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Cream distressed cabinets or knotty alder?

16 years ago

I am stuck on which cbinet to choose. I like both the knotty alder and the cream colored distressed painted cabinets. My kitchen does not have a lot of natural light and I think the painted cabinets might help to brighten the space, but the knotty alder have so much character. I suppose, I could do knotty alder island. Any thoughts...?

Featured Answer

vwhippiechick

16 years ago

We actually have both of these finishes in our kitchen. The majority of our cabinets are cream painted distresed. We have one section in knotty alder that is designed to resemble a hutch type piece of furniture. we have Mouser cabinets and this combination is beautiful. The knotty alder is gorgeous but I didn't want the kitchen to be too dark. Can post a pic if you like.

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Comments (7)

rosie
16 years ago
Your alder sounds lovely. How would knotty alder lowers (keeping the darker tone and the dots low) and creamy uppers look?
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aimsters
Original Author
16 years ago
Vwhippiechick, would you please post a picture so I can see what you did. It sounds like we have the same issue with the kitchen being on the darker side. I thought about making the island out of alder. Do the painted cabinets hold up well..I have two kids? Thanks!
sduck2
16 years ago
I didn't want wood but loved the knotty alder. I ended up with knotty maple lowers a rustic painted uppers.
vwhippiechick
16 years ago
Here are a few pics early on in our reno. I lovelovelove the alder but did not want a whole kitchen of the dark cabinets. The pics aren't that good but i don't have any more recent just yet. This combination worked well for us. We have installed soapstone counters and are still considering using carrera marble with a full backsplash in the alder area. I also like sduck2's combination of uppers and lowers. Very nice.

{{!gwi}}
luckymom23
16 years ago
Just had to say, Beautiful Kitchens! I am in the process of planning ours and this is what I want too, a combination of Alder & painted cabinets. Thanks for sharing the pictures. :)
sonicstef
16 years ago
The combination looks lovely - thats a great way to get what you want without making the whole room seem too dark.

I picked painted cabinets for my own kitchen because Im not planning on renovating EVER again and I wanted the most timeless option. Wood grains go in and out of fashion but painted cabinets seem to be pretty consistently in the scheme. Of course you can always paint the wood cabinets down the road but I would have a harder time doing that than repainting.

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