Looks. :) (which includes what I do like, don't like and personal taste.)

Shaker isn't for you, but shaker always seems classic to me. I never considered anything but shaker, because I don't like anything fussier. (I don't like contemporary/modern either.... so a slab wouldn't work.)

As for color and whatnot, I just started saving photos of kitchens online that looked nice... over a year. Looking back on the photos, most kitchens were white (so another easy decision.) What I thought about most was type of overlay vs. inset. I went with the *look* of inset w/ latches.

I didn't find out about cost until I had my heart set on everything............ :) At that point, I really didn't want to change my mind/vision.

I guess I was influenced from the beginning of my life. The house I grew up in, the first house I bought, and just about everything since then has always been from the Craftsman era....so it was only natural that I have always been drawn to Shaker style cabinets and fixtures for our remodel of a 1980's tri-level home.

The custom color I chose came from a lot of the furniture I have purchased over the years (which always happens to be the same color). So again it was something I had always loved...

The overall mandate for the kitchen was to keep it consistent with the rest of the house, a 1927 Tudor revival. Nearly every design decision including the cabinets (which were made from the original gumwood cabinets) was made with that objective in mind.

People who don't have such a strong house personality to contend with have an easier -- or tougher -- time, depending on whether you like absolute freedom and infinite choice.

Price will be a huge consideration in my eventual cabinet choice, followed by options to maximize the function of the cabinets, i.e., full extension, pull outs, etc.

I also do consider ease of cleaning issues, though I'm not sure where I'll land with that. I get weary of cleaning the edging of my mouldings/edges, but I'm not seeing myself as modern enough to have flat panels. lol I go back and forth on whether it is a good or bad idea to have cabinets that disguise grime/food stuff. ;)

Our biggest factor was the need for the most useable space in a small area that couldn't be made any larger. This brought us to frameless (vs. face frame) cabinets. We also felt the need to actually see and touch our potential cabinets before putting out a significant amount of money, so that left out Costco. Had I known that folks here have been so happy with Scherr's, I would have ordered samples from them. After looking around, we found InnerMost at HD which met our requirement for well-built and which has a very flexible range of offerings. Delivery is set for next week.

After that, it's just a matter of door style and color, which is so personal - just look at what people here love and hate. I, personally, really don't care for glazes, but many folks love-love-love them. To each his own. Pre-existing elements in the room, if any, inform some choices, especially color. For style, you just gotta go with what pleases your eye.

Well 6 years ago I re-did our current kitchen with a raised panel/maple/chestnut stain, and I loved them, still do. Now we are getting ready to move into my MIL's home and plan to remodel and put on an addition. So even though I really like my current kitchen, I feel like I want to do something different this time.

My husband expressed that he liked the shaker style and would like to have them in a dark (espresso) stain...this was his choice without ever coming on GW and seeing all the shaker kitchens out there!! I kind of like the idea too, but may want to incorporate some white cabinets along with the espresso. However, it seems like EVERY new kitchen here is white or espresso/shaker!! Not that it really matters what everyone else has since I will only be living with MY kitchen... it just seemed funny to me that my husband would pick the most popular kitchen going these days!

I chose cabinets that I felt were a good fit for my house. I love the look of shaker cabinets, but didn't think they would look right in my 1938 colonial. So I went with a raised panel door style that was more in keeping with the other doors in the house. My kitchen has no natural light being surrounded by the dining room and family room. I chose a creamy white cabinet to lighten the room. As soon as the first cabinet was installed, I knew I had made the right decision.

I had a really hard time motivating on choosing the cabinetry, It was overwhelming, with so many choices. I knew I wanted white, but that is all I knew. I was looking through an old random Kitchen Design book a family friend lent me (circa 1989!) and came across an historic kitchen with glass gothic arched cabs and fell in love (we have an old home) - my cabinetry plan was done within the the week! I think I just needed to find the right inspiration to get my behind in gear.

I have a similar list to Kellied.

First was light, because the kitchen is in the SE corner and gets the best daylight, and preserving that was important.

