DH and I talked about a cherry kitchen in our future, but after he convinced me to completely replace our white cabinets so we could start fresh, I couldn't see that much brown. I've always been partial to white kitchens and when I went through kitchen photos, at least 80-90% of those I was drawn to were white. Sooo.... I would call our kitchen transitional I had never seen or heard of Christopher Peacock and white kitchens were not so popular, but I think the shaker and similar plainer front cabinets were, so going simpler seemed a popular choice. It was driven by hating the heavy moldings on our custom cabinets (wall trim used on cabinet doors). It made a statement, but that and the short counters meant every drip got caught on the paint and stained -- and there were lots of grooves to clean. DH is s slob in the kitchen. I had to have something very simple so the choice was desperation, not fashion. Our tile had to be patched in the reno and was done poorly, so we later replaced the floor. The dark wood was probably a popular choice then, but it fit our house. Risky -- did white marble counters in both the cooking and clean up zones before it was making every magazine cover. I am not a granite person, didn't like my mom's Corian and the cool recycled glass was uber expensive and didn't really go with our house. I saw a slab of marble with squiggles that reminded me of the stray marks on old ink drawings and thought of Da Vinci (my boys and I were into him) and I had to have it. End of story. Other not so safe choices -- I did three cabinet finishes (wall of tall blue storage surrounding my fridge and knotty cherry island and hutch in the breakfast room, did a 3 tile combo (from 2 different sources) for the inset in my backsplash, and mixed metal finishes on hardware, lighting and faucets. All of the above plus the fact that the layout was designed by me to maximize every inch of possible function for the way we wanted it to work and adding fridge drawers to our hutch made it right for us. I designed it to make me happy and with no consideration for resale or what others would think. My favorite design element -- the different cabinet finishes -- the wall of blue as a backdrop plus the knotty cherry -- and the custom leaded glass in the uppers of the hutch. But my favorite thing is how it functions. DH even said out loud last night (8 years later) how he loves the way we designed the kitchen. It just works for us. I'd say the marble and the three cabinet finishes were a bit of a ledge, maybe mixing metals -- no regrets. We didn't name our kitchen, but we had in mind a couple of things -- an old bakery or ice cream parlor and kind of the gentrified plantation/ranch style of the rest of our home. I also kept saying I wanted a workhorse, not a showplace. It needed to be almost understated and yet, at the same time, go big or go home. Probably doesn't make any sense, but no sissy stuff here. The sparkly bridge faucet, chandelier over the island -- beautiful, but didn't fit here.

If there's any way we can afford to, we'd prefer to hire it out. Our cutting-in always looks like s*** because neither of us has steady hands (the one lingering aftereffect of DH's bout with Graves' hyperthyroidism is hand tremor, even though he's been in complete remission 10+ years), and I fizzle out way too quickly with repetitive motions like rolling. We painted (and otherwise half rebuilt) our porch this summer and it was pretty miserable. We have a friend rather like Tuesday's, kind of a jack-of-all-trades, who moved back to this end of the state after a few years away and will likely be helping us with a bunch of stuff as the budget permits, and he's agreed to try to teach DH some honey-do kind of things. He's a major hippie with a taste for the ganja (but never while working) - he's slow but quite picky about his work, and thankfully he only asks $15/hr plus materials from friends. He and I put in a lot of hours together working on the master suite-lette in the other house.

Well, don't be offended but I don't like those cabinet doors at all. They are different, but to me they look very 1970's. Not that I think we have to give in to the whole "dated = must replace" mindset. I'd get new doors, if you like raised panel doors (I do too, although everyone seems to be doing Shaker today, but I think raised panel, like shaker is pretty much timeless) Your backsplash, appliances and counters look good. You could of course go with the dark gel stain, or could paint them, , white or gray would look great with the counters and backsplash (or even white uppers/gray lowers) If you don't like oak, you can get brushing putty to fill in the grain of the cabinet boxes and frames. But that is a lot more work, and if its going to be a rental, I'd just get the oak doors and gel stain or paint it. The visible grain isn't a deal breaker, especially for a rental. Leave the counters and backsplash, it will look fine.

For the right price custom cabinet shops can order veneer to match any door you present them. Sherwin Wiliams can do the same with color match. As for painted side texture not matching door texture,if I may I'd like to ask you a question. What kind of texture are you accustomed to seeing on finished natural Maple? Truthfully,80% of cabinets I've dealt with have little or no texture regardless of wood species. Of the 20% with texture,some were from not filling grain in Oak before clear coating,some were brush marks form a sorry painter and a few were rustic. I have to wonder whether there's visions of fit and finish found in multi-million dollar homes. That's a tall order for a diyer starting with budget cabinetary and drawing on internet forums for guidance.