Dark kitchen, crittall style doors, herringbone floor - is it too much?!

[beggingforsleep]

As the title really. Is it all too much? Doors and windows are ordered so not changing them. Picking flooring now. Would love a herringbone floor, tiles or LVT not wood as it's a kitchen and I have two kids and a puppy, but I was also planning to paint the kitchen a dark green and now I'm worried that I'll walk in to the room in four years time and just think it all looks too dated.

So option is to stick with Green Smoke for the units but get a plank floor or to paint the kitchen a lighter colour. Or maybe it doesn't matter. This isn't about resale value, it's about loving the space for a long time.

The flooring leading in to the kitchen is quite a bold blue and white tile then down some steps (also tiled) in to the kitchen diner. Think a herringbone floor would make more sense to continue a patterny vibe, a plainer floor might be jarring. Def over thinking everything.

Please help.

Ultimately get what you like. All those things are very on trend and therefore will date eventually but if you love them then get it, who cares! FWIW sounds gorgeous.

You are describing my ideal kitchen when I extend...go for it!

We’ve just done crittal doors, dark herringbone floor and Hague blue units..!

The walls are (currently) brilliant white and there is a lot of light in the room, so it doesn’t feel dark

Brilliant. Thanks both. Just what I needed to hear.

I was just tidying up thinking if I never bought another home magazine or looked at renovation instagram accounts then I'll never know it's considered dated or care!

@Sparechange great taste!

This is ours…

The pics were taken by the kitchen company and look massively over-lit - the doors are darker than they look in these pics

@Sparechange oh that's beautiful! Well done. You must be so pleased.

Is the floor tiles?

Yes, tiles from Porcelain warehouse
We’ve also got dogs and toddlers so needed something hardwearing
We’ve got wooden herringbone in the rest of the downstairs where the dogs and DC don’t race around as much..!

Gorgeous kitchen @Sparechange, I can just about see the lovely crittal doors in the corner, lovely!

Yes - too much. There is nothing wrong with any of the elements but by the time 2026 rolls round it will feel dated and it’s all stuff that would be expensive to change (except the colour).

@PersonaNonGarter

Yes - too much. There is nothing wrong with any of the elements but by the time 2026 rolls round it will feel dated and it’s all stuff that would be expensive to change (except the colour).

I’m going to (obviously!) disagree..!

We are in London which is arguably slightly ahead of the curve in terms of kitchen trends, and we worked with an interior designer, and consulted several estate agents during our refurb to get a sense of what styles/looks are future proof, as well as having a very experienced kitchen designer

The overwhelming feedback was that white gloss handless has had its day, and the move is much more back towards colour and texture in homes and kitchens

Basically, look at what £4m houses did 2 years ago, which is what £2m houses did this year, which is what £1m houses will do next year
Obviously what works for a house won’t always translate into something that works for a flat but that’s generally how the ‘look’ becomes popular

Flooring was more agnostic. Big tiles are fine, herringbone is fine, so go with what ties into the rest of the house

Crittal doors are the bi-folds of the next 20 years, so I’m not sure what the door option would be if you rule those out

And as you said, the wall and unit colour is very easy to change. Just make sure you buy a kitchen that can be easily repainted (ie not high gloss units or unpaintable MDF) and you can refresh every 5 years if you want to

But there is no real reason the kitchen shouldn’t be good for 15+ years if you design it well (which was our brief to the designer, and what they said they always work towards…)

@Sparechange - can I ask where you got your Cristal style doors? They're lovely and I have some in mind at the moment but worried about mot seeing them in person before I order. Thanks

We had an absolute nightmare with the doors..!
We originally placed an order with a 6 week lead time, then a few weeks in, got told it would now be 12-16 weeks, then had a second supplier lined up who doubled their price between quoting and us going to place the order

I can’t actually remember who we ended up using. Between us and the builder, we phoned around about 12 suppliers trying to find someone who didn’t have a 6 month lead time or want £20k for the doors..!