Next was cleaning and durability. Decided against paint. Also, I've always had slab doors, whether inset, partial inset, or partial overlay. Partial inset is my favorite. ;)

I looked at what I didn't like, which for light woods was mostly maple, and saw a white bamboo and fell in love. Turned out the white bamboo didn't come in the good quality boards but I fell in love with the good boards in their natural yellow color. Figured that would look best with full overlay Euro style cabinets, rather than the framed partial inset.

I wanted an easy care interior. Where they used to use vinyl sheet flooring on the shelves, they now use laminate. Finding a laminate that looked good with the bamboo was difficult, and none of the fun colors were appropriate. Too, too much of what's on offer is faux stone, which would look dumb. The maple--again--was too pink. Finally found a kind of textured Formica that would look okay, though I was worried about the little divots. The plywood for the boxes came in so beautiful because it was the zero VOC and they use all the best veneers on that kind that I said it would be a shame to glue plastic to it. So the cabinetmaker found a place that would apply the ultra-durable, zero VOC, factory only hard varnish to it. It was so pretty, we used the best pieces for the cabinet doors in the laundry, too, instead of paint.

I've always been most attracted to light wood cabinets. And I've always liked frameless slab cab fronts best. So we went with a light stained maple veneer, some with slab front, some with reeded glass inserts. It's just what I've always envisioned for my dream kitchen!

I actually veered from what I orginally thought I wanted. My kitchen somewhat morphed into being little by little as I either accumulated stuff or found items that drove design decisions. All along I expected to get wide rail/stile shaker... LOVE that look. Then, I feel in love with the QS oak I found for my kitchen. We went with the premium because we particularly loved all the flecking and markings. So for me, the glory of the wood itself changed me to slab front clear coated since it was the wood itself that was my favorite part. IMHO, it worked out even better then I ever dreamed my kitchen would be.

I had inset shaker in my last kit and wanted something that looked old. So this time we did large boards, inset and painted barn red. I have a couple of narrow doors with one board, 3 on the largest ones. All drawers are one board.

Shaker cabinets very clean lines -- a light color to bring light to a small kitchen and a 'natural' look were always our first priority. Our dark, oak, circa 1978 kitchen with the PINK (okay, Mauve) formica countertops and MAUVE tiles just made us want LIGHT MAPLE! in the end, we fell in love with Red Birch but it was an up charge of 8% and we decided against it. As for the cabinet line (Ultra Craft) -- that was the kitchen designer and Garden Web's idea!!! Cabinets come in on Tuesday...will open an photo bucket account and post when the time comes

We decided on a flat panel door with an inset molding b/c we saw it and really liked it.

We had a white raised panel kitchen before, and I wanted wood after that. We started looking at different mitered raised panel doors, as I was feeling that I wanted something "impressive looking", I picked one with a big panel and arched stile, and mitered corners. it was really nice looking. However, after my uncle (who was making the cabinets) said "yeah its nice but it really isn't your style" It was a really nice door, but more traditional than anything else that I had I really wanted it b/c it was the upper end door I was seeing in most cabinet lines.

I ended up with mine whch is a shaker door with an inset double lined molding which is much more of a transitional door

For me, the wood and door style in my kitchen was dictated by an existing built-in. We did our best to match the dining room built-in china cabinet. It did make the decision easier.

Though, we did choose to go with stained wood rather than painted white, because I prefer the look.

My SO and I looked at pictures of kitchens for about 3 months. We were on deadline, and hoped we could find just one picture that could be our inspiration picture. We wanted to take it to the KD and say, "THIS is what we want." But we both hated everything, or rather, neither one of us loved anything. And things one of us would like about cabinets (or any other part of a kitchen), the other would hate.

After about 2.5 months we decided we could both get on board with white shaker cabinets. Then, out of nowhere, SO decided white cabinets reminded him of his grandmother's kitchen in Naples and we had to go back to the drawing board. Even though his grandmother's kitchen looks nothing like a white shaker cabinet... Anyways, we kept the shaker style, but did a complete 180 to a dark chocolate stain. Neither one of us really liked the lighter or medium toned woods.

So what influenced us? Compromise, I guess. We both wanted something the other would like, but we're both pig-headed about the things we individually dislike. I'm the cook (thank heavens! he doesn't even remember to at least put salt and pepper on chicken if nothing else!), but I do like his help in the kitchen: cleaning, rinsing, peeling, fetching, etc.

