Definitely! That's why my kitchen is oak and not painted creamy white.

Yup- it's true- and you know, you'd think I'd learn... We are renovating two kitchens and three baths, so far, I've been outvoted/swayed from my original vision of white on the main kitchen, and now again on my basement spa bath (but it will be a guest bath and probably DH's, so I figured it was only fair)- but EVERYTIME we've gone to a cabinet place looking for the white vanity I'd envisioned for that space, he comes up with some objection- and it does look like it will end up being a shaker style with light/medium stain... But I did find a glazed white 'fancy' style that he agreed can go in the main bathroom- we'll probably run out of funds first...:>)

I've (a female) been torn between painted and wood cabinets myself. I've decided on wood with glaze because (1) they don't show every crack developed with shrinking and expanding and (2) they seem to go with more styles. Do you suppose men are more practical this way?

Real woodworker, male - Wood cabs, no stain, no paint, natural finish to bring out grain

Other Males - wood cabs, ok with stain

Female - ok with stain, ok with paint

Real woodworker, female - still havent met one :)

Everyone - paint that o*k!

In general, I think it's true. Having said that I(all girl) never even considered white. While I've seen many swoon worthy white kitchens here and on the FKB, I had always planned for and dreamed of wood cabinets and couldn't imagine my kitchen with white cabs. Like newhouse, I think there was a definite fear of white(or any color) painted cabs not aging well with my 2 very active boys and my clumsy self.

It was that way here. Actually, both of us love cherry and other woods, but I have always had and always liked white kitchens. I was also afraid of making the kitchen dark and of creating a "Great Brown Hall" with the adjoining breakfast room (cherry toned table and chairs) and family room (mid toned wood furniture and a brown leather sofa). The cherry island gave us some of the warmth and furniture look we wanted and created a bridge between the rooms.

for sure . . . that is why in our old house we had light birch cabs installed and why for our new one we just ordered white! My turn!!

LOL! I love this thread. This kitchen remodle has been one head-butt after another with my mostly easy going wood loving husband. When we moved into our 1980's home with ugly dark pine trim and very little natural light My vision was a beautiful white kitchen and white doors and trim to lighten things up. After many compromises we have medium cherry cabinets, a creamy white island, wood doors and floor and painted white trim. Isn't it funny that we want DH to have an input until it is different from ours.

I'm a female and I much prefer stained or natural wood over painted... Painted was never an option in our kitchen!

pharaoh, you said that just to be obnoxious? Because you certainly can't be forgetting Joann of Cliff & Joann, can you?

And the manager of our Rockler store is a woman, to whom all the men defer wrt advice/experience.

Goodness. I'm disappointed in you.

And on topic: I'm a dabbling woodworker, and female, and I prefer wood, natural finish no stain, over white every time. I'm an aging tomboy, though. :)

fly, just being honest. still havent met a female woodworker..
Dont know who joann is.

I go to rockler all the time. no women there either. I also go to woodworking shows. again no women woodworkers, mostly guests of the men who drag them along.

Love to see your work, and then I can change my 'obnoxious' statement ;)

Please dont be disppointed in me, would be happy to be proven wrong. Especially by wood-grain-loving tomboys :)

Painted was never an option in my kitchen either. I love wood with lots of grain, including oak. I also love light to medium stains on wood.

We had painted our old kitchen cabinets white when we moved in. The were 60's red birch, and not in very good shape. At the time having them refinished was out of our budget, so we painted them. They looked good and held up well for the next 10 years. But, I never wanted white cabinets again.

Dh once suggested white, but quickly retracted that. The cabs we will be installing are knotty alder with a medium stain, no glaze.

Bleaching wood gives you a lot of grain view-ability. In fact, you see all the wood. And from a distance it's something like paint.

Best of both worlds.

Some white "stains" are semitransparent paints so you still see a lot of the grain and the wood. Not the best for wood purists.

All wood can be overpowering, unless you are comfortable with testosterone-y settings.
All paint can be underwhelming, unless you are comfortable with soft and dewey settings.

