The mistake is picking modern drawers for the handles and the finish and forgetting to check what is actually holding the box together underneath. A clean flat front and a recessed pull can sit on top of a drawer that sags within a year, and from across the room you would never know it.
These are not the right call in a room full of ornate trim or a house that leans heavily traditional, where a flat matte front can look like it wandered in from a different build entirely. They also struggle in very damp or humid spaces, since a lot of the budget friendly modern pieces use a thin veneer over particleboard that swells and lifts if it sits near a bathroom or a leaky window. Where they do work is almost everywhere else. A bedroom that's short on floor space, since the lines are usually slim enough to tuck into a corner without eating the room. A nursery, where a flat front without carved detail is easier to wipe down. A living room used as storage for everything that doesn't have another home, remotes, chargers, the junk drawer that migrated out of the kitchen. They suit newer builds and renovated older homes equally well, because the plainness doesn't fight with anything.
On color, I'd steer toward warm wood tones, walnut or a mid oak, or a soft matte white, before jumping to high gloss black or anything with a lot of visible grain variation. Matte finishes hide dust and fingerprints far better than gloss, and warm wood tones age well instead of looking dated the way a very cool gray or a trendy shade can two years later. If you want color, pick it in the hardware or a single accent drawer rather than the whole body, it's a much smaller thing to replace if you change your mind. On the shop floor, open every drawer you're considering. Pull it all the way out and look at the runners, metal glides with a soft close feel sturdier and last longer than plastic ones that rattle. Check the back panel, it should be a solid piece screwed in, not a thin sheet stapled on. Push on a corner joint and see if it flexes. A dovetail or a tight mortise joint on the drawer box itself is the real tell of a well made piece, even if the front is as plain as they come.
If I were starting from nothing, I'd go with a warm walnut finish in matte, simple pulls, and build out from there.
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