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I couldn't agree more re: the granite countertops.

Wow, those are some picks! Will must be a design genius, who would have thought?????
Please! my mother could have come up with the same responses and shes 82 years old!
How about some really new ideas. The first three have been around for about 15 years now!
Sorry to be mean, but the picks are very lame!

Even the outs are obvious. It's sort of like... flip on the TV and see what everyone is into, and then realize that it's no longer cool.

Decorating your home with this in/out attitude is going to be incredibly expensive and your ideas will be short lived and under appreciated.

Except that if you watch HGTV you'd think that your house would NEVER sell unless it has granite countertops. Ugh.

Yaaaaaaayy! Finally someone's cottoned on to how OUT granite counters are.

WRT granite countertops. I've never cared for them. Unfortunately popularity equals affordability. I recently remodeled my kitchen and unless I wanted laminate or tile, granite was the least expensive option. I love design and I put a lot of thought into the look of my new kitchen, but I also had a very limited budget. This is something I wish more designers would take into account. Good design should be tempered with a dose of reality.

Ok, granite is out. We're about to redo our kitchen and get rid of our bad butcher block. Thoughts?

Granite comes in so many colours and looks. Maybe what's 'out' is the bland brown flecked granite used in all the new condos, and some of the other beautiful rich designs can be considered in?

Granite countertops.... ugh. Every time a design show touches a kitchen, they add in granite. It's not the worst look, but it's so overdone, and I'm not the biggest fan to begin with.

I personally love my verde butterfly granite. (I also loved some other options that cost $200 a square foot. Not gonna happen!)

I think it's really funny to have people discuss how "out" something timeless and classic like granite is. If you prefer slate or one of the eco-friendly composites or concrete or butcher block or whatever, more power to you. But ask any real estate agent about granite and resale, and you may discover that it's not so "out" after all.

And as for "vintage themed homes", all the mid-century classisicts here may have to have big yard sales now -- right? (NOT!)

I have to laugh at this list, it is pretty week. Granite has been out for a long time. I work with some of the top designers in the country they would really laugh at this.

Green products are in - recycled content- post industrial and post consumer, low VOCs-Low emitting materials, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. Buying local, not buying, buying items with that will last you a life time.


If you still like granite who cares but try to buy it at salvage yards because it is a mined its not ok thats very out.

Granite countertops have been targeted as a potential source of radon in homes. Eek!

I've got a kitchen remodel in my future too. I really like the look of concrete countertops (or is it cement? I always get confused.). I also like corian, though I know it's kinda on the "out" list too; but it comes in so many color and pattern options. I once saw copper countertops, which carry the added benefit of discouraging bacteria, and are absolutely gorgeous.

In order:
Obvious, but hard to pull off correctly
Obvious
Obvious, but even harder to pull off correctly
Not Necessarily
Obvious
Not Necessarily

batting .667 is good, but not when these are lobs right in the wheelhouse.
Come on Will, take a chance or two on these. something that might not become popular, or something that should be out. Take a stand man!

If you aren't buying wood counter tops, isn't it all mined/pumped at the end of the day?

I hate wood counter tops.

concrete countertops are GREAT!!! I love mine and am so glad I decided to go with this option.

unless someone else is footing the bill, it is up to th eindividual what they deem "in" or "out"

First, granite may be "out", but you should look at the seriously beautiful stuff at Walker Zanger.

Second, it seems to me that the people who care what's in and out are the ones who are lacking originality. As seaside said, it should be up to the individual to make what they have and what they can afford beautiful.

When do the concrete countertops and white subway tile finally become passe? In the Bay Area, I have seen them around since the 90's.

I love my granite counter top, I don't care what anyone says. It's not the brown flecky stuff though. What else are you supposed to use? I think concrete is kind of ugly.

When was wall-to-wall carpet "in"? I read the SFgate article expecting some pics of his designed spaces. Instead we get a glamour shot and juggling pins?