Bleached wood is all wood all the time, but toned down a couple notches.

Huh--I never really thought of a white kitchen as "girly." And I'm a kind of a tomboy myself. White bedroom furniture I can kind of see as girlish--but kitchen cabinets? I guess "girly" to me in a kitchen is lots of chochkies/floral stuff/decorative plates/pinks/peaches/etc.

Luckily, DH and I were (surprisingly!) on the same page about getting white cabinets for our kitchen--me, because all of the kitchens I drooled over in magazines or on this website were white and DH wanted white because we knew this old Victorian (his grandpa's house) originally had white cabinets and he's loyal to the integrity of the house. The rationale made no difference to me--just happy we both had the same vision!

I see lots of white kitchens on this website now (many more than when I designed ours two years ago), but still, none of my friends and family have chosen white. EVERYONE around here gets maple or cherry. No oak (quartersawn or regular) and no painted cabinets. Doesn't matter whether it's new construction or a reno. Kind of weird. Maybe it's because of our very middle-class income bracket? I don't know what it is. But everyone was VERY surprised that I would choose white wood for our kitchen--why would anyone pay MORE to cover up wood grain? And ALL of the cabinet dealers (except Wood-Mode/Brookhaven) tried to steer me away from white or TOWARDS laminate--mainly for the little kid & cracks in the corner issue (which have actually been a non-issue so far--no cracks and no scuff marks!).

Anyway, just interesting to see people's takes on this!!

:)
Sarah

My DH also likes the look of white cabinets. He feels it makes the room look brighter. We are deciding whether to paint or re-face ours to white. They are painted a dirty cream color right now.

I could also go with a light maple.

I joked with him is he going to CLEAN those white cabinets, LOL.

This is an interesting thread. For the kitchen, neither of us envisioned white cabinets so it was a non-issue. However, when we were thinking of what to use in the dining room built-in, the designer floated the idea of white cabinets - our windows have white trim and it would have been too much to match the dark cherry color of the dining room set. I was thinking - maybe it would make a nice contrast in the room and was starting to have daydreams about how it would pop. DH was polite, but was pretty much like he would want to see anything before that. Thank goodness the designer picked up on the fact it would have been like an episode of Designing for the Sexes if he pushed the white cabinetry and came up with a warm walnut color that worked with everything.

I love the person that said about wanting DH to have an opinion as long it doesn't conflict with yours. There was a good article in the WashingtonPost about renovating/remodeling and couples that I found to be on the mark about the dynamics. Anyway, I tell myself with the combined input we come out of it with a stronger design and happier marriage.

Okay, pharoh... can't resist:

All from my head, no pre-bought plans. All my equipment. Furniture, shelves, stairs, fancy floor in bedroom, AND the bed and bedstands.

My hubby just bought me a mounted scroll saw for my birthday last week.......;)

I have been hanging out here, getting ideas for doing my kitchen from scratch.

Pleased to have made your aquaintance!

I (female) grew up in an all Danish Modern teak-laden house, thus I tend to view painted wood as wood that isn't pretty enough to be naked, i.e., cheap and flawed. We only had paint on old beat-up pieces like grandma's wardrobe or the workshop stools. I also prefer colors other than white for painted wood, if it must be painted - milk paint is marvelous, for instance.

I'm not sure "all wood" is testosteroney, David - my house is very wood-centric and I think it's fairly feminine in feel - although I don't have much in the way of frills or flowers. (My boyfriend is about to paint those hideous white windows to match the wood.)

