Do I have awful taste in kitchens.

I agree with you. I hate these sterile kitchens that look like some sort of laboratory.

They look like they never want to be messed up with food or life

Yup - me too. It seems a huge waste of money for people to pull out perfectly nice kitchens and create these space-age monstrosities!

The kitchen-diner in my new build is large and light and airy and has lovely views. But it has white tiled floor and grey units - not at all what I would have chosen myself. But in the scheme of things it is insignificant and I just live with it.

A lot of new kitchens are more about style than practicality.. Two friends have massive open plan kitchens but cook in a utility room. Another friend’s new kitchen is beautiful, lovely central island, stream lined looks but a sink that is in a corner with no space next to it to stack dirty dishes and so small it can only just take a dinner plate!
I’ve stopped looking at makeover programmes as they made me feel disillusioned with my house. People would spend £20,000 and get an extension, a new kitchen and new furniture and fittings. We spent £10,000 on just updating our bedroom with new carpet, wardrobes and curtains. The only thing we paid someone else to do was replaster the ceiling. So how they can stretch their money so far is beyond me.

So many people have kitchens now that look like my dentist's surgery! So cold and unwelcoming. A friend of mine had her kitchen re-done, at great expense, but it looks so clinical. Not what I'd choose at all, but I guess it wouldn't do for us all to have the same taste.

My ideal would be something along the lines of 'Modern Country Kitchen'. I do like new/modern units, but none of these plain/shiny/clinical designs. Something warm and welcoming, that's a great sociable place ... the heart of the house.

My kids think that our kitchen is dreadful because it's quite old but I am happy with it. Just before Christmas the corner cupboard doors fell off. This resulted in mutterings of us definitely getting a new kitchen now - unfortunately I think it looks ok - it makes it look more 'Country Kitchen' which is to my taste!

I like a cosy, farmhouse-style kitchen. It should be a proper living room - not a science lab!

Most modern kitchens look like operating theatres to me, with the ‘ island ‘ in the middle the operating table!

My kitchen is the size of some of the islands I see in the brochures! However it has been 'newed up' and the lovely shiny surfaces are an incentive to keep it tidy. That'll do me.

I love modern streamlined kitchens without nooks and crannies. But that doesn't make my taste better than yours, just different. My friend has a lovely big kitchen but it's used as a family room where her GC and family and friends gather for chatting and homework while she makes drinks and meals. A different lifestyle, that's all. I don't have room in my kitchen for anyone to gather.

I am getting a new kitchen fitted in a few weeks. I cant really remember what I have chosen as its dragged on due to Covid. I am not going to show you lot photos

I like very modern stuff and am in the market for a new kitchen but won't be going for gloss, nice as I think it is. I hope to only pay for one kitchen and it'll have to last me for the rest of my life, so I want something with longevity.

I think I'd like wood, so I can paint it later if I want to.

Can't bear clutter though, so everything will be away and hidden.

I usually love the updated, uncluttered kitchens. Sterile will do me any day! Mine is modern, uncluttered but homely. Kick plate lighting in the evening is very welcoming & I love my small kitchen with big drawers to hold all those items which previously lurked in the back of dark cupboards. Easily found ready for use. Brilliant! Modern for me, every time.

I agree with Beswitched. I followed the progress of a bungalow on Rightmove, and it was over- priced due to the seller's inflated idea of good taste. Nearly everything was shades of grey or bluish grey ,and sharp edges galore, including angular garden pots planted with spiky things. It sold eventually but the sale took a long time compared with cheaper bungalows that had not been modernised.

No, you don’t have terrible taste, they are fashion followers and in five years time it will be all change again. Manufacturers have to create this need, to sell their goods. I expect that there is someone behind it all, dealing with advertising, to push the products shown on the show.

My many kitchen cupboards are 33 years old. Is that old, I suppose it might be for some but it works and they are clean.
Admittedly the wall and floor tiles have been changed, as have the ceiling lights and the paint has been refreshed on the walls but I am not strip it out, it would cost a fortune

Our house is only six years old and a contemporary style, has a kitchen to match which I liked when we viewed the house but it’s a total nightmare to keep clean. Dark grey units which show every mark, ivory coloured shiny floor tiles with white grout too. Our last house was traditional style with a farmhouse type kitchen with wooden units which my husband made and sensible floor tiles. I think our present one would suit someone who doesn’t have a dog, never cooks and has a cleaner.?

It wasn’t until I had been married 25 years that we were able to buy our first new kitchen for our 4 th and current house, because the original old kitchen in situ was in a truly terrible state .
I had this kitchen replaced in the last 5 years (which will see me out!!)
The houses we lived in in between all had a serviceable kitchen with cupboards that closed, so saw no need to change.

Am wondering how many new kitchens other grans have had.
I have had 2 in 53 years .

My kitchen is well used but modern.I like high gloss cupbords without pannelling so they can wipe clean.Surfaces that can be scrubbed and look as good as new ,loads of drawers I've got 15 in my current kitchen and it has to be a bright workplace .No point in a kitchen you have to strain your eyes in to see what you're doing .
We change regularly as I spend a lot of my time in the kitchen even more so since Covid .Its 33 feet long and holds a long dining table and a sofa at the end so easy to clean is essential floors that can be steam cleaned make life much simpler .Especially with cats that come and go throughout the day with mucky paws and strange gifts .Most of my large collection of cookery books live in the utility room along with my appliances ,fryer,pressure cooker etc

In reply to Beswitched I prefer modern ish but also like country kitchens too. Mine is off white, clean lines and for the very first time have integrated white goods.

Bewitched it is not a question of whether you have taste or not, but the fact that you are classsy and a lot those kitchens are being built for the ostentatious nouveau riche.

Buy any magazine aimed at the quietly upwardly aspirational, Country Living, English Home, Period Home and they are full of kitchens like yours

It should be just what you want it to be!

Warm and inviting for me, not cold and clinical without character. I am not one for having the most up to date showoffy things in my house, clean and comfortable every time.

Thanks for all the replies. Glad to know I'm not totally out of step