White or Stainless Steel appliances?

RenoBliss · Dec 31, 2010 2:59 pm

We're going to be renovating our kitchen soon (goodbye ugly yellow benchtops and timber doors!!). We're doing white cupboards and a black stone bench top.

I can't decide on whether to get white appliances, to 'blend in' or SS? The extra cost and cleaning needed with SS is a big factor, but all white might be too much? Also, the house is an older timber home, so I don't know if SS will look too much out of place? But then white might be too dated?

Resale factor isn't an issue, we're not planning to ever move :wink:

As you can see... I need help please... any ideas or pictures would be much appreciated!

Thanks

pattycake4 · Dec 31, 2010 3:22 pm

I thing ss looks very nice with white cupboards.Friend has cream vinyl wrap cb with black/grey benches,looks stylish.Ps her home is older style.

acrebuild1 · Dec 31, 2010 3:46 pm

I think the SS will look very classey.
Its not like you dont clean white appliances anyhow - which ever you choose you will still need to clean.

Rowena · Dec 31, 2010 9:07 pm

tough decisions :th:

I agree with above, SS appliances look smarter :th:

we will have SS dishwasher and free standing oven but last weekend I bought a white 2 door fridge. Saved more $300 and really....after a few months it'll just be another appliance in the house, so I figure the money wasn't worth it.

AJW · Dec 31, 2010 10:06 pm

RenoBliss

We're going to be renovating our kitchen soon (goodbye ugly yellow benchtops and timber doors!!). We're doing white cupboards and a black stone bench top.

I can't decide on whether to get white appliances, to 'blend in' or SS? The extra cost and cleaning needed with SS is a big factor, but all white might be too much? Also, the house is an older timber home, so I don't know if SS will look too much out of place? But then white might be too dated?

Resale factor isn't an issue, we're not planning to ever move :wink:

As you can see... I need help please... any ideas or pictures would be much appreciated!

Thanks

Modern stainless steel appliances are no harder to keep clean than white appliances, so wouldn't make that one of your decision points. Also the cost difference between white and stainless steel is also now very small and in some cases the costs are identical.

For your basic question though I do think that stainless would look great and break the white up a little. White appliances would probably be a little too much.

Casa2 · Dec 31, 2010 11:26 pm

I've got stainless steel appliances with white cupboards. Very nice. The Fischer & Paykel stainless steel is referred to as Ezi-clean and I must admit, doesn't show finger prints all too readily.

emlet01 · Jan 01, 2011 11:12 am

I love ss appliances. In our rental at the moment the dishwasher is white and all the plastic trim has an ugly yellowed tone to it, that would look even worse against white cupboards and would really stand out. I think if you went with white appliances you would have to really match your whites or it might look really cheap. At least with ss you can know it will all match regardless.

Lex · Jan 01, 2011 1:54 pm

I might be an odd case of "Nostalgia is just not as good as it used to be" ::wink::

, but from practical perspective, I have to agree about the cleaning. This especially applies to the cooktop (and especially if it's gas - very fiddly to clean, too many ingredients). It takes ages, and once you think it's done and you re-assemble all the numerous annoying bits and pieces, you see some fine grease-splash stains re-appear, almost like where you started some 1/2 hour ago :evil:

. I am so open to hear if and HOW can people clean it fast and so that it's actually squeaky clean.
Our previous gas cooker was white and it was a breeze to clean. It also only had one piece trivet which was far easier to clean than these heavy iron monsters (and "strangely", there is no difference functionality and durability wise :roll:

).
I'm not that bothered with other appliances, it's just the cooktop. We'll see if I'll keep that opinion after we get an SS fridge. ... Which brings me to the perspective of good looks. I think we'll just "have to" get a new fridge - just because it would go better with the rest of the appliances and in a new kitchen/house in general (I know, it's so Kath&Kim :oops:

). Plus, when lined up against stark white cabinets, it's easier to see how much the white trims/small pieces of plastic have darkened. So, you can see what's my take on the "looks" side of things.