Sometimes I fear the kitchen has a less unified, less cohesive feel than if it had had just ONE "designer," but in the end it's OUR kitchen. I think I went on a tangent...

Oh, and the other factor in our decision was an outrageously good deal HD had at the time on Thomasville cabinets. It was seriously too good to be true, so that was our deadline. If not for that deadline, we'd probably still be discussing cabinet color and layout.

Timely question - my cabinets were just delivered today! I ended up taking an "unusual" approach in that my actual cabinet style was the very last thing I picked out. To sum it up, I used to think I wanted white. When I joined GW in Dec, I was liking the whole white cab/soapstone/stainless/dark floor combo. Had a white cab sample for a day, and realized it wasn't for me after all. Switched it around to light oak floor/darker cab for contrast. The first thing I bought was a mini tiffany pendant light that I loved for over the sink. Then I saw someone's kitchen on here with hardware I loved, and knew that was it. Learned here about Omega/Dynasty & found a wonderful local supplier. Found slabs I loved (bluish mother of pearl quartzite & a hunk of pretty soapstone for a separate piece). Decided on sable stain which looked good with the slabs & floor, and selected faucet (also seen here on GW) & color of silgranit sink (after seriously considering every single one), followed by the "no-no" of buying the backsplash tile already when I found harlequin tiles I wanted on clearance. Towards the end of July brought DH with me to pick out the actual cabinet design - full overlay, traditional style, and the drawer had to comfortably accomodate the hardware handles. Totally backwards I think - I'll let you know in a few weeks if it was serendipitous or stupid :)!

we decided on white cabs even before the kitchen needed doing because that side of the house is realyl dark and white seemed the only way to brighten it up.
And Inset was the next no brainer only because my DH said he always liked that look. The shaker was more of a default because the cabinet maker said .. "so what style doors, shaker?" and i said uhm ya, i guess so. lol... i was far more picky with everything else.. like ridiculously so.

Still making the decision, but the main factor is appearance. We have a pretty specific aesthetic in our old house (keep the dark stained wood, parquet floors, marble mantles; add dashes of modern with bright, bold, contemporary choices in furniture, paint and lighting). We want to kitchen to continue that overall feel; I don't want a multiple-personalities house with the kitchen feeling oh-so-2000s and the rest of the house doing its Victorian/mid-century modern thang. Given that, I'm looking at a mix of darker stained wood cabinets, offset with a few painted ones in either light green or creamy yellow to add some punch. The wood trim in our house has a couple of details I'd like to pick up in the kitchen cabinetry, so the door choice probably will have a splash more detail than simple Shaker.

The next big influence is price. I'm leaning towards Ikea boxes with custom doors because I'll get the functionality of Ikea inside, and the look I want outside, at a fraction of the price of even semi-custom cabs.

I had painted cabs in the old kitchen, and I knew I wanted wood. I like the 25-year-old Stickley cherry bookcases in our livingroom, and I wanted the kitchen to "go" with them. I even had the cherry cabs custom stained to a similar color.

I like raised panel. My cab maker will do any door, but his standard door is a fairly simple and graceful raised panel. I liked it in the showroom, so I just took it as it was, no decisions about beading or anything. One decision I made was to have a straight light rail, no bottom trim molding. I didn't want another horizontal surface to dust. I did spring for raised end panels, and I'm glad I did.

I considered full overlay, but it would have been more expensive, and I didn't care enough to pay extra. I love the partial overlay I got.

I should have had frameless, because it's a small kitchen. But this cabmaker doesn't do frameless, and I wanted to use him because his reputation for quality, price, and timeliness is excellent.

So my decision was influenced by a combination of style, ease of cleaning, price, and my choice of cabmaker. I have to say, the cabs were about the only thing I didn't lose sleep over, and they were the first decision I made.