----
PS: Pharoah, pbttttt! Check out this cherry cabinet end panel, made on a Festool Domino, stained and finished to match my cabs. By me. And I repaired that section of floor with re-routed vintage fir flooring. And stripped & refinished the door casing. And made the countertops, for that matter. Don't fall prey to goofy gender stereotypes! :-)
{{!gwi}}

Well, I consider myself a woodworker, though certainly not as much of one as my dh. We both prefer clear finish on most woods, hopefully one that brings out the grain and doesn't add too much of a shine...More like hand-rubbed oil finish. This is why I spent hours a day over several weeks hand-finishing all of our interior trim, interior doors, and our fir cabinetry with Waterlox. Stain is good on quarter-sawn oak to highlight the grain and ray flecks even more. However, there are some woods that have less grain interest and uneven or odd colors, and it's kind of fun to add some color by painting those and mixing them in with the wood. As much as I can admire someone else's white painted kitchen, and think so many of them are truly magnificent, I just knew it would never be 'me' to have one.

In general, though, it does seem that wood is seen as more masculine and most males would choose it, while most women choose something lighter and painted.

Nice work ladies!

Oh, and two more little observations--funny that most men I know don't want white painted cabinets--but when it comes to picking colors to paint the walls, they'd be THRILLED if the whole house were white or *maybe* off-white. No color whatsoever. Oh wait. Baby blue for the bedroom might work--as long as it's the top color on the color strip!

And secondly, my DH (although agreed with the white cabinets) absolutely LOVES the original trim in the downstairs of our house because it hasn't been painted. I do like it and appreciate it, but find it difficult to pick paint colors (other than the ubiquitous tan/off-white) that doesn't make the place look super-dark with such dark trim. It's not really "fun" to paint these rooms, IMHO.

Upstairs, the PO had painted all the woodwork white (the nerve!!!!!) and I secretly LOVE them for it!! Had it been untouched, I NEVER would have gotten the go-ahead to paint it white. But now, I can paint all of the bedrooms bright, deep colors and it looks GREAT against the crisp white trim/baseboards.

:)
Sarah

We are in the middle of our kitchen renovation and will be doing a very light glaze on cream on the perimeter and a chestnut colored cherry on the island. Originally, DH was opposed and only wanted to consider cherry or maple. I liked the cherry, but loved the cream. Fortunately , at around that time we happened to visit some homes that all featured cream cabinet kitchens, beautifully done - a glimpse in this case was worth a thousand words!

I just had to chuckle at the OP. We had this battle a while ago. My hubby was one that thought it to be practically felonious to paint wood. He had this ingrained in him by his father who thought that NO wood, even if it was Charlie Brown's tree-pathetic should EVER be touched with paint.

But then we decided to move our master bedroom upstairs in our 1 1/2 story home, and the entire upstairs was done in knotty pine. The previous owners just slapped it up and did nothing to it. There was no trim work, and what was attempted was pathetic.

On top of that, they smoked for 30 years.

The color was what DH referred to as "tobaccatan", a rather hideous brownish orange. HE is the one who one day said, "Maybe we should just paint it."

I think I flew out the door to get the primer before he changed his mind. He never did. We painted the knotty pine (a very long and laborious project) and I LOVE LOVE the way it looks. He does, too. So when I said I would be painting the cabinets a creamy white, he bristled at first, then relented.

Now he wants to paint all the woodwork, save for our office, because the varnishing job the POs did is just awful. You can actually see rivers and puddles. He loves the brightness of the painted ww that we have already done.

His father is going to blame me. ;^)

Single woman here, no DH with whom to compromise... so all by myself, I chose stained cabinets. Never even considered white. Of course, I lived with white painted cabinets for many years - old run-down kitchen where the doors had been painted over so many times, they wouldn't even close properly. So for me, a renovation *had* to be something else!

Really doesn't make sense to me that a preference for white vs. stained would break down by gender.

Then again, I'm a software developer and work almost exclusively with men. I haven't a clue why there aren't more women in the field.