I agree that these ins and outs are a big "so what else in new?" Even Pottery Barn has known about the monochromatic paint palette thing for a while, and installed carpet has been a love it or hate it thing for a couple decades now (plenty of people still put it in bedrooms). And some of us have been mixing design periods for -- forever (but if you read shelter magazines, you know it's the hot thing already anyway). And granite in kitchens? Depends on the granite. Radon has been found in some South American granites, it's true. And the Chinese "freckled" granite you see in ready-made counter tops was never in vogue anyway. But I did a kitchen remodel two years ago, and I gathered samples of granite, marble, and Caesarstone and subjected them to knives, dropped utensils and cans, and lemon juice, wine and oils. The only material that held up to everything was a high-quartz granite. And it was cheaper than any of the manufactured stone, concrete, glass, or paper resin materials available then. And don't be fooled into thinking that concrete is a "green" product! It is made from limestone (old seabed, formed over millennia, and irreplaceable) that is strip-mined, and then treated in kilns fired by coal or burning tires. The cement industry is among the most polluting (for air quality) in the US.

Go with what you like and what works for you and is within your budget and your principles. That's what personal style is.

If you design your house taking into account what is in or out, you are going to be completely redoing your house every 5-10 years. It is more important to find out what your personal style is and create it with tweaks every year or two. My paint palette will never be monochromatic, it just isn't what my eye responds to.

The same goes for countertops. Each material has different properties, if you want the look of granite but something more environmentally friendly, Icestone or Ceasarstone can work. In my dream kitchen, I would have a combination of ceasarstone and concrete. In this area, I would follow the form follows function rule. Figure out what material will work best with how you use your kitchen.

I feel like mixing design periods is always in. Anything else feels to themey.

The dark granite w/ dark-ish cabinets is indeed so overdone and I've never liked that look too much to start with.

I've never cared for monochromatic color schemes, although one room I saw on here I think back in Dec was a red and white room where they used several shades of red and accented it with white so it was not all red and it looked really cool, now would I do that, perhaps not but I liked the idea though.

I never have gone with the what's in/what's out thing at all for my style has been more or less MCM, coupled with vintage Danish Modern, coupled with that 70's Mod look, but in the end, my space has more of an eclectic, but modern-ish look going on.

I do agree that monochromatic rooms are very hard to pull off well, same with mixing periods, but the thing there is, finding a common ground to what you put in the room, even if it's nothing more than finding things in colors that work together.

Personally, I find that if done right, concrete counters can look stunning. In the last house This Old House did, the owners went with cast concrete, in that it was done by local artists who build the forms after getting mesurements, use a super shiny and smooth vinyl top surface facing up to form the surface of the counter and using several colors to create a depth of the color, in this case, black, but with some red and yellow to warm it up and when it was done, the counter was super shiny and smooth and the color had a richness and it was all hand mixed, hand colored there at the shop. They also did a drain board and sinks as part of the kitchen counter. Gorgeous so if done right, concrete can look great and this shop could do just about any color you wanted, including purple.

But in the end, I agree that if you stayed with what's hot, then you'd indeed be upgrading the house every few years and that can get expensive.

One word about trendiness in kitchens: wenge.

Yeah, I personally don't care for the beveled\rounded edged, brown\yellow\green flecked granite counter tops I've seen out there (and yes - way overdone, and never "in" to begin with). But, when it came time to overhaul the kitchen in the house we bought, the most cost effective solution was (of course) garanite. We chose an Indian black, with square edges (and undermount sink) which I actually really like a lot - it looks great, and will age well because it's simple and understated.

I would say that it's not so much the materials you use, but the way you use them. Noboday would ever say that *wood*
is "out", would they?

Having said that, concrete counter tops bug me a little - really, to me they look so 1990's, and evoke that fake "industrial" dot.com "loft" feeling that is now most definitely "out"...

i love my granite countertops! they are beautiful and so functional. the only other thing i love the look of is marble, but that seems very tough to care for. We went out of our way to save the granite when we recently redid our kitchen and I'm so happy we did.

No one has mentioned soapstone. I chose it because I wanted stone but not granite. It is nonporous, which is why it has been used in laboratories for a long time. It will scratch and patina, but I like how it's starting to look after 3 years. I chose a slab with very little veining, and it's simple and humble-looking, not glossy at all. If scratches bother you, they are easily sanded and oiled away. Costs about the same as most granite. It works like marble for rolling out dough; stays nice and cold.

Did anyone click through to the actual article? His comments were oversimplified in the AT summary. None of it is particularly "cutting edge", but it's framed as his preferences... not what's "in" or "out".

"In" or "out" lists are so "out"!