Mine are white melamine (white cabinets). I think I had a choice of wood, though--that would have looked like yours.

"Unfinished" is not normal, a clear coat is. Industry standard is usually melamine coated plywood for the boxes (makes cleaning a lot easier) and solid wood clear coated for the drawer sides with melamine ply bottoms. Some cabinet manufacturers will "upgrade" to clear coated plywood for the boxes and drawer bottoms, but it's not really an "upgrade" at all, just a different choice that can make cleaning a bit more difficult if they didn't finish sand the plywood that well.

Mine look like yours. There is a clear coat on the inside. In fact we used prefinished wood to make the drawers.

We have clear lacquer inside ours, but they'd look like yours in a photo, so I'd ask. You don't want them bare, or they'll soak up every bit of grease and some moisture, and be a bear to keep clean.

Excited to see a peek of the kitchen coming together!

Light maple or melamine insides are common. I have medium dark stained cabinets and light maple cabinet insides and drawer boxes. The guts of the cabinet get a lot more wear and tear than the outside. Stained or painted insides would most likely show every scratch and/or would eventually chip.

At first I was taken aback that my insides would be different than the fronts but then I realized my cabinets would be really dark inside if stained and every scratch would show. The big exception is cabinets with glass doors. They are typically finished on the inside the same way as the outside.

I think your cabinets are beautiful!

Same here. White fronts with light maple insides, except for the cabinet with glass doors--that one has white interior too.

Our cabinets are being installed right now. Here is a picture of a new drawer I just took.
{{!gwi}}

My solid Maple furniture in my bedroom from Durham has the sides and inside of the drawers unfinished with the outside a sand white rubbed out look that I love. I think if the insides were painted and the sides, it would not be as nice since when I open the drawers, I can see they are solid and they look nice.

My kitchen has cheaper oak cabinets that are veneered and one day I want to replace them despite everyone telling me they look so nice. Hence, those drawers and insides of the cabinet are the same color.

lynn2006 - I have Durham BR furniture too - natural cherry. I think they would be nicer lacquered and smooth - they've been sanded but are a little rough. The plywood bottom in DH's top nightstand drawer is checking a bit too (though they're about 11 yrs old). Painted drawer sides (at least the outer edges) wouldn't hold up, they'd be scraping against the inside of the case and taking paint off, and I don't know, maybe they're worried about paint getting sticky and your clothes and stuff getting stuck to them when it's hot and humid? I don't think I've ever seen painted drawer interiors.

My Nathan Hale oak DR set has lacquered inside drawers - unfortunately, I had some Rubbermaid cushy liner (just a roll - spare of what I put b/t my plates) in one drawer, it lifted the lacquer where it rested on the bottom. So everybody be careful what you use to line your drawers with!

ajsmama, I love my Durham furniture but maybe you are right the insides would be nice lacquered (mine are smooth) but the sides painted or stained may have created a problem with opening and closing. The back of the dressers are not painted but I had them painted when I had Stanley here and they had chips and cracking and were a mess so when I returned Stanley Furniture, I accepted the lack of paint on the back of my Durham Set since at least it was quality. My furniture set is only 1.75 years old.

If I had a bigger bedroom, I may have went with the Cherry but I wanted a lot of furniture in a small room and the sand white color seems to minimize that I have so much furniture.

My only regret is that when I returned the Stanley set that I bought the matching headboard to the Durham set since despite liking the Wesley Allan headboard, I just preferred the matching maple headboard.

Omega Dynasty is "...crafted with 50-gram melamine thermal bonded to plywood...

Omega Custom says "...interior...birch or maple stained to match the exterior...

Drawers (Dynasty & Custom) are "...sealed and top coated for a fine furniture look."

You can sort of see the interior of one of my drawers in this pic...this is a pic of the inside of my "Baking Tools & Utensils, Foil, Parchment Paper" drawer.

HTH!

Rhomefor10: I'll send you some up to date pics. It's coming along really nicely - very pleased and what a change!

Ajsmama: I will ask my contractor what the agreement on the contract was since he made all the decisions pretty much.

Buehl: I was kinda thinking that the insides of my drawers would look more like yours - more smooth and satiny-looking. I will be hearing from my contractor in the next couple of days and will see what he says.

Thanks everyone for jumping in - appreciate it!