Oh, I really had no idea if it was just the men in my life (relatives, in-laws, friends) or the norm. Just a question out of sheer curiosity!! I'm loving the responses--so interesting, I think (but then again, I had a minor in sociology and psychology...so that could be why!).
:)
Sarah

Sarah~ From one sociologist to another: I love the thread you started!
In 2007, my "seasoned" carpenter SO decided he wanted to redo the kitchen and his vision included painted cabinets. I'm a wood finish kind of gal so we compromised with painted/glazed cream perimeter cabs and a cherry island.
He carried the idea into the living room where he used 2" thick cherry for the mantle on the granite fireplace and on the window sills. The trim on the windows is painted BM Vanilla Ice Cream and the cherry sills really pop. He bought beautiful cherry doors for the first floor, which he put teak oil on and painted the trim Vanilla and I love how it all looks. I was always kind of matchey, matchey and I'm so surprised at how I love the contrast of paint and wood.

Lady woodworkers out there: my hat is off to ya! I've got no hand eye coordination so I envy your skills; I'm no good with a saw but I wield a mean drill...

We had very dark (think 70s) kitchen cabinets for 25 years and when we tore down that house in 2001, we looked at every cabinet made, I think. We realized that the natural maple looked like our childhood cabinets (think 50s) and anything darker than that didn't appeal. It was very easy for my DH to agree to white painted cabinets, and when we sold that house, he said, "Let's do a nice, bright, white kitchen again."

No, he doesn't cook (think microwave popcorn) but I was glad he still liked the white.

I think it was mostly a reaction to a LOOOONG time with very dark cabinets.

I guess I'm just a "typical" male - love the natural wood. Interestingly, I just checked and DW is not a fan of the white painted cabs - feels they show dirt too easily.

dainaadele, circuspeanut and rhome410 - just started on remodeling the basement DIY and dreaming I had your woodworking skills.

I definitely think that's the case. DH didn't think white cabinets were the way to go...he wasn't strongly against them, he just didn't "get them" at first. As soon as they were installed though, he was swooning over them. But we did a stained island and a stained desk area, and hardwood floors.

If the vision were totally his, we would have ended up with all wood cabinets. Lucky that he married me! ;-)

White in kitchens is today's avocado and harvest gold. Everyone is doing it. Soon, everyone will hate it.

Men get that. So do some women. Just ask my wife. ;-)

Ain't nothin like the look of real wood. :-)

I'm a female woodworker although not a cabinet builder.

My cabinets are being built as I type. They are Cypress. I would love to paint them a creamy beige and put mocha glaze over them but once that's done, you can't ever stain them.

To satisfy my desire/must have the creamy/mocha glaze in the kitchen, I'm having a small portable island built that will be painted and glazed.

The Cypress cabinets will be stained a very light Maple. Once the cabinets are actually in the kitchen, I may decide to stain a couple of them a darker color. I'm not sure yet.

DH loves color on the walls but not the cabinets.

Thanks, muddypond, for letting me know!! Gosh, and I thought white was "timeless." Oh, well.

Guess I'll break the news to DH tomorrow that it's all coming out and we're starting over from scratch. More time on gardenweb for me!! Whoohoo!!

Sarah

sarahandbray - you sound just like me. Main level of the house is dark dark trim, PO's painted upstairs and I'm so glad they did. I can not, for the life of me, come up with good wall colours to match the dark trim. When I've very loosely contemplated painting it my fiance vehemently protests - I probably couldn't really go through with it anyways, but still. On the complete flipside, he actually suggested the white/cream cabs for the kitchen and I'm so glad he's game for it. I couldn't handle more wood in here - I feel like I'm living in a cave already and would probably have had a showdown with him if he didn't suggest the cream right from the get-go.

His main reason for wanting the cream cabs are so he can actually see dirt - easier to see where to clean without hidden dirt lurking in spots.

Hey Charlikin! I'm also in the IT industry. When I started out (as a SW developer), I was also one of only a very, very few female developers....but now I see a lot of them, although I have moved on to other areas w/in IT. I've done Requirements, Testing (started acceptance & system testing programs), been an SQA engineer (think CMMI), Project Manager (hated that!), Technical Lead (liked/like that!), & DBA. I think I've done everything except Architect and network engineer. My current assignment is a Requirements Lead. My previous assignment was both a Requirements & System Test Lead.

