Stainless Steel Appliances - Like 'Em or Hate 'Em?

[Planogirl]

I was going to say the same thing---except I was going to say "butterscotch".

I just renovated my kitchen and I love, love, love my crisp white appliances and gold pulls with my warm wooden cabinets

I like white with a nice warm wood. We have cabinets like that too and I'm thinking white. Or black...

 

[Randi]

I also believe that stainless will become just another "dated" look in the future.

The problem with that is what happens when only 1 appliance needs replacing but the color is no longer available. It happened to me long ago with the harvest gold. Dishwashers don't tend to last as long as the rest & sure enough after 12 years, mine went. The only colors available then were white, black, & almond. So I went with almond. Then 10 years later the refrig. went. No more almond available.

So now that I am readying the house for resale, I am replacing with all white. If the new buyers want to change, it's their money.

 

[mnrose]

Love 'em - but we bought brushed stainless so we have no fingerprints. I won't buy "regular" stainless finish.

Completely agree. The regular stainless is a PITA to clean. I'll never get it again.

 

[FireDancer]

I do like Stainless but I am not sure how it will play out long term. It is in now, but if you plan on having them for a while who knows if they will be outdated in time. Stainless might be tomorrow what goldenrod and that baby poop green are today.

 

[mkel34]

Completely agree. The regular stainless is a PITA to clean. I'll never get it again.

This from someone whose entire kitchen is stainless, by far the worst is the dishwasher. If a drip of water runs down the front, its a pita to clean the water stain.

 

[dislaney]

Another vote for brushed stainless if you go with stainless steel. So much easier with kids.

 

[puffkin]

We are currently looking at a house. Waiting to put in an offer because we are still waiting for preapproval from the mortgage co (we weren't really looking and this house kind of fell in our lap so we are kind of doing it backwards).

The house is 19 years old and the owner is a fairly successful realtor. The house is in MINT condition, but a few things are a bit dated due to being 19 years old. It has all brass finishes and light fixtures. The appliances are original to the house (the mixed white and black look). The cabinets are oak and in great shape, just need new hardware. The counters are formica (beige color).

In our offer, we are going to ask for an appliance credit and a lighting credit since those areas are the most out of date. We are considering putting in for a flooring credit too since the floors are all linoleum (but in good shape). I would rather pick out my own things. If we get the house, we are going to probably do the stainless appliances (brushed though for finger prints), put in hard surface counters and tile the floor (BIL lays tile for a living). I am also going to swap out all the light fixtures and the cabinet hardware. I know stainless is trendy, but I do like the look and it is pretty much expected in our area for that price range of house.

 

[kim929]

I had a stainless refridgerator, I hated it. I was constantly having to clean it because it showed every little mark. I was so glad the compressor went, and it was only 5 yrs old. I am not back to white. even tho white gets dirty it's a lot easier to clean.

I also hate brass.... my bathroom has brass fixtures and lights, as well as all my ceiling fans, they are all going to be replaced shortly.

 

[kacaju]

We are currently looking at a house. Waiting to put in an offer because we are still waiting for preapproval from the mortgage co (we weren't really looking and this house kind of fell in our lap so we are kind of doing it backwards).

The house is 19 years old and the owner is a fairly successful realtor. The house is in MINT condition, but a few things are a bit dated due to being 19 years old. It has all brass finishes and light fixtures. The appliances are original to the house (the mixed white and black look). The cabinets are oak and in great shape, just need new hardware. The counters are formica (beige color).

In our offer, we are going to ask for an appliance credit and a lighting credit since those areas are the most out of date. We are considering putting in for a flooring credit too since the floors are all linoleum (but in good shape). I would rather pick out my own things. If we get the house, we are going to probably do the stainless appliances (brushed though for finger prints), put in hard surface counters and tile the floor (BIL lays tile for a living). I am also going to swap out all the light fixtures and the cabinet hardware. I know stainless is trendy, but I do like the look and it is pretty much expected in our area for that price range of house.

I have to ask...just because some areas of the house are out of date..why
do you feel you should ask for a credit for them?

I am not picking on you personally..please don't take it that way. I do not understand the reasoning of just because it is old, why you feel that the homeseller should give you credit so you can replace it?

I watch the home shows on TV and it completely blows me away when couples look at the *perfect* house they find a room that *needs* updating and all of a sudden they are no longer interested.

