I guess you're talking about window and door frames, right?

In our new build, I've chosen to use a very dark stain for almost all the woodwork in the house. My carpenter and my painter went round and round on this point, but in the end they both agreed rail & style was the way to go.

The painter told me that yes, mitered corners can move w/the seasons, but he was confident he could grout the slanted meeting points where it would never show. As good as he is, I disagreed.

My carpenter and I discussed forgoing mitered corners because 1) more time-consuming, demanding more time and care therefore more expense; and 2) going w/a contemporary look in the home overall, we decided mitered corners subtly communicated a more traditional home style.

I'm really happy w/my choices, and I believe over time - w/this dark stain - I'll be even more pleased I chose rail & stile.

Reasons to choose mitered corners, in my book, would be because you're going for a more formal look (take that a couple of diff ways ... formal over casual, traditional over contemporary), or if you're doing a more intricate molding in additional to the simple door and window trim. Many of the more formal molding styles can come pre-cut w/mitered corners, and if you're going to be installing a lot of molding, that's a definite consideration.

Here's some pictures of my dark-stained rail & stile trim:

two doors; personal opinion is that if you're doing a simple baseboard as well, rail & stile door trim flows much better ... truly seamlessly, I guess!

A look at the trim unfinished; also, notice the dark trim around paneled ceiling - I think it would have been more difficult to get corners this perfectly aligned if they'd been mitered:

Just FYI: all the trim in the house, all the tongue&groove on the ceiling, everything has been custom-cut on site. I have issues w/pre-cut (buy it by the length at Lowes) trims and moldings. JMHO, of course.

Thanks riley - beautiful work! I was actually referring to kitchen cabinet faces, but I think what you said still applies. We were planning white painted maple & received a sample door yesterday with mitered corners. We too think the mitered will shift more, and become more obvious over time. We love the door style, but thinking we should choose rail and style (we are going for more of a traditional look, though). I also know it would matter a bit less with stained. There is a white stain instead of paint, but I fear it would look pink or pickled. I'll have to look into this further.

With any joint, you need to know how it is constructed. On the trim work, there is no joint, they are only butted up, whether mitered or square.

With cabinet doors, you have a joint, and it can be tongue and groove with either miter or rail and stile. Find out how the mitered joint is constructed, that will help decide how stable it will be.

BTW- Riley - love that trim work.

Though I did about spit my pop on the comment "we decided mitered corners subtly communicated a more traditional home style"

Shows how things change with the times - I grew up in old houses, and the "old, traditional" was square corners. Only the new, trendy houses had mitered corners - it was what you wanted if you wanted that "modern" look. I would have never put the words "mitered corner" and "traditional" together.

My house is 130 years old and has almost no mitered corner trim, sure hope no one thinks I was going for a "contemporary look" - LOL!!!.

I am feeling old now - an another board we got to discussing "popples" and half the people had no idea where that word came from.

Thanks macybaby - I'm getting a sense that paint cracks would show more with mitered than rail & style even if it's tongue and groove, but I bet the mitered cab door I have isn't tongue and groove, I'll have to check on that.

No matter what type of joint, the wood is going to change size as humidity varies.

No finish can stop the movement completely, they only slow it down.

The larger the piece, the more movement.

Older pattern door trim can be over 6 inches wide, while kitchen cabinet doors are normally under 3-4 inches.

Mitered joints will show cracks in the finish along the miter line across the trim (where it is already wider than the rest of the wood) while other types will show it along the edge of the wood pieces.

The ones along the edge are often easier to hide.

I just read this on a kitchen designer's site the other day, it might be helpful. The question asked of her was about MDF vs. Hardwood, but she talks about mortise-and-tenon vs. picture frame door construction.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kelly's Kitchen Sync Blog

What, in kitchen cabinet nomenclature is called a mortise and tenon joint, is in reality a "stub tenon" joint, a type of glue joint, not a true woodworking joint that can stand by itself. If it weren't for glue and a few small pins, the doors would not hold together. A true M&T joint is not seen nowadays except for the highest end historical replicas, or in the realm of "art furniture". This is because it requires handwork. Machines can churn out stub tenons all day, and every joint is the same and fits more or less well, and once it's glued, nailed, and finished, nobody can tell the difference. The difference is that you can do a pull-up on a M&T door, while a stub tenon door would splinter apart, but it's overkill.
You would not be prepared for the bill that would accompany a kitchen with full M&T doors.
I enjoy building M&T doors, and face frames. They should last a few hundred years under ordinary use.
Casey

Thank you all very much for your feedback, and the informative link from idrive. Based on what I've discovered over the past 24 hours, not only am I not going to get painted cabs (which is the only thing I've been "sure" about all along!), I will pick a different cab style without mitered/picture frame corners. Now back to the drawing board...