So, yes, there are some of us out there. Here in the MD/VA/DC area you I see a lot of females in IT.

I know what you mean, donka!! I have seen many a Victorian with very dark, somber, dramatic colors on the first floor, but I just don't really like it for our house. I like bright, crisp, uncluttered, clean. Probably because I married a pack-rat and have three little kids, which just generates clutter no matter what you do!! We're not really into anything "fancy" and for some reason, I feel like you need very heavy "parlour" furniture in rooms like that...which doesn't really jive with three little kids, even if we did like that style!

I know we'll never paint the trim downstairs--someday, I'd love to refinish it, but for now it's fine. You certainly never feel badly when the kids ram something into the trim or the dog scratches the door--everything already has such a "patina" to it, you don't even notice!!

And subconsciously, maybe I did lean towards white cabinets because we have so much wood color throughout the downstairs--oak banister, hardwood floors, wood trim/baseboards/built-ins/beadboard. Huh. You might be on to something!!

Oh, and you definitely can spot the dirt in a white kitchen immediately. And, you know EXACTLY what the mess was. I know that sounds weird, but I feel better knowing what sticky goo I'm cleaning up--I can tell where I spilled pasta sauce or hot chocolate dripped off the counter. It was REALLY hard to tell in our old, yucky faux fruitwood-esque apartment kitchen--and it totally grossed me out not knowing what I was cleaning up.

:)
Sarah

Buehl & Charlikin - a shout out to the female IT geeks! I'm a Systems Analyst for the IT Infrastructure group at my work (aka - I do system integration work, network & infrastructure security and work on teams with the SW devs to design new systems.) Barely any women when I started but in my latest workplace there are actually quite a few of us so I don't feel like such a sore thumb. Go geeks!

Charlikin - haha - you really do sound like me :) The only thing that isn't a dark-ish wood in my main floor is the walls, and even then, the PO put up a tongue-in-groove knotty pine wall in my living room...what the heck? I will not feel bad about ripping that out when the time comes, let me tell you. Does not go at all with the style of the house. Do you have a brown brick fireplace too? Mine is huge and just adds to the cave appeal.

What a fun thread! Thanks, Sarah!

Daughter of a woodworker getting natural grass (i.e., bamboo), but painted plywood in the laundry (and my dressing area). But men and wood? I know an whole lot of woodcraftsmen, and one of the striking things is how much they like mixing woods for designs that are just, um, different. I can always tell that male woodworkers (rather than male designers or women) designed them. It's a particular subculture or something :)

Charlikin, I don't know why there aren't more software developers, but a (relatively) lot of women are becoming web developers. Of course, I left IT about the time the PC came out. I wonder if it's like medicine, where a lot of the women who enter the field phase out of it rather than making a full career of it. :)

It's nice to see a few other female woodworkers. I just have to pop in and show what some woods in their natural colors can look like. This was a hobby of mine (intarsia) that I stopped doing a few years back.

Dainaadele, I hope you enjoy your scrollsaw. That's what I used.

I must say it almost killed me to have a stain applied to our new cherry kitchen cabinets but I do love them.

Lots of woman woodworkers on here! Cool! I am not nearly as talented as natesgramma is (that is gorgeous, by the way), bit I built my own house and all of my koi ponds. And I love and appreciate the beauty of wood. My cabinets just had to be dark stained red oak so they'd contrast nicely with my waterlox finished quartersawn white oak floors.

My DH or I won't do white. I see white cabinets in the pictures. I secretly drool over them, and wish I had them. But then reality sets in as one of my children comes in with dirty hands or my dog lyes down up against a lower cabinet. I figure the owners of white cabs either have no children or a maid. As it is, I have to take the magic eraser each week to the light switches and around the door handles. I don't want to add wiping down the white cabs to my daily chore list.

