen - even the same shade of cream. I think we'd have had a dark granite worktop in 2004 instead of the white Corian we actually have.

I would have had a freestanding bath but it needed to accommodate an over-bath shower which wouldn't have worked.

So yes, both classics.

Free standing bath though needs enough space and a decent shower to be any good. Also not popular when your elderly mum visits and wants a rail to hang on to.

That's easy - I have a free standing bath with a shower attachment, but I also have a walk in shower in the same room, so people can shower or bath as they choose.

Dark green shaker kitchens are already very much here. Look at current Devol catalogue...

My sister went for a free standing bath in the mid 1980s and I don't think they have gone out of fashion since. To look good they need a lot of space and that will never go out of fashion.

I had a kitchen installed in 2000 and they tried to persuade me to have shaker style. I refused - it didn't suit my kitchen. I had a kitchen done in a new house last year, I didn't want a shaker but they were still fashionable.

Both things, if they suit you and they suit the property will never go out of fashion.

(However the dark brown bath I installed in the early 80s definitely and quite rightly did.)

By a strange coincidence my current kitchen (which I hate) has grey glossy cupboards!

I think I will go for a Shaker kitchen. I think I've just been wanting one for so long that I was afraid it would be a big mistake.

I'm not convinced about the bath. At the moment my plan is to get a standard/old-fashioned bath with tongue-and-groove panelling around the edge, so I can have a shower over it - the rolltops look ridiculous with a clear shower panel.

My freestanding bath is about 50 years old and definitely doesn't look 'yesterday'. We did get it re-enamelled, new taps and painted the outside to give it a new look.

I have solid oak cathedral style doors in my kitchen I dislike massively and wish they were shaker style which seem to have not dated at all, I could at least paint them. Look any any kitchen design magazine and they all still do shaker style doors - not so for cathedral style unfortunately.

I had a shaker kitchen in my old house 8 years ago and I’m about to have another in my new house.

I think a standard white bath of the sort that is actually comfortable will never date. Bath panels are easily changed.

I've had a freestanding iron bath (on ground floor!) for 16 years now. Still looks awesome!

I hope not, as I'm midway through installing my navy and grey shaker units. I'm loving how they look at the minute.

I do personally find that the shaker doors with the beading, to be quite a dated look. They're not my favourite. I wish I'd had the funds to go for an in-frame design however. I think these look incredible.

We inherited a solid oak, plain, shaker style kitchen.
The quality is amazing, it has been resprayed twice, and is currently a soft sage green with dark wooden worktops. I love it, looks like it was fitted yesterday and is strong enough to support our huge rugby playing lads sitting on it.

I have both. My freestanding bath isn’t on feet, not sure how to describe it. My regret with the bath is that it’s so massive, there’s no separate shower. It is almost impossible to have a stand up shower without soaking everywhere or getting the shower curtain stuck to you. My next bathroom will have a more standard bath and separate walk in shower. If the bathroom was bigger and had the separate shower it would be perfect.
I’ve had the kitchen a few years and love it. If the decoration is for you and you’re not intending to sell, then go with what you love regardless of trends. It needs to feel like home to you.