If black is not an option, I'd go w/stainless. I don't personally care for white and biscuit is not even on my radar. But, that's all personal preference.

Black is what I would go with in your kitchen : )

I agree....black is what I'd use. But Stainless would be okay. I don't like stainless look, but that's just me...

DonnaR/CA

Good morning, Janice. Your kitchen sounds warm and charming but visually very busy, with different colors and textures on every surface. And kitchens are intrinsically very busy anyway. Whichever color direction you went, if it were me, I'd move toward eliminating the unnecessary eye-trippers in favor of playing up my favorite features (the brick and the beams, or ??)

With that in mind, I'd probably nix white as it would jump out of the oak visually big time, or do white but bring in a lot more of it elsewhere until they finally are able to sink back as part of a mainly white picture (I'm guessing that could require white cabinets, at very least uppers).

SS would sink into oak okay as is. Black, gorgeous as it is, wouldn't be an option for me either, so I can believe you when you say it's not on the list.

Biscuit could do well if maybe you replaced the white and yellow walls with some version/versions of that color? I'm not personally a big fan of all-beigey/brown kitchens (now, beige with white, tho...), so it's funny to be suggesting even a move in that general direction, but this might provide a good background for bringing in some nice color with accessories to play off your brick.

I'm likely on a totally different page from you, but hopefully this will join the others to help kick off some ideas.

Someone else tired of brown kitchens? Yay Rosie! :D But I could never condone painting over yellow walls. It sounds very nice.

Would it be possible to spend a wee bit extra for something colored, like a yellow Bertazzoni range?

White might not be bad, depending on the location of the appliances. If the fridge is at the end near the white wall, it might not stand out. Stainless is probably safe enough. I'm afraid we're going to need pictures.

I'm with the majority here who think that black would work best in there for the same reasons that Rosie mentioned (the lighter colors would make it more busy and divert one's attention for your gorgeous kitchen). Our appliances just went in this week. We have knotty cherry cabs in medium and dark stains and initially went back and forth trying to decide between SS and black appliances. We chose black in the end because we didn't want the appliances to take center stage in our new kitchen. They're all finally in and we're very glad we chose the black because the eye flows around the kitchen now. It doesn't look choppy and, once we get our accent pieces in there, those and our window views will be where the eye rests instead.
Just one more opinion to ponder. Either way, your kitchen sounds wonderful and I hope you'll post some pictures of it.

do you have a classic (read dimly lit) bungalow kitchen like ours? if so, i would go with something light, like white or biscuit. if you like the yellow walls, then i don't think you can do biscuit. IMO stainless might be too dark. i would go with the white. you say you have white beadboard and porcelain knobs (white also?) so you already have some white. if you put in white accents, you could accomodate white appliances. in our kitchen i would have preferred black appliances, but with the medium dark wood cabs, wood floor and yes, yellow walls...our particular bungalow became too too dark. so we went with white..

I have a 1930s cottage/bungalow and was torn about what color appliances to do. I know everyone is going with stainless these day (I had them in my old house) but white seemed to match the old-fashioned feel of my current house. Then I read a thread on the Cottage Living website where a lot of posters agreed that they were growing tired of stainless and thought white seemed more classic and timeless. So that was encouraging to me. I went with white and I'm glad I made the decision I did.

I'm really surprised people are suggesting black appliances. They seem very modern to me, not cottage at all. Or maybe it's just b/c I personally don't care for them.

I chose stainless for my oak-and-soapstone remodel of my 1922 kitchen. It seemed the most neutral of the options available. I was replacing white appliances, so I knew how white looked in that space and I knew that I didn't really like it very much, and black would have been a statement. So, stainless it was, and I am very satisfied with it.

vjrnts, I love your kitchen. How I wish I had held out for mission style cabs. Instead, the modern slab maple morphed into shaker doors and slab drawers, which is pretty but sort of a hybrid style that irritates me a little every time I see it. Next kitchen WILL BE Mission.

Jenn Air has a new color that they call Bronze. It is a warm shiny brown. Maybe it will be the next new color. Has anyone seem it?

That is gorgeous and a weighty vote for stainless with wood.

Foli, it's another day and I have to admit to being a bit shocked at myself for suggesting painting a yellow wall beige. It was morning, too, definitely a yellow-kitchen time of day. I was remembering biscuit as brownish and clashing with it, but a biscuit sink I saw today was a lovely warm yellowish cream. So there we are, Janice. I have returned from my inadvertant lapse into the serene dignity of the brown side and regret my unfortunate lapse.

Janice, in keeping with what is most likely a cozy style bungalow, I would definitely oust the black or SS~much to modern and in the *now* moment. The black might also look much too harsh and the SS too contemporary.

Being you already have white porcelain knobs(are you thinking of replacing?)and white beadboard, my choice would be white in keeping with your cottage style kitchen. And the yellow walls are perfect! ;o)

Stay away from the brown side!

Teeheeheee.

vjrnts, your kitchen is beautiful! Thank you all for your in put. Hate to say it, but I'm still confused :) Here is a little more info. The stove and fridg.(not by choice) are both in front of brick. The frig. sits in an alcove. The stove next to it, although not in the alcove. This is not a big ticket kitchen. I have almond now. DH likes the SS but, I feel they would look a little too sleek for our kitchen. White would visually carry the bead board around but, I'm afraid white will be to stark. The porcelain knobs will stay. Painting the oak is not an option. Wish I could post a picture.

I'm not usually a SS person, but I don't see white, black or bisque being very nice in that space. I have seen pictures of 1940s and 1950s kitchens with metal appliances and counters, so I think the SS can be pretty timeless. It tends to blends pretty well with just about any style.

abbeycat, rosie and janice_indiana, thank you so much for your kind words about my kitchen. You called it about the mission cabinets. My GC tried to talk me into full-coverage slabs, but I insisted on inset, and I was right! :-D

I just don't see stainless with beadboard...too much of a clash for me. I'd go with white.

If $$ were no option, I think that it would be cool to see those Northstar ranges and fridges with their quirky colors in it.

Truthfully though, white is always a good choice.

Here is a link that might be useful: Northstar ranges

Good for you, Vjrnts. Full coverage instead of those? What was he thinking? I needed you around when I was caving to the better judgment and experience of my contractor. He is truly an excellent contractor and we were fortunate to have him, but in those placed I bowed to his opinion I regret it.

Janice, stainless is so common a fusion with traditional and rustic styles now that I don't personally see it as too sleek but rather adding a bit of an update edge to it. But then we're talking about an impression that's very personal, so how you feel about it when it's all in is all that counts.

How about investing $40 or so in some kitchen-porn books, tearing out all the pages of kitchens you like regarding of whether they help with your current one, and then laying the pages out and figuring out what they have in common?

I really think that may help you with your kitchen because it needs you to cast a thoughtful eye at it with a willingness make a few reasonable changes to create a final look you really like. It sounds like you basically like your kitchen now, which is a terrific start, but with all that's going on finish, texture, and color-wise, I think you need to change something to pull your kitchen's elements all back together into one cohesive look, whatever it turns out to be, because what your kitchen as-is obviously NEEDS is coppertone appliances, or whatever that brown finish we all loved so much 30 years ago was called. I've heard there's another brown line out there somewhere these days, but being new and different it's probably outrageously expensive.

What would you like the countertops to be? Perhaps if you had the future countertops in mind instead of your current ones, it would help sway you in one direction or another as far as appliance color.

Other than that, I like what rosie said about the kitchen-porn books and figuring out what your vision is for the space.