For me, white doesn't feel right unless it's inset or full overlay. Obviously others have different tastes. I still might do a QS oak island and priced it out vs painted maple and cherry... The price difference was a few hundred dollars, so nothing huge. I think it's more asthetics. I am also much less concerned about white painted cabinets around my three hellions (er.... Boys) than I would be dark stained, mostly because we have had a lot of dark stained furniture dnged up by them!

My IKEA laundry room cabinets have metal drawers. I think they are made by Blum (a low end version of the metabox?) I really like them! In my kitchen I have custom cabinets with white melamine interiors. I have white cabinets so I just went with white. Here is a link that might be useful: Link to different drawer types

We recently redid our kitchen and did the upper cabinets in a medium-dark stain and the lower cabinets in a cream/white milk paint. We also converted seven of the upper cabinets to window cabinets, which helps blend the two since some of the dishes showing through are also a creamy white; and we used the same new stainless steel cabinet pulls across all the cabinets, which helps pull things together too. We ended up liking the result even more than we thought we would! The upper cabinets have a nice patina/character to them, and the lower cabinets seem modern and clean. Both pair well with the quartz countertops, which look like white marble. Even with the darker upper cabinets, the kitchen looks SO much lighter and brighter than it was before, when the countertops were black and all the cabinets were an oak-y orange stain over maple wood. (Going two-tone this way - in reverse - is less typical, but I did find plenty of photos where this approach was taken in other kitchen remodels.)

I also vote clear coat. Our kitchen cabs are dark outside and clear coated maple on the inside. Our dining room cabs (10 ft from the kitchen ones, essentially same room)have glass doors and are finished with the dark stain inside as well. This is great for cabs being used as china cabinets, but not what I'd want for the place I keep the olive oil and the cake pans.