I had used BM white dove in two kitchens because it was such a beautiful white. It tends to the creamy, though.

In our current remodel, I'm using BM cloud white, less creamy (I think) but also a lovely white. We aren't using in on cabs but rather on walls and a couple ceilings.

Sorry that I have no pics that would be helpful. I'm sure plenty of others will, though.

I'd encourage you to use the Satin Impervo oil paint... dries to such a gorgeous, durable finish. I really enjoyed working with it.

BM is totally worth the $$ IMO.

Mountain Peak White, very happy with it. The color in the picture isn't accurate, and that will be the situation with all photos, unfortunately! Also, this picture was taken at night, when the kitchen was lit with a few different kinds of lights.

We went with Cloud White after much much deliberation, many of the huge paint chips, different lighting conditions etc.

Since then we've basically painted the entire house in Cloud White, trim and walls and all.

Chantilly Lace. It is a nice, crisp white.

TorontoTim: Beautiful pics. I can see how you'd keep painting things with that white. I've already expanded the places that I'm going to put it. It's quite lovely.

Cloud White, and it's creamy, oh yes it is.

Thank you all!

Deedles and Toronto Tim, question for you - Did you paint the cabs yourself, or did your cabinet guy do them?

Deedles - you mentionded the Satin Impervo oil paint ... is this a BM formula?

Toronto Tim - did you mix anything in with the paint such as a lacquer?

Thanks again!
Deanne

I did the cabs myself in both kitchens. Trying to save money. If I could go back and have the door/drawers sprayed, I would (Not sure if you can spray oil based paint) but still happy with the finish of the Impervo. Yes, that BM's oil based paint. It's a dream.

benjamin moore simply white, advance paint in satin finish

We have BM China White on our cabs and on the trim throughout our house...

{{!gwi}}

Our cabinet maker did ours. I think there is a lacquer top coat.

In Toronto (most likely the same story elsewhere) the majority of 'custom' cabinet makers follow this formula:

They all order doors, drawer fronts and the drawer boxes themselves from suppliers. In Toronto it's Cutrite Woodworking out of Waterloo. They manufacture doors to custom specs from all manner of material with choices of routered edge profiles etc. I think they may make the drawer boxes as well.

The cabinet maker makes the carcasses, finishes the doors/drawer fronts and installs.

Everywhere we went we were presented with the choice of 'any BM color' for paint.

So the difference from one cabinet maker to the next was the construction of the carcasses, the quality of the finishing work, quality of install and price - all the most important things. I'm confident 99% of custom cabinet makers operate like this, ordering doors from factories that have the specialized equipment and real estate needed to produce them in large quantities.

For painted doors, at least here in Canada, the most common material choice is MDF. For the same price we could have had solid maple doors painted, but you get shrinking / cracking and it's impossible to avoid.

Our cabinets are plywood - for the entire kitchen it was an $800 premium and well spent. Cabinets are lighter, stronger, will last longer, offgas less fumes due to less glue used etc. etc. and the interiors look incredible as they're birch veneer, not plastic melamine. Also means the glass cabinets with painted interiors perfectly match the exteriors (not simply white melamine) and the paint adheres much much better to birch veneer vs. melamine.

Off on a tangent I know. But I don't know how far along you are on choosing cabinet suppliers and this is good info for people of the future who Google it and land here.

We did seriously consider going the IKEA route, with one of their solid wood doors and having them sprayed. But push come to shove that would have added $2000+ to the cost of the IKEA kitchen, we wouldn't have gotten the full ceiling height cabinets we wanted (9 foot ceilings) and it would still have cost 3/4 of what we paid for our fully custom cabinets.

Maybe we got lucky in finding our cabinet maker (no fancy showroom, the guy who sold us the cabinets makes them, has a couple partners, one of which did the install by himself and also makes / paints the cabinets). It was cheaper to go custom vs. going to Home Depot, Lowes etc. We got quotes from everyone.

deedles and kim - Wow, I am impressed by you both! I'm not quite as ambitious. Letting someone else do mine. Kim, can't wait to see your pics. I'll keep my eyes opened for them!

babushka cat - Such lovely color combinations! Did you paint those yourself as well? I think you may have mentioned in another post, but I can't recall.

