The predominance of stained cabinet sales is probably due to a number of factors: fashion (white kitchens were out of vogue for much of the 90's); cost (painted finishes can cost about 20-30% more than stained finishes) and unavailability (recent improvements in paint technology have allowed mass market cabinet mfr's to offer painted finishes where they couldn't before --they previously plugged thermofoil instead for a white cabinet look), so that probably accounts for the dominance of stained cabinets.

I think the kd is right to this extent -- a white painted finish that's not glazed or distressed is going to show scratches and dents more readily than either a dark painted finish, a dark stained finish, or a distressed white painted finish. But if you have a dark or medium stain, and a scratch that goes thru the stained layer to the lighter wood, that'll show up too.

But if you're smart, you have either the touch up kit from the mfr, a matching touch up marker and or crayon from the hardware store, Old English Scratch Cover(for a dark stained finish),or an artist's brush and a can of matching paint. So what I'm saying is, you maintain your car, right? So why not maintain the cabinetry?

Whenever I've gotten dents in my stained cabs I've used the touch up kit that came with the cabinets. I agree that one needs to maintain the cabinets, just like other pieces of furniture, floors, etc. I'm just wondering if it is possible to successfully touch up painted cabinets so they don't look touched up? I really love the painted white look . . . I just want to be going into this with my eyes wide open. Our kitchen is a work kitchen. Daily cooking, baking, canning, etc. Everything from scratch. A big dog, kitty, teens. My husband has been known to be rough with the vacuum cleaner when frustrated (easily frustrated Italian type). So I know the cabinets will take some (not heavy) abuse.

Anyone have photos of before and after touch ups with white cabinets?

Anyone sorry they went with white painted because of them looking sad after a few years?

We're also wanting to paint ours. A friend of mine had her cabs professionally painted last yr. I took a closer look at them the other day, and they're definitly not wearing well. Where one of the kids, or someone bumped a door with something. There's a HUGE chunk taken out of the paint. Made me hesitant, for sure.

I have had both. I only had to touch up my (DIY) painted cabinets when I drywalled the kitchen (don't ask). Not an issue, but I do wonder how hard it is to match shop-finished paint jobs.

I am going with paint and I expect some damage. But one reason I like paint is because I can easily add a shelf or carve a bigger fridge cabinet later or some other personal improvement and not worry about getting the stain to match.

Oh...cats. If you have an indoor-outdoor cat...well, most cats can't make it through a doorway or by a cabinet corner without rubbing. You might get dirty areas from that. Cat marks. If you have light doorways anywhere, you can check to see if you will get cat marks on corner cabinets.

It is so hard to decide . . . I am reading conflicting information regarding the durability of painted cabinets both here and elsewhere. It just makes me nervous to think I could spend all that money and then have heartbreak with each chip, ding, dent. Unless of course they can be repaired so as not to look touched up?

Anything painted, if dinged up, will show more wear and tear.

Picture this.
-A 100 year old house with stained wooden baseboards, door/window trims.
Vs.
-100 year old house with painted trimwork.

The wood trimmed house will still look pretty darned good...even after 100 years.

A house with painted trim will need touch ups and/or repainting every 7 to 15 years.

Having said that, factory painted cabinets should hold up much better than hand-brushed painted cabinets. I have clients that did their painted kitchens 15 years ago...and they still look really good.

I, personally, would not have a hand-brushed painted kitchen.

Our KD advised us to use stained wood on our island especially because it is a seating island. Apparently shoe scuff marks are a real nightmare on any kind of painted wood. We followed his advice on this one. We did, however, use the whitest of white painted cabinets on the perimeter even though he recommended against it. He said part of the reason the glazed look came into style was to give the cabinets a "patina of use" to hide the occasional real life ding, nick and scratch. My attitude is that my family and I are perfectly capable of giving those white, white cabinets a real patina of use over time and I couldn't stand the idea of starting out with what looked to my eye like dirty cabinet. I know there is a real difference of opinion on this and I think you should decide what your nerves will take in terms of things getting messed up. You'll find similar discussions over marble countertops if you do a search. HTH

We have a stained island because we thought this would get the most wear and tear.

We have painted glazed cabinets on the perimeter. One of our cabinets got a pretty big ding in it during the work on the kitchen. It was on the side panel, right in a raised piece of woodwork, in a very visible spot. We could have made the KD/GC replace the cabinet because the ding was caused by the workers. But the KD asked if he could try touching it up first. It took him quite a while, and several days of touching up, letting it dry, glazing etc. But honestly, it would be hard for me to point out the exact spot where he touched it up. And this wasn't just a scratch in the paint, but an actual dent in the raised wood. No one would ever notice it.

He matched the paint and the glazing perfectly, even though the paint was put on at a factory and he did it by hand. Now I doubt I'd do as good a job as he did, but I will call him if I have any need to have such a major touchup done again. Must keep his number!

I had stained wood in my prior kitchen, which looked good as new after 10 years. I hope the white holds up, but I don't expect it to hold up quite as well. It has only been about 5 or six months, but so far so good. We used beadboard on the wall under a counter with stools, and figured that would hide scuff marks better than solid white. We also don't let the kids wear shoes when they sit at the counter.