Forget Black, White, and Silver—This New Appliance Trend Is Taking Over

This gorgeous finish for appliances will help your home glow.

When remodeling a kitchen, there are all sorts of decisions to be made—kitchen cabinet colors, countertop material, flooring, backsplash—and near-endless iterations of each to choose between. Pick a tile material, and you still have to pick a shape, color, and even a grout color; it’s all customizable. In fact, until relatively recently, appliances were the only area where there wasn’t a ton of room for personalization or customization. Fortunately, that’s all changing now, with glorious results.

For most of the 90s, white appliances were the look du jour. In the 2000s and on, silver stainless steel (often with white cabinets) was the way to go. And now that all-white kitchens are becoming less and less common, matte black appliances and black stainless steel appliances are popping up to give kitchens a little modernity. But there’s another option now, one that may be the prettiest appliance finish yet: soft bronze.

Also called a champagne finish or sunset bronze finish, depending on the appliance maker, the soft bronze look is subtle with a slightly metallic sheen. It’s warm and glowing, the perfect contrast to the chill of stainless steel appliances. The golden-ish color is some mix of silver, bronze, and rose gold, offering a statement-making alternative to the pretty but safe matte black appliances that are popular today. It’s colorful enough to be noticed, but not so much as to take over a space—perfect for someone who loves the boldly colorful look of retro appliances but still wants to maintain a little subtlety (and the resale value of the kitchen and its appliances).

This trend isn’t limited to kitchen appliances by any means. Samsung offers washers and dryers (including the new top load option) in Champagne, a more matte take on soft bronze, and the look is sure to spread. For kitchens, though, there are quite a few ways to bring the look (and warm, cheery feel) of soft bronze appliances home.

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Whirlpool offers a full collection of kitchen appliances in Sunset Bronze, with ovens, dishwashers, refrigerators, and more available in the color. Café Appliances by GE doesn’t have a full bronzed appliance collection (yet), but the customizable line does have brushed bronze hardware options, which buyers can mix with stainless steel, white, or black finishes to get the soft bronze look on a smaller scale.

The soft bronze finish looks great—but not everyone has the luxury of swapping out appliances every time trends change. Fortunately, there are ways to bring the look home without dropping a couple thousand dollars on an on-trend new fridge. KitchenAid offers its iconic stand mixer in Toffee Delight, which looks just like the champagne finish and displays easily on a countertop. (It could go into an appliance garage, too, but this is a kitchen accessory you definitely want to show off.) Cuisinart also offers some of its countertop appliances (including a food processor) in Copper Classic, so there are plenty of ways to try the bronzed look.

If you can’t decide if you can (or should) commit to soft bronze, try it on a small appliance; just that one spot of glowing color in your appliance collection might be enough to convince you to try more.