Buehl, Donka, & Pllog! Hey girls - female IT pros rock!!! (Including former female IT pros. :-)) I do have another one on my team, and there are at least a couple more in the department. But that's among dozens of males. Some of the meetings exhibit way more testosterone than would be productive... Maybe the lack of women is a NYC thing? Makes no sense, but glad to hear there are women elsewhere.

Wow muddypond....my white kitchen and I will have to take offense to the statement "White in kitchens is today's avocado and harvest gold. Everyone is doing it. Soon, everyone will hate it." I don't know where you live but here in Texas everyone is doing dark "old world" and I am alone in a sea of brown. DH's family builds executive homes so I see a lot of expensive new builds.

*waving madly* Hey, I'm a female IT professional, too!! In the oil&gas industry, no less. I am the only female on my entire floor.

I love my stained wood cabinets. And my stiletto heels, too ;-)

I never considered white cabinets for the kitchen in my forever house either because I once owned a home with oak cabinets, painted white, by the prior owners. When it was time for me to sell that house, the housing inspector hired by my buyers rated the kitchen cabinets "substandard" due to the lack of a factory paint job. Ever since that experience, I've been a fan of wood-stained cabinets.

I also think a preference for wood-stained cabinets over painted cabinets is a generational thing. My parents (in their 80s) think the only reason to paint wood is because the wood is of such poor quality that it doesn't stain well. Not necessarily true but that's how they think and their home (as well as the homes of all of their friends) is full to brim with stained wood--stained wood doors and moldings, stained paneling in the den and stained wood cabinets on the kitchen and bathrooms--and the end result are dark and dim houses by today's standards. Lots of people, me included, wound up painting the paneling in the den to lighten things up a bit!

Wow muddypond....my white kitchen and I will have to take offense to the statement "White in kitchens is today's avocado and harvest gold. Everyone is doing it. Soon, everyone will hate it."

LOL. No offense intended to you or your kitchen, but I see a lot of white kitchens going in. I think they have become a fad. Fads always die out, and what was faddish becomes dated. That's my opinion. Time will tell if I'm right or wrong. :-)

In the meantime, we are debating betweem lightly stained or natural cherry.

I love the looks of white kitchen cabinets, which we had in our first house, but dh had his heart set on quartersawn white oak for our new kitchen. It isn't my first choice in looks, but considering function, too, I'm all in agreement. We are expecting our tenth child, and I will appreciate that the wood will hide dirt and nicks, etc. better than paint. We are painting the island, though (probably red) so that everything isn't wood.
As far as woodwork, the bedrooms and bath on the main level have white trim, which looks great with the bright colors we choose-dh has been converted to liking colors other than white, ;).
The main living areas will be trimmed with medium/dark stained wood, because I like that better than dinged up white woodwork, which we would inevitably have if we painted it.
The lower level is/will be natural maple. Dh is making the wood trim from trees that he has had sawed up. My job is to make the different choices work together.

Soupgirl, that's fascinating about the factory paint job. I'm having trouble conveying to the cabinet maker that I like to see the brushstrokes. A lot of the factory paint finishes creep me out. I don't know why...

(Waving back to all the IT girls! Let me know if you need a compiler broken. Oh. I mean "tested". I had a special knack for that...)

Sarah, I am so with you on knowing something is dirty and what it is that made it dirty. We are in a rental pending the new house being finished. The cabinets are a muddy brown and the granite counters are also. I've never seen anything worse for keeping clean. It certainly hides all the dirt but I don't think that's a desirable factor in a kitchen. I know I'm going to love my white cabinets for a lot of reasons---nostalgia for my wonderful grandmother's early 20th C. kitchen, all the bright light, etc.---but knowing that it needs to be cleaned ranks high on the list too.

Pillog, I hear what you are saying. I think some painted kitchen cabinets, especially the ones that are painted with milk paint, are gorgeous, and the brush marks contribute to the look.

My kitchen was either ahead of its time or I was unlucky to run into one of those guys who think wood should not be painted and those who paint wood should be punished. I can laugh now but not then.