Versatility followed by price -- had a lot of constraints space wise and I wanted what I wanted and a lot of cabinet companies wouldn't let me do what I wanted in my price range which was looooow. I am also picky about finish details and part of my choice once I found a company that had the versatility of cabinets/lots of available trims/great hardware, I went with one that got the picky details right -- a good match between the stain and the laminate parts, a small reveal where the face frame met the cabinet box, dovetailed drawers.... kinda wanted a lot, now that I look back -- no wonder it took me so long to find a cabinet company.

Our house being a today's version of American Foursquare called for a Craftsman or farmhouse sort of kitchen, so my first choice was QS oak with a sheer Mission-toned stain and hand-rubbed Waterlox finish.

When we decided to use Douglas fir milled from trees on our property for all the baseboard, window and door trim, etc., we decided that wasn't a combo (natural fir with the Mission oak) that would work, so decided to jump full into the Douglas fir for cabinets as well. We stayed with the handrubbed Waterlox finish.

In the whole process, though, in searching kitchen photos for inspiration, I kept loving white kitchens. I also KNEW white kitchens were NOT for me, so had to figure out what else in those pics was calling to me. Having done that, I decided to include some painted cabinetry in with the fir to break it up and brighten things up. I really appreciate and am glad for the overall lighter scheme I ended up with compared to the Craftsman/Mission plan I first had in mind.

I love the clean lines of Shaker cabinets. I, and I mean no offense to anyone who feels differently, detest raised panel, especially with any type of arches. They look too uppity and old-fashioned, and just visually and stylistically heavy to me. (Just opinion, formed from childhood experience and impression, I'm sure) So anyway, those were never something I could've chosen.

Even though they'd certainly be easiest to clean, I always equated totally flat panels with cheap cabinets, so couldn't do those either. To get a little variety and homeyness, after having had Shaker in our previous home, I added a bead to the inner profile for the fir and burgundy cabinets.

Now I can think of different ways of doing flat panels so that I could easy clean and have some quality and style at the same time...Maybe next time.

Hey Rhome - no offense taken about the raised panels. You say potato, I say potato (oh, that doesn't work if you just write it, does it). :)

Clearly the most important factor in style seems to be individual tastes. I just knew that if I had gone with Shaker and its classic lines it would bug me every time I walked into the kitchen. That does not mean it will bug me to see it someone else's kitchen.

I am not saying Shaker is a bad choice for people, I am saying that it would not have been a harmonious choice FOR ME. Same goes for Rhome and her raised panel.

Some very interesting comments on this thread. Glad I asked!

That's why there are all the choices out there! It'd be boring and SO tiresome if we all had the same thing.

We did cost first (basically, taking things out of the running that were clearly out of the budget---e.g., qs oak---since we were not willing to budge on drawer slides/hardware), then aesthetics (kind of personal taste, but in our case more driven by what was originally in our 1915 kitchen and my desire to "put it back"), then space (frameless v. framed---we mixed them up based on what made sense where) and then ease of use/cleaning. I love how they turned out, but do wish we'd considered stained wood more seriously (at the time I was gungho about wanting a period kitchen, which for our house meant painted cabinets, and we were renovating a dark kitchen...however, the kitchen turned out more periodish than period and was much brighter once a wall came down, so we definitely could have pulled off fir!) I also wish I'd really considered the cleaning bit---the one thing that bugs me about our Shaker-style drawer fronts. (We have the same door style throughout the house on all of our original built-ins, which is why we picked it, but for some reason I don't notice the dust buildup there in the same way that I notice it in the kitchen...and of course we're rarely dripping things on our bookcases and linen cabinet. :) No regrets aesthetically, but probably should have given up some of what we wanted design-wise to have something a bit easier to clean. Ah, well. (Also, much to my husband's chagrine, I asked the cabinetmaker to do slab-front drawers on our inset cabinets with the idea that your eye would think the framed slab looked similar to the shaker style drawer fronts on the frameless. They're soooo easy to clean---so that was a good call!)

What was most interesting to me was that from the time we started planning (January '09---yikes!) till we finished (nowish? I guess we're done??), my ideas and tastes actually changed a lot as I saw other people's kitchens get finished, saw different looks, etc. I thought I started with a very clear vision, but it definitely morphed over the months.

Yes, very tiresome, and if our houses were all the same,you could end up in the wrong house and not know it. OK, maybe only after a particularly good party.