Also published on the Huffington Post.

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See ya later white kitchens, don’t let the door hit ya on the way out!

Various sources are calling the 2018 trends in home design and the white kitchen is allegedly falling out of favor. What are all the contractors in DC going to do? Dollars to donuts, I’m sure there are several million white cabinets sitting on various palettes, waiting to be delivered to one of the many homes being built or flipped in DC. There’s always a trickle-down effect with these things. Take, for example, how we actually got to this white cabinet phase in the first place.

HGTV first became mainstream around the early 2000’s, thereby coining that gem of a phrase: “house porn.” At that time, there was a specific lineup of kitchen choices. Remember black appliances and Uba Tuba granite that had to be sealed every year? Me too. I did love those wood cabinets though. Dark wood, light wood, made no difference to me. I shared an office with the woman who sold the options and upgrades at D.R. Horton and I could have listened to her discussing cabinetry and flooring choices for days.

Black appliances didn’t have so long a run, but wood cabinets ran the gamut from light to dark with neither being declared a winner. The truth was, the specific color choice of the wood was about personal preference. Where the trend came into play was with the style of the doors, which changed over the decade-plus. We saw raised-panel, partial overlay doors early in the trend and full overlay with more of a shaker or minimalist style.

Then one day, some brave soul knew it was time and they pulled the trigger on a white kitchen. There were definitely non-believers (me.) I was convinced I fell asleep and woke up in one of my mother’s Florida house hunting nightmares where she was looking for a clean white Florida kitchen. I was ready to get dinner by 5:00 to catch the early bird.

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I finally came around. Look, I admit it. It’s just like that time I worked at a certain lingerie store at the mall 25 years ago. I kept rehanging the same floral robes over and over for months. By the time there was just one left I was thinking, “Hmm, that robe with the pink roses all over it is pretty.” (It wasn’t.) Same thing applies here. Show enough homes with the white kitchen and suddenly you’re doing white in your own kitchen remodel. (I did) and walking out of houses that don’t have the white kitchen. (It was a very catchy trend.)

Enough of that.

Honorable mention for another thing going by the wayside is the “bar cart.” Bar cart? The only person I have known to have a bar cart was Don Draper.

So what’s trending in home design?

Well, by process of elimination…if white cabinets are out, what we have left is either wood or colorful cabinets. And yes, those are the things being shown in kitchen design now. It seems people will be taking a paintbrush to their cabinets and going all sorts of deep. Very bold colors are making the rounds – navy, greens, deep reds. And the light wood look is back.

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Another incoming trend worthy of a giant gasp is what’s happening in flooring. Hardwood floors are still safe, but there are other flooring choices garnering some attention. Zillow calls it “statement” flooring; HGTV went straight to “terrazzo.” (If you have totally turned off of HGTV the television channel, let me assure you that HGTV Magazine and the HGTV Website are pretty awesome.)

You can also see at that link above that HGTV shows a colorful kitchen in sage, as well as mentioning “statement ceilings.” I’m a fan but within reason. If anyone tries to pass off a popcorn ceiling as trendy, they will be in a lot of pain when I’m done with them.

[Important note: No contractor with half a brain cell will ever agree to remove the popcorn ceiling because of the intensive labor involved. They all just offer to put drywall up in place which is a stupid but “lesser of two evils” option in their eyes. After striking out with every contractor in town, I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to do it myself. Just because I didn’t hire someone doesn’t mean I didn’t pay dearly. It cost 3 days and a broken back to get that popcorn ceiling down. They should be outlawed. I can’t even look at them without vomiting.]

HGTV curated their list from the Pinterest 100, which tracks trends in “saves.” HGTV also mention trends in oversized art, mixed metals and plants, as well as the “Spa Bathroom.”

Weren’t spa bathrooms always on trend?

Well, have at it peeps, there’s some cool looking house stuff coming down the pike!

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