I hope not because the cabs in our new home will be different! We've got raised panels in our kitchen, bulters pantry and master; recessed in Jill-n-Jill bath (I've got 2 little girls), guest bath, laundry room, & mudroom. I figured if they aren't next to one another, it shouldn't matter because each room can have it's own style. I think when remodeling (or building new) it can be more simplified and easier to make things similar (cabinets, counters, etc.) but why should you be limited?

Not only are mine going to be different styles, I am mixing stained and painted in the kitchen. I will have a painted island and stained perimeter. The rest of the home will have painted cabs. I have looked at a bazillion pictures and toured at least that many open houses/model homes. Make it the way you like it. You have to live with it. Might as well be happy! Good luck with your choice. Andrea

In general, you need visual continuation for smoothness, for whatever is in line-of-sight. That is, different fronts are congenial if they are the same color/stain and/or they are congenial if they are of the same style even though in different finishes. Line-of-sight means that if you can see the mudroom cabinets and the kitchen cabinets at the same time, they will be easier to live with if congenial; but the bathroom upstairs can be totally different in color, style, finish without causing disharmony.

We did ours all the same, but right before I did it, I posted asking if that was the wrong decision and too boring. LOL! I think that, as meldy_nva says, if there is continuity between adjacent rooms, it will work wonderfully. Good luck! Jaymie

We have very different cabinets between rooms. In our kitchen we have painted/glazed/distressed (creamy with chocolate glaze) perimeter cabinets and a stained/distressed (very dark stain) island. The doors in that room are the same (mitered). Our mudroom/laundry has red stained beadboard cabinets. One upstairs bath also has beadboard in a nutmeg color stain. Our master bath has the same door style as the kitchen but a much different stain.

I think that using the same style throughout the house is okay if the cabinets are ultra-traditional, but I think it is much more "fun" if you change it up a bit.

I don't agree that the same stain or the same door from room-to-room is the only way that you can achieve harmony or a congenial finish.

Thanks, everyone. I think it will be fun to switch it up a bit. I appreciate the input!

My kitchen sounds very similar to Dixiedoodles. I would love to see a pic of it by the way.
For Kellog- I have been to about 15 Parade of Homes houses in my area, which is Edmond Oklahoma. Most of them had different cabinets and a mix of paint/stain all over the house. It is a huge trend right now. Old World is all the rage here! Do any of you have an opinion about using a dark stained trim work/crown molding in a new house. Is anyone doing this and if so, what color are you painting the walls?

I'm using different styles for every bathroom, a different style in the laundry, and 3 different styles in the kitchen. It's a large kitchen, though, with several distinct zones, so every zone is getting it's own style.

An espresso glazed hickory beadboard for the mail/landing zone [cell phones and the like-- coats go in the coat room], a v-groove pine in the cleaning zone for a rustic look [fagerland by Ikea, may be replaced with a quartersawn oak when my finances recover a bit], and a dovetail faced oak in the cooking zone because it looks so nice with my ultramarine bluestar.

Oh, and there's sorta a fourth style: the frig/freezer which separates the cooking and cleaning zones are getting panels to make them look like old iceboxes.

I forgot to add this earlier...the typical follow-up to this question is generally "do my countertops (or granite) need to be the same?" To which I also answer...NO!