Most italian kitchens use what is called a thermofoil door. They come in different gloss levels and colors. They come in different styles like pillowed edge, matching edge band and aluminum edge bands, and so forth. Where are you located, I could show you some of the doors or try to get pictures to over email.

I have to give a different idea of MCR1 regarding italian kitchens.
thermofoil doors is just one kind and is a plastic coat and usually are the less expensive kind of door.
you can have also White laminate doors glossy or matte, then the most elegant are the door in MDF paint glossy or matte, usually matte.
For example these 2 pictures below is a kitchen in white glossy laminate:

These below instead are in glossy lacquer:

myself I prefer glossy finish, for me is very elegant.
If the lacquer is a good one is also strong and easy to clean, the only problem is to keep out fingers print if you have a kid :-).
For example the first 2 pictures are in laminate and I suggested those to a friend of mine because laminate is a strong material and she have a baby just 9 months old... so go figure in the next years whatcan happen to the base cabinets doors :-)
I have the opportunity to talk with many different italian kitchen cabinetry and no matter which color they introduce most kitchen that they sell are white!
I hope I help you ..with my 2 euro cents (ex lira) :-)

Giacomo_it, where can I get info on beautiful glossy white cabinets in last two photos?

Thank you for your info and photos!!
White cabinet is great and stylish, but good material must be used to look great! I like the last two as well. I want to go for glossy lacquer with knobs. What is MDF paint?
Again, thank you so much!

abundantblessings, is one line that I'm in contact.
you can send me an email and I will let you know more.

Now regarding the MDF stay for:Medium-density fiberboard is an engineered wood product formed by breaking down softwood into wood fibers.
And is the only one used in italy when you are looking on a contemporary glossy or matte finish kitchen.
If they use "natual wood" after a while (because umidity etc...) the lacquer will brake, with MDF stay good forver (in normal condition).
See the picture below those are typical sample of door cut it. the little square sample glossy finish is MDF.
the Triangle is particolar board cover with glossy laminate.
the big sample is a higher cabinetry company and the door is solid wood cover with high thickness laminate matte finish.
I hope this help you:

I chose Italian black lacquer cabinets. I love white but was told that over time they would oxidize and turn a off white/yellow. Just something to consider. These cabinets were Boffi, so the quality was very good.
Donna

organic_donna, I am also considering Italian black lacquer cabinets (although not from Boffi) I would love to hear your experience with it. I am a little hesitant because I am afraid it would be to cold and hard. So I am considering light or dark grey because I feel like it is warmer. How did you chose the black. What color is your backsplash and countertop and floor? If you have any pics, I would love to see them. Thank you!

There is something called acrylic which is high gloss and used a great deal in frameless luxury german and italian kichen cabinetry.

Ikea has a high gloss acrylic line whch is a good copy ot the above mentioned cabinets
I think Ikea copies Bulthaup which is a high end cabinet maker from germany.

We have the white high gloss foil cabinets (Abstrakt), from Ikea. We love them. The warranty is excellent and they look fabulous.

You can put the money you save into cool faucets, flooring and counters!

Hi Organic_Donna, I still have your email.

nycgoose gray oak a like a lot too.
I will have next month a grey oak kitchen with Black glass wall cabinets.
this is another kitchen that I did recently in grey oak.

giacomo I always love seeing your posts -- such great work. Thanks for sharing it with us. I've never seen solid wood with laminate before--that's completely new to me.

Hi giacomo it, your info helps me a lot. I have contractor who makes cabinet for me and he says that he can't do sharp edges on doors like Italian cabinets. I personally like sharp edges and I believe many italian style (cool!) cabinets have sharp edges, not round one. Is it true? I don't like round edge, but does it look cool with round edges? My contractor took my kitchen job very reasonable price and he says the sharper edge, more cost. I want him to try as sharp edge as possible. Please give me suggestion, please!!
I don't want to give up,,,.

thank you!

momomomo,
wait a second... what you mean for sharp edges?? I don't know what kind material are you going to have your cabinetry, but make sharp edges is the easy way to build something!! on top of my head.. probably what is difficult for the cabinet maker is to keep the reveal between the doors/drawers sharp and consistent (it's easy to hide an-even distance if the doors have round edges).
Again I'm not sure what mean "sharp edges" if you look the picture above in walnut wall cabinets those have sharp edges and the reveal between each door is 3mm (0.12").

I'm not sure how I can help...I cannot give you suggestion regarding your contractor, just ask him to make european style of cabinet using SALICE hinges (italian company) and see what he can came up... depend what kind of shop he has it, how precise and time he want to spend to build the cabinets.
But one thing that I'm sure... I didn't see yet a cabinet maker here in USA make a glossy lacquer cabinet like italians.

this picture below the door has sharp top and round edge on the vertical side:

this picture instead show the edge of the drawers be cut at 45' angle:

and I can put more pictures but I think you get the idea.

omg, giacomo_it, I am actually considering grey oak cabinets but with high gloss on it. That's the one where I got a quote of 20-25K for my kitchen. I am also considering doing a solid color MDF in dark warm grey. That quote is 9-10K. So I am really conflicted .... my first choice would be for the grey oak .... but for half the price I can achieve the same modern look .... but thanks for your pictures, I love your kitchens, your clients are very lucky!

nycgoosee the kitchen above is grey laminate oak and white glossy laminate and the price was ...if I remember right a little bit over 12K...but i'm not sure.
But in any case grey oak is a nice color and I like a lot with sand color quartz countertop.

nycgoose, I'm not over here very often. This is my kitchen but the image is distorted. The picture came out too wide. The cabinets are not Boffi, those were the white ones I looked at, these are Scavolini. I love the black, but I have a lot of light.
giacomo, we must get together soon.
Donna

So...I have a question. What is the difference between, let's say, the thermofoil from the Kraftmaid Venecia line, Ikea's glossy white doors, lacquer cabinets, acrylic cabinets, etc. All these "glossy" doors seem to look the same to me. I really want to use a glossy white element in my kitchen, but KD keeps saying they're "plastic".

Giacomo - you don't happen to have any sneek peek photos of the black glass door cabs? Is the glass black and the cabs the grey oak?

bump

malhgold, I will try to answer tonight.. but regarding grey oak and black glossy glass I don't have the combination together in any pictures yet.
these are 2 pictures of the black glossy wall units:

Thanks for the explanation. It does help. So the black doors in the above photo are black glass?

yes are glass black wall units.

ok I took pictures of my sample of glossy lacquer and glossy laminate.
the BIG different is that glossy lacquer is uniform color and finish front/back and edges.

Laminate is impossible to have all side same finish, you will see 1 or 2 or all 4 edges cover with another piece of material. the main thing about laminate is the ugly black line correct? so in this case you still see a different material but they improved and now you don't see the black strip.

see how smooth is the sample on the left (please these are sample and are a little bit scratched)