Toronto Tim - Thanks for all the great info. I probably went into this project a little uninformed. I hired a GC who has his own cabinet guy. They said they were "custom" and I didn't ask a lot of questions at the time.

I knew I wanted white cabinets and they said they could do, but I discovered after the contract was signed that the "whites/creams" they offer were very limited. So I went searching ... and who knew there were so many "whites"!

Thing is when I showed him a BM color he told me that the color would change slightly when he added the lacquer. Hmmm, I was not happy with this. What does "custom" mean then? I guess I will pick the color I want as the end result and have him play around until he comes up with something that matches. Either that, or he is using the wrong type of lacquer. I understand there is white and/or clear that should not add any color.

I also don't care for the shine on his. I hear there are lacquers with different finishes - glossy, semi, matte and flat. I'd like something more like satin in babushka cat's or matte.

In terms of the construction, he too makes the carcasses, finishes the doors/drawer fronts and installs. The boxes are plywood. The doors he orders from Drees and they are solid wood. I think mine will be Alder. (I have talked to several other cabinet makers since and they also use solid wood doors such as Poplar. No one has mentioned splitting or cracking with solid wood. I am in So Cal if that makes a difference.)

I am most concerned about the color and the finish ... I hope we can come up with a solution that I'm happy with.

Thanks
Deanne

You know, you can to to a BM store (that doesn't sound good, does it?), they'll have little pots of paint OR if not they'll make you a pint can or a half pint (can't remember but they're little) of whatever color you want (I think the finish can't be chosen, though). Take that to your cabinet guy and have him make you up some samples with his lacquer over it. Then you can see for yourself how it looks in your home.

Imagining paint doesn't work for me very well. I have to see it with my own eyes. Maybe you're the same?

I feel honored to be posting alongside pics of three of my most favorite GW kitchens. Plus, egganddart, WOW!! I don't think I've seen pics of your kitchen before. It's simply beautiful! Love the large wooden knobs.

I went through more than 15 sample cans of BM whites, a few SW, a Kelly-Moore, and a couple of other oddballs while looking for the right white for me. (This doesn't include the hundreds of white chips I collected also...) My Carrara slabs were very gray, causing me to be cognizant that my white needed to be more white than cream. I found out during my search that in order to "warm up" white to cream, yellow is added to the formula. So a creamier white tended much too yellow for my gray counters.

The common BM whites people choose here often were wrong in my space. White Dove has a sickly green-gray undertone in my light. China White and Cloud White were too yellow, as was Mascarpone, Mayonnaise, Mountain Peak White, and Cotton Balls. Gardenia was lovely, but with a touch of pink. Not kidding. There's red in the formula. Chantilly Lace was too starkly white and was Super White.

I ended up with Simply White and am very happy. It's cool enough not to appear yellow next to my Carrara, but warm enough not too look startling. Here are a few pics. (Wall painting has now been finished, and I have counter stools. Still no bs.)

Picking the right white for you with your counters and your light can be frustrating in the short-run, but so satisfying in the long-run. I liken it to child birth, although not quite as physically painful: short-term pain for long-term gain. Good luck!

We chose Wind's Breath. It has a warm grey undertone. Haven't seen it in action yet, but I'm really hopeful. :)

Just saw Light House Landing in a model home today. It had a smooth creamy hue.

Our builder uses Cloud White for "true white" kitchens. The designer warned me that some people feel it's "too stark" and she usually recommends it for people who are going for a bright modern look.

We looked at at least a dozen "whites" before deciding on BM Gardenia.
Breezy's right. There is red in the formula, but in our lighting it comes through as warm not pink.
The rest of our house is BM China White which is more on the grey side.
Here are a few shots of our BM Gardenia kitchen.