The advantages of a factory paint job is the uniformity of the coverage, as well as the UV cured catalytic varnish topcoat which makes a modern factory finish cabinet virtually impervious to damage. Some of the more spendy lines even have "hand painted" doors if the "plastic" look of sprayed cabinets is wrong for you. THen they are covered by the clearcoat for durability. Best of both worlds, but expensive. The downside (or upside, depending on your viewpoint) of site painted cabinetry is brushstrokes and lack of durability. Site painted cabinetry also has a problem with trash getting into the finish that you don't get even from a custom cabinet maker who at least paints off site in his clean room. There is NO way I'd want a site finished cabinetry for my home. I'd at least want the better quality job done off site in a controlled environment, even if the cabinet maker didn't have the technological capability to use the catalytic varnish topcoat, at least the finish wouldn't have dust and hairs in it.

Wood absorbs and releases moisture. The ONLY thing that you can do to keep it from doing that is to keep humidity levels consistent, around 30-40%. If you can't do that, then your wood WILL expand when it absorbs moistue, and shrink when it gets drier. Like the seasonal changes between a more humid summer environment and a drier winter one. That is NORMAL behavior for wood. When wood has a film forming coating applied, that seasonal movement will cause separation of that coating wherever pieces are joined. ''Cracking'' if you will. The movement between the cross grains, like on a mitered joint, is more than movement of cross and long grain, like a stick and cope door. Paint will show this much more than a clear coated wood, because there are those solids in the coating. If you cannot deal with the minimal NORMAL joint lines in painted cabinetry, then don't get wood doors. Despite the extreme wood prejudice that the uninformed have, there is nothing wrong with choosing MDF or HDF for painted case goods. It has much better cross dimensional stability ecause of the different orientations of the cross linked wood fibers. I wouldn't choose a single piece routed door, but a true 5 pc door is more than acceptable. You won't get those join lines telegraphing through the paint. Those are your three choices: install a high quality humidity control system in your home, or get over seeing the normal join lines, or choose MDF.

As a recent conversion varnish cabinetry purchaser (2012), I note some small dings and wonder what I will do when their marking pen no longer covers them. I don't think I'd mind being able to buy the manufacturers same color paint and touch them up myself.

It is very hard to see colors on screens. That said, to me the far left sample looks the best. The other two seem a bit yellow on my screen and the countertop does not seem to have any yellow.