AJW · Jan 01, 2011 8:02 pm

Lex

I might be an odd case of "Nostalgia is just not as good as it used to be" ::wink::

, but from practical perspective, I have to agree about the cleaning. This especially applies to the cooktop (and especially if it's gas - very fiddly to clean, too many ingredients). It takes ages, and once you think it's done and you re-assemble all the numerous annoying bits and pieces, you see some fine grease-splash stains re-appear, almost like where you started some 1/2 hour ago :evil:

. I am so open to hear if and HOW can people clean it fast and so that it's actually squeaky clean.

My sister put me onto metho. The trick is to do the normal clean first, let it dry, tip a bit of metho on it and polish it until it evaporates.

suh · Jan 03, 2011 9:38 am

Lex, get yourself two microfibre cloths, wet one and squeeze out, wipe over your cooktop (grease and all) with the wet one and then wipe with the dry one. Super squeaky clean finish

suh · Jan 03, 2011 9:39 am

PS... I would go all SS

Lex · Jan 03, 2011 11:23 am

Thanks guys. Will try both methods. I use cream cleanser on a scourer pad (the idea being is that if anything can scrub away any tough but tiny misty grease drops, it will indeed be scrubbed away this way). Then I wipe it and wipe it till there's no tomorrow with those no-streak, no-lint villeda "cloths". And then I stand back, looking at the fine misty grease drops reapperaing (but not always :th:

).

suh · Jan 03, 2011 2:45 pm

I got those misty greasy drop looking things once, it was because someone else cleaned it with something it didn't like ::wink::

so I had to rub and rub really hard with gumption, no scourer, they finally disappeared and I then cleaned it with the MF cloths.

garden lover · Jan 04, 2011 7:11 am

Hi Renobliss

I'm going to go with White. I've had both. SS is fine so long as you get the one that has the protective factory film for no fingermarks. But in the end you still have to clean more :::

, and by clean I mean you can have it clean but then your cleaning cloth will leave marks so you have to then clean those off.

When I do my kitchen, I'm having white cupb'ds, white granite with grey flicks and white appliances. I already have my white dishwasher and fridge. I'll go the ceramic or induction cooker as we dont have nat gas. As for my ovens, I know it is getting really difficult to get certain ones in white. So might have to be SS, but wont be seen and I dont want to make a statement with it anyway so thats fine. I will be adding a SS kettle though. Or maybe a red one. My colours will be whites, greys and a hint of red to liven things up. ::lol::

I'm even going as far as to investigate ceramic sinks. Havent fully decided as yet. A lot of researching still to do.

Eitherway though, SS or white will both look lovely. I dont like SS due to childs fingerprints etc. No matter what, white is definately not as much cleaning as non filmed SS. ::wink::

Good luck with your decision.

RenoBliss · Jan 04, 2011 8:08 am

So much to think about!

Thank you all for the suggestions (and cleaning hints, definitely keeping them in mind!). I'm madly googling pictures at the moment to make some more comparisons

Will let you know what we decide

Glenleigh39 · Jan 04, 2011 9:55 am

emlet01

.... and all the plastic trim has an ugly yellowed tone to it, that would look even worse against white cupboards and would really stand out.

I have experienced the same on my, now 12 yo, appliances. My vote is for SS which will be my next appliances.

Notsubtle · Jan 04, 2011 10:59 am

Agree with garden lover - especially if you have white cupboards. ( we don't now but will do when we next build) We have eveything above the bench ss atm ( microwave/wall oven and kettle/toaster)....and everything below the bench white...which is only dishwasher and fridges. I just bought new fridges and bought them white because (1. keeping in mind next build) and 2. the floor, bench and timber door trims are also white so they match/blend better. Plastic trim on dishwasher has not yellowed or changed in 6 years, although the plastic on our older one at our beach house has yellowed terribly!! Just lucky which model I guess. ss is harder to keep clean...and keep the ss cleaner off the glass so the glass doesn't smear. Our glass on both oven and microwave is mirrored and the stuff from the ss cleaner is a nightmare for leaving purpley streaks on the mirrored glass.

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