I watch a lot of HGTV.  Probably too much.  I watch and daydream about this renovation, or that house hunt.  Imagining myself deciding between a community pool or a private lot without a neighbor in sight.  Lately, I’ve been daydreaming about a time when a house hunter walks into a stark white kitchen, and says disappointedly, “This is a bit dated.”

Joanna take the wheel.

This groupthink around the only perfect kitchen requires white cabinets is wearing thin.  Sure, a beautiful kitchen MAY have white cabinets, but there are beautiful kitchens without as well.  Can we all agree?  This isn’t Coke versus Pepsi, or even coke versus cannabis.  This is simply acknowledging the potential of the many shades of the rainbow.  Technically, white isn’t even a color.

I understand trends.  I grew up in a house with shag carpets and a pet rock.  This current kitchen color bias has gone from trend to parody.  I’ve seen a first-time home buyer walk into a beautifully upgraded kitchen that wasn’t perfectly white and complain.  The same buyer walks into a horribly builder-basic kitchen, with cheap white cabinets and swoon.  I rolled my eyes so hard I sprained a muscle.

I’m not sure who to blame.  Does HGTV require this?  Just like they seem to require the ‘joke’ that the wife/girlfriend makes about getting all the closet space in EVERY episode of House Hunters ever created.  Seriously.  Find me an episode of House Hunters that doesn’t have that.  Good luck.

My hand to almighty shiplap, I don’t dislike the non-color white.  If you have or want a white kitchen, that’s awesome.  But let’s stop requiring it.  Declaring any other shade disqualified.  It’s un-American.  Not to mention it distracts from the REAL questions we should be asking.  Like, how does an unemployed tuba player and a part-time Zumba instructor afford a $1.3 million dollar second home in Hawaii?