What overall style are you trying to achieve in your new kitchen? If you are going more modern, skip the glaze. If you are going more traditional, the glaze can add a nice "patina" quality to the cabinets.

First of all, go with what you love. I don't like glazes on white/cream cabs. It looks dirty and dated to me. And contrived. The cabs aren't old, but you're trying to make them look so.

A thread like this pops up every month or two, and the general consensus seems to be against glaze on white cabs. There are those, of course, who love their glazes. Do what makes you happy deep down.

On a side note, have you considered finding a local custom cab maker? Many here, including me, have found great ones that cost about the same or less than factory-made cabs. Mine will be all ply also as that's what my guy does. Then you can have them painted whatever shade of what ever color you want! Or you can control the glaze how you like. ;)

piglet_in_Md

I just posted my finished kitchen, which is not glazed technically but brushed and highlighted, which is a simliar effect. Personally, I love the warmth of the glazes/brushing. But practically speaking, I have found the highlighting/brushing key to hiding dirt. I cannot believe how many times I have cleaned the cabinet fronts- after 5 months- my previous kitchen was wood and I have probably cleaned these more than the last 11 years of wood. But Ive got small kids so that doesnt help. Anyway, without the glaze, I would have to wipe them down daily, and that would, very quickly, be very annoying to me.

Amy

Here is a link that might be useful: Amys Kitchen

We have 2 messy boys in the house and plain white slab front cabs which I find easy to keep clean. It takes an occasional swipe with a sponge and any spots or drips come right off. I may have spent a total of 3 minutes in the last month wiping the fronts of our white cabs. I don't get all the fuss about keeping cabinet fronts clean.... If you see a smudge, you wipe it. I don't go cleaning every cab or the entire surface of a single cab. You wipe what is not looking clean and go back to what you were doing. I spend way more time wiping our counters, but that is to be expected. I think this issue is way overblown....
Get what look you like. All cabs will get an occasional drip on them. Clean the spot and forget it. If you are really worried, get a deeper overhang.

Thanks everyone. It's so hard making these choices. Not only do I have to choose glaze or no glaze, but also white vs cream (vs off-white vs french vanilla, etc. etc.).

Txsuszq - the overall style I'm going for is definitely traditional. The RIGHT glaze doesn't bother me (one that just subtly changes the overall color, but doesn't leave DARK lines), but most of the cabinets I'm considering don't have glazes like that. I like the subtle patina, but not the dark lines. I am now leaning AWAY from glazes because as I look closer at the lines I'm considering, I'm finding that most of the glazes I do not actually like.

To breezygirl - I have looked at some large local cabinet makers (i.e., not little shops, but larger ones) and what I am finding is that most local people don't offer lifetime warranties. I think I need to go to a bigger cabinet maker for that (which I can understand). My rule about having a lifetime warranty is making me toss some lines that are no doubt very good (Shiloh, Plain & Fancy, and some locals I like), but I need to stick to my rule. If I don't, and I have problems with my cabs in 10 years, I'm going to hate that I violated my own rule. My current cabinets had a 5-year warranty, and now I'm regretting that choice.

Amy - I saw your kitchen previously when looking at creamy kitchens. It is gorgeous! You have great before and after pix. Shiloh is a line I ruled out because they don't have a lifetime warranty, but the glaze on the Shiloh cabinets like yours is beautiful. Again, maybe I'm being silly about my "rule."

Dianalo - I know what you mean. I have white thermofoil now, and they clean up very well, and I see every speck and get it right away. But since they are thermofoil, they are EASY to clean. I also have a white vinyl floor (which has fulfilled its Floor Destiny and soon will no longer live here). My thinking with that is that I'd clean it as soon as it was dirty. The problem is that it is a horrible quality floor, so it's HARD to clean. It looks dirty AFTER I clean it. That's my fear with white or cream cabinets - not that I won't try to clean them when they are dirty, but that they won't clean up well. You have a slab door, and I was planning on a slightly more intricate one, which would probably be harder to clean just because of its design.

It's odd how I want a glaze to hide the dirt and imperfections, but I don't like the way it makes the cabinets look dirty. I saw another poster with the same paradoxical thought.

Does anyone have any comments about the whites/creams in the lines I'm considering (in my original post)? Do they clean well, or badly? Do they age badly? I am concerned about white turning yellow. If you get cream, who can tell if it yellowed? Again, I have thermofoil, and while very durable, I now have some white cabinets, and some cream. :) I have a multi-colored kitchen (and drawer fronts that have been superglued on because they are particleboard and fell apart!).

So, any comments about white/cream in the cabinets above? I recently talked to someone who deals with Kraftmaid, and my concern there is that with a large manufacturer, I'm not sure how much work they do by hand, and that might reflect in the quality/durability of the painted finishes. If I liked darker woods, I wouldn't be stressing nearly as much about this...

Any more comments would be greatly appreciated, especially about the white/creams of the lines I'm considering, or Kraftmaid.

Thanks!!

Piglet

I don't have any specific advice regarding manufacturer paint colors, but I'd lean more toward white than cream. Cream looks best with browner, earthier tones, while white is much more flexible. If you have fallen in love with a brown granite or you want wood countertops, cream cabinets will probably look better. But for my money I'd go with white, which can accept those colors plus just about every other color, too.

Piglet. You sound just like my wife. What did you ever decide on? We've looked at Candlelight, Fieldstone, Medallion, Brookhaven, Ultracraft, Luxor, Diamond, etc.