I’ll have a look back through emails and let you know, but you probably need to pick a supplier based on their ability to actually supply atm

It's really not easy is it @Sparechange!! So many extensions in lead time in everything. We were due to be in by end of sept, then end oct and now it's end of nov and if we're not back in the kitchen by Xmas ill be throwing my toys out of the pram and checking myself into the nearest posh hotel for Xmas dinner! 🤦‍♀️

I feel for you!
We were so so lucky that everything pretty much ran to time, other than losing a few weeks when the weather was too wet for the builders to lay bricks for the extension.
Thankfully we had ordered the doors and roof lights very early because the builders wanted the have them before they did the new openings to make sure everything fitted, so even with the lead time delays, it didn’t make too much of an impact

The kitchen company said we got in just in the nick of time for them to order our appliances because there is now a massive shortage of dishwashers and fridges, and up to SIX MONTHS to get a range cooker!!

Keeping everything crossed for you to be in very soon…

Thank you @Sparechange! I appreciate the sympathy! We are doing building work as well - in an old house so had to kind of wait and see what they found when all the walls came down to check our design would work so I wasn't able to order any earlier but thankfully it's all worked ok - it will just be ok later than I would have liked! 😂 Would love to hear where you got your doors if you do find the info (I couldn't tell you where I'd bought half our stuff from!)

@dramalamma

Found it!
We used Vibrant Doors
www.vibrantdoors.co.uk/

They were the quickest and the cheapest, but they are aluminium, not steel

Not that it made any difference to the finished look but purists will notice they aren’t true Crittal style

The ones we had lined up and then had to cancel after lead time and price increases were Black Steel Doors, and Cherwell

@Sparechange

I feel for you! We were so so lucky that everything pretty much ran to time, other than losing a few weeks when the weather was too wet for the builders to lay bricks for the extension. Thankfully we had ordered the doors and roof lights very early because the builders wanted the have them before they did the new openings to make sure everything fitted, so even with the lead time delays, it didn’t make too much of an impact

The kitchen company said we got in just in the nick of time for them to order our appliances because there is now a massive shortage of dishwashers and fridges, and up to SIX MONTHS to get a range cooker!!

Keeping everything crossed for you to be in very soon…

I had my kitchen done 18 months ago. I just looked and I paid £1511 for my range cooker - it's now over £2000! Think I would have had to go without at that price!

I'm getting crittal style doors from Fabco, a personal recommendation and they were reasonable but do say up front it's a 12 week lead time, probably more now with Christmas.
I don't like herringbone but it's your house. As for trends - I've just ordered eternal calacatta gold worktops and then read an article asking if they'd already become passé- then noticed the article was five years old and obviously calacatta gold is as popular as ever. I think some things will always work - white units are still number one, followed by blue apparently. My kitchen has Matt white wall units and black base units, handleless of course as I used to spend ages cleaning the satin stainless steel bar handles in my last (grey shaker) kitchen. In the 90s I had a dark green kitchen with plaster pink ragged walls- so on trend at the time! But easy to paint another colour.
Crittal style doors are trendy now but have been around for decades.
Just go for what you live - in five to eight years when it looks a bit dated you may have moved or decide to change it anyway.

@Sparechange - do you mind me asking which kitchen company you used?

@MattyGroves
Tom Howley

We've got pale oak porcelain plank tiles against a navy island in our white kitchen and love them.
One caveat, make sure you use stainproof, or sealed or resin grout.
We used none of the above and the joints now look shitty

I wouldn't want too dark a green but overall it sounds fab.

I don't think herringbone floor will look dated - that's a classic. The crittall absolutely will though, sorry. And dark blue units. But I think green will be ok, as it's not been quite as trendy.

If you like it then have what you like, but speaking as someone in the industry, it’s already dated. If that doesn’t bother you then go ahead.