Whether you’re looking at black kitchens, white kitchens, wood kitchens or shaker kitchens, when choosing a kitchen, lots of factors need to be considered. How durable are the materials? How well does the design make use of the space? The appearance may be a little lower on the list, but it’s still important. After all, you want to feel good about your kitchen and be proud when guests see it.
The colour is one element to consider. Some colours, like white, rarely go out of fashion, while others vary in popularity. Just at the moment, black is in fashion, so what are the pros and cons of black kitchens?
The pros of black kitchens
- Black kitchens are right on trend at the moment. Style compasses such as Elle and Ideal Home are beginning to recommend bringing black into your kitchen. It’s just becoming fashionable, so you can get in before it becomes too common.
- The big success of the past five years in kitchen fashions has been grey. Tones from light greys that look almost white to the darkest greys have proved incredibly popular. Perhaps it’s the influence of those near-black shades, but black kitchens are starting to become almost as fashionable as grey.
- Black has always been fashionable for clothing, long before Coco Chanel brought out her little black dress. Quite simply, it looks great — for kitchens as well as clothes. Black kitchens have a slick, elegant look that can’t be matched by other colours.
The cons of black kitchens
- Black surfaces may look great, but they’re a magnet for finger-prints and other marks. Black kitchens need to be constantly cleaned. That’s bad enough for anyone, but a nightmare if you’re at all OCD about keeping your kitchen clean.
- Black kitchens can look great, but they don’t suit every space. There needs to be plenty of light coming in to make them look their best. With inadequate lighting, your kitchen could seem small and closed in.
- The problem with something that’s suddenly come into fashion is that it can as easily go out of fashion. Trends come and go. Black kitchens might be perfect now, but you’re not future-proofing your kitchen.
The verdict?
If you have the right space and don’t mind the extra work or the risk of having to replacing your kitchen early, black kitchens look great. Otherwise, you might be better going for a more lasting trend like white. That’s been in fashion for fifty years and counting, so you won’t suddenly have a kitchen that looks a bit dated.