What ever happened to..hey this is a great house..someday WE will update the bathroom/kitchen... or whatever you feel needs updating yourself.

Broken appliances, ripped cracked flooring ..yes you should be given an allowance, but just because it is outdated? No, I don't think that is right.

 

[minniecarousel]

I think stainless is the way to go. Thanks for the link to all the kitchen pictures!!!

The oak cabinets have gold cabinet hardware right now. I am thinking it would probably be best to replace this with a stainless or nickel type hardware to better blend with the stainless appliances.

DH put all brushed nickel on our cabinets and drawers - looks nice!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

For our new house we are buying new appliances. Considering stainless steel, but have never had this before. Do they hold up well, get too many fingerprints? Hard to keep clean and shiny? Any other pros or cons?

In this situation, I'd go with stainless as it *is* the modern look right now. I, too, wonder if they'll become this decade's avocado green, but who knows. At any rate, if you think you'll be there a while, prefer stainless and want to love your new house and kitchen, and feel like this is the way you want to go, then you should. Just shop around to see which finishes show fingerprints the least.

FWIW, this is a different situation altogether, but we just finished a kitchen renovation of our older house w/ its original kitchen. We've been here over 20 years and will probably be here 20 more. We would have liked new stainless appliances, but needed to make our money stretch as we're renovating other areas of the house as well. Our appliances are black and relatively new and nice, so we kept them. I played their color into my decorating scheme. I'm quite happy with the results and don't long for stainless. If something does break, I noticed they have some appliances that are a combination of black and stainless which is something I'll consider if it comes to that. I will say that black shows a lot of fingerprints AND DUST - far more than the white appliances I used to have. But I do like the black and hopefully it remains a "classic".

Enjoy your new home. Lucky you!!

 

[puffkin]

I have to ask...just because some areas of the house are out of date..why
do you feel you should ask for a credit for them?

I am not picking on you personally..please don't take it that way. I do not understand the reasoning of just because it is old, why you feel that the homeseller should give you credit so you can replace it?

I watch the home shows on TV and it completely blows me away when couples look at the *perfect* house they find a room that *needs* updating and all of a sudden they are no longer interested.

What ever happened to..hey this is a great house..someday WE will update the bathroom/kitchen... or whatever you feel needs updating yourself.

Broken appliances, ripped cracked flooring ..yes you should be given an allowance, but just because it is outdated? No, I don't think that is right.

To be perfectly honest, we are asking for a credit because we can. It is a buyers market here. The inventory in our neighborhood is primarily new construction or 20 year old homes. Average length of time to sell in this price range is about 1 year. In order for the older homes to compete, they either have to underprice the new construction, update themselves, or offer credits. This homeowner hasn't done the updating and isn't underpriced so we are going after the credits and a reasonable reduction in price.

Also, we just don't have a lot of cash laying around to sink into this house after purchasing. So we want to get as much up front as we can to make the few improvements needed. Our current house was new construction and it was really expensive to add things like landscaping, patio, fireplace, etc through the builder. Yes it was a lot cheaper to do them later, but we still needed to come up with sizeable chuncks of money to do it. NOT EASY. I wish we would have just paid a few more dollars back when we built and had it all done at once. We plannign on having another baby in a year or two so we know our cash flow will continue to be hindered in the near future and rule out any major renovations. So we are trying to get what we can now!

 

[mamajoan]

I agree.. it is a buyers market.. so ask for anything and everything.. all they can do is say no.


I love this thread. It is really helping me to sort thru what we will need to do.

This is our 4th home. We have never had trouble selliing a house because we always made sure the houses were in top notch condition before we even let the realtor in the house.

When we bought this house.. with all the brass. I told my husband we would change it out... eventually. LOL


? for those who have done updates to stainless.

If you up date the appliances to stainless, then the fixtures/ drawer pulls... do you then do all the door knobs in the house too? I don't mind doing it I guess but do I have to do the hinges too??

 

[Anne34]

I have to ask...just because some areas of the house are out of date..why
do you feel you should ask for a credit for them?

I am not picking on you personally..please don't take it that way. I do not understand the reasoning of just because it is old, why you feel that the homeseller should give you credit so you can replace it?

I watch the home shows on TV and it completely blows me away when couples look at the *perfect* house they find a room that *needs* updating and all of a sudden they are no longer interested.

