My only advice is to think ahead if you will have other whites in your kitchen, especially the trim. Trying to match whites is the path to insanity, lol, but it's good to make sure everything is complementary before you start (i.e. have either warm or cool tones but not both). I have off-white cabinets, white tile, and white trim, all of which are different shades; but it looks fine together, at least to me. (The trim molding attached to the cabinets is the same color as the cabinets.) So whether you use white or cream-colored cabinets, think a bit about your countertop and backsplash and paint first to be sure you'll be happy with the direction it's all going. Otherwise white vs cream is just personal opinion. I am very happy with the off-white cabinet color in our kitchen; it's not as far from white as "cream" but it still fits with the rest of our warm-toned interior. I am not a big fan of glazing but again, that's just my opinion (it wasn't an option with my cabinets anyway so I can't say I have thought much about it).

Yes you should use a primer over raw wood. I would select a high quality oil based primer but an acrylic primer will also work if you don't want to deal with the fumes and all that. After priming, you will want to sand with a fine grit sanding block, dust off and then apply two topcoats. Your finish coat does not have to be oil based these days. 100 percent acrylic paints are every bit as durable without the yellowing, cracking and the stink that you get with using oils...oh, and without the loooooong drying times too! I agree that painting new cabinets is best left to the pros. It is very hard for a novice painter to do a professional looking job. Heck, I even know a lot of painters that are terrible at it! It's really the same deal with the glazing...professional results only come if you have years of practice unless you get very lucky which does happen. You will want to use high quality rollers and brushes. Corona and Wooster make the best brushes IMO followed closely by Purdy. You may also choose to roll them...for that you should use a small 4" roller, sometimes called weenie rollers made by either Whizz or Wooster has some too. The nap size should be 1/4".

Amazing transformation! I have heard that oak with its strong grain was very difficult to paint over. Is that why you did so many coats and can you see the grain now? We have some cabinet doors in our living room that are oak veneer and I would love to do them cream with a glaze but unfortunately as they are flat faced I don't think the glaze would show much but I am curious as to whether the oak is hard to paint.

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