The Staying Power of Stainless The drumbeat sounding the end of the stainless steel in the kitchen started softly in 2007. By mid-2012, it resounded all over the web in articles that spoke of the finish in the past tense. Well, rumors of its death are grossly exaggerated. Just six months after a rash of published post-mortems, from the Wall Street Journal to Consumer Reports, it seems clear that stainless steel is far more mainstay than forgettable fad. Its designated replacements, white, black, and a smattering of color finishes are holding their own in the margins, but stainless is still dominant, strong, imperturbable: like a Viking. I mean the Norse warrior, not the kitchen brand, although the coincidence is intentional. Viking Range Corporation put stainless on the map, back in 1987. According to Antoinette Fraser, “Stainless is timeless.” As an interior decorator who specializes in kitchens, she has eye-witnessed every kitchen trend since 1987, and stainless has emerged strong. She believes homeowners got their taste for the finish watching culinary television programming back in the 1980s. The commercial-grade appliances were all clad in stainless steel. That aspirational spirit fuels the desire for a professional look up to the present. “Stainless steel is all about the illusion of having a restaurant-grade range. Then you’re at the pinnacle of epicurean experience,” according to Kevin Henry, Director for Business Development at Dacor. Pro-looking appliances got popular because they were built to take punishment, but also as a status signifier which announced that you were a serious cook. Ironically, the early adopters of stainless bought high-end Vulcans for kitchens that could cost as much as a Mercedes. A nice gift to their cooks, I suppose. Decades later, stainless trickled down to the mass market, and brands such as Jenn-Aire, and White-Westinghouse, and Kitchenaid made it possible for an average homeowner to have the epicurean-kitchen look at a sane price. Today, stainless is everywhere kitchens are, whether you’re walking the appliance aisles at Home Depot, or leafing through a Toll Brothers luxury home sales brochure. Even in the cost-no-object kitchen where wood panels cover refrigerator doors and dishwasher faces, the range is still stainless. Antoinette Fraser sees every kind of custom-ordered finishes. “You can get brushed chrome, Tiffany blue with brass, copper trim, even diner-style with a pattern etched onto the stainless. But nothing moves like the Wolf product, which has that straightforward commercial-kitchen look.”
Black, white, and a very limited palette of colors can be ordered as “personalized” options, but for a rich range of colors, you have to go to European brands such as Bertazzoni. One of the reason stainless is not going away is its elegant adaptability. Kevin Henry: “It doesn’t matter if it’s a contemporary kitchen or a period design, stainless steel will fit. This is a finish that is going to work across every conceivable design platform.” David Peer, Chairman of Casserole, LLC, the food industry market consultant, makes a point that really drives home why stainless is the design staple for kitchens. “The kitchen is the functional center of the house. Cooking, storage, and cleaning make up the work triangle—in other words, your range, refrigerator, and dishwasher. The counters and cabinetry are the fluff elements, relatively speaking.” It’s okay to dress up the fluff, but where you’re working, don’t mess with stainless. And if you do happen to leave handprints, not to worry. Antoinette Fraser has a product that offers a mirror finish with a protective coating. One more selling point for stainless, not that it really needs it.