What ever happened to..hey this is a great house..someday WE will update the bathroom/kitchen... or whatever you feel needs updating yourself.

Broken appliances, ripped cracked flooring ..yes you should be given an allowance, but just because it is outdated? No, I don't think that is right.

I totally agree -- around here you usually only get a credit if something is broken or in really poor condition. Just because you don't have the same taste in decorating as the person who lived in the house previously doesn't entitile you to a credit. If someone came to me with that contract I wouldn't even give it the time of day. I would figure they were going to be a pain to work with and want us to give them everything for nothing.


ETA: I don't really like stainless either. I would go with black or white.

 

[golfgal]

We are currently looking at a house. Waiting to put in an offer because we are still waiting for preapproval from the mortgage co (we weren't really looking and this house kind of fell in our lap so we are kind of doing it backwards).

The house is 19 years old and the owner is a fairly successful realtor. The house is in MINT condition, but a few things are a bit dated due to being 19 years old. It has all brass finishes and light fixtures. The appliances are original to the house (the mixed white and black look). The cabinets are oak and in great shape, just need new hardware. The counters are formica (beige color).

In our offer, we are going to ask for an appliance credit and a lighting credit since those areas are the most out of date. We are considering putting in for a flooring credit too since the floors are all linoleum (but in good shape). I would rather pick out my own things. If we get the house, we are going to probably do the stainless appliances (brushed though for finger prints), put in hard surface counters and tile the floor (BIL lays tile for a living). I am also going to swap out all the light fixtures and the cabinet hardware. I know stainless is trendy, but I do like the look and it is pretty much expected in our area for that price range of house.

I have to ask...just because some areas of the house are out of date..why
do you feel you should ask for a credit for them?

I am not picking on you personally..please don't take it that way. I do not understand the reasoning of just because it is old, why you feel that the homeseller should give you credit so you can replace it?

I watch the home shows on TV and it completely blows me away when couples look at the *perfect* house they find a room that *needs* updating and all of a sudden they are no longer interested.

What ever happened to..hey this is a great house..someday WE will update the bathroom/kitchen... or whatever you feel needs updating yourself.

Broken appliances, ripped cracked flooring ..yes you should be given an allowance, but just because it is outdated? No, I don't think that is right.

I agree, the house is probably priced with those things in mind. You can certainly ask but don't be surprised that they say no. If you really want the house you have to be careful about the extras you ask for too.

 

[Squirlz]

There's nothing special about stainless anymore. Many of the refrigerators we looked at had plain black or gray on the sides, so you have to consider that if a side is exposed. We bought one with a titanium finish.

 

[scrapquitler]

I have a stainless steel fridge, and i'm in the "hate it" category. All kinds of marks show on it. All. The. Time.

I did recently buy a 'stainless steel microfiber cloth' that I wet and wipe the fridge with,and unlike everything else I've ever used to clean it, that doesn't leave marks. So as of last week, I don't hate it as much as I used to.

I really really wanted a black fridge, but the model I coveted had black a special order, and when your fridge dies, you can't wait two or 3 weeks for the special order color to arrive

 

[Feralpeg]

While stainless is the "in" thing, I don't like it. I think they look cold and have an antiseptic feel about them. I've heard some real estate agents say that a house will never sell without stainless appliances and granite counter tops. Maybe not now, but things change. What is popular now, won't be popular in a few years. I won't be putting stainless in my home.

 

[Disney Doll]

Oak cabinets, hardwood floors, granite countertop with flecks of light green, silvery gray and lilac...looks like a gunmetal gray from a distance. We have stainless appliances and they work fine. House is a fairly classic medium size Cape Cod style. My decorating style tends to be traditional/Shaker with a slight lean toward country.

 

[mrsheppo]

When we bought our house, the previous owners removed all the appliances (home was a foreclosure). I already had my white fridge so I decided to keep all white. I found a great stove on Craigslist for a bargain price - $1,500 stove for $250. I decided to order a new white dishwasher from Lowes. The dishwasher arrived while I was at work and DH installed it. When I got home, I found out the dishwasher was stainless, not white as ordered. Since it was already installed, I didn't want him to take it out and have to wait another 6 weeks for another.

As for the dishwasher, I really don't like the stainless. It shows fingerprints and water spots. My realtor thought it was great and it is good for resale value but I would have been happier with the white one.