Why Your Ten Year Old House Already Looks Dated

The kitchen at 20 West End Avenue, Old Greenwich ($4.189M).

The kitchen at 20 West End Avenue, Old Greenwich ($4.189M).

19 Meadow Place, Old Greenwich ($14.6M), partial view of master bath. Click on listing for 24 more photos.

19 Meadow Place, Old Greenwich ($14.6M), partial view of master bath. Click on listing for 24 more photos.

Take a look at the two examples linked to above (and also below) and you will get a good idea of what’s coming in interior architecture. You may like them or not but this style is quickly becoming normal, which means everything else looks tired and in need of updating.

In particular, note the interior colors used in these examples:  whites, creams, pale pastels tan, natural woods (in some cases, no paint is used at all).  Everything streamlined, with a lack of fussy finishes and moldings.  You like? I have to admit, I do, but it’s amusing to realize that some day, “fresh” ideas like these, including sliding barn-wall doors, will look hopelessly out-dated to the next generation.

20 West End Avenue

19 Meadow Place

6 thoughts on “Why Your Ten Year Old House Already Looks Dated

  1. This is why it is ridiculous to pay such a premium for a Peacock, Smallbone etc kitchen. There are very good no name makers that do a great job provided you have a solid design. Because in the end, no matter how much you paid, a ten year old kitchen is a ten year old outdated kitchen.

  2. I disagree. If you like a traditional kitchen, it is going to be good to go for many years. These examples are not traditional. Wooden cabinets that aren’t white stay new for years and years. If you buy Woodmode, as I did, you get a lifetime guarantee, and they fix anything that does not look brand new. My kitchen is almost 20 years old, but it looks new. Has not been used full time, maybe some of the reason.

    I think it pays to get a good manufacturer like Woodmode, and it pays maybe not to get white cabinets, which are not so forgiving. I recently saw some sort of pickled or treated wood cabinets at the Woodmode showroom in New York that actually look as good as white, but are not white. They may be the answer for someone who wants to redo a kitchen only once.

    My house would not look good with a white kitchen, as every window and bit of trim is stained wood. That is the look, and it is timeless.

    • MidC:
      Have to agree, although I do believe white kitchens work well in most houses. In fact, one of the things that makes some of the old, un-renovated 1920’s kitchens that you still find in back-country mansions, continue to look practically fresh, is the choices that were made so long ago: White cabinets, black (or wood) countertops, glass-window cabinet fronts, etc. Still looks good! On the other hand, do we all remember the horrors of avocado green and harvest gold appliances in the 1970’s? (Not even mentioning pink and purple toilets)

      • I have white cabinets in another location – from about 1910 and they are a disaster. They are beautiful – a work of art with beautiful oak countertops and no seams in the countertops – built in place – and cannot be duplicated today. However, they chip and get dirty – you don’t want that. The kitchen there is a high activity place. White is definitely nicest and goes best there, but if I renovate, it is not going to be with white cabinets unless I renovate the second before I sell it.

        One of the problems is that the good white cabinets are painted and not baked. The warranties and finishes do not go for that long on the ones that look like painted wood. The ones where you can get a lifetime warranty on the white look more like plastic than wood.

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