Actually, this may be a white kitchen where the owner "made it her own." This post was edited by nosoccermom on Thu, May 1, 14 at 9:55

I used Epiphanes marine varnish. This is a spar varnish, which is different from polyurethane. The properties of spar varnish are that it is more waterproof and more elastic than polyurethane, but scratches easier. Spar varnish is tung-oil based. Spar varnish lends an amber tone so there is no need to stain. Many on this board will suggest Waterlox. Waterlox is essentially a spar varnish that has been diluted about 50% with mineral spirits, and possibly a little extra tung oil added in. The addition of mineral spirits makes it lay out nicely (ie: you don't see brush strokes). But you can achieve the same thing by diluting any varnish (polyurethane or spar) with mineral spirits. Waterlox is very expensive and depending on where you live, you might have to pay for shipping. So I would advise against Waterlox because of the rip-off factor. Epifanes is the best marine varnish there is. Don't get the spar at Home Depot or a home centre. It's not as good. I think it has less solids or something. After 7 coats of Epifanes, the varnish looks like GLASS it is insane. I am toning down the gloss down by adding "rub effect" over top. It almost seems a shame to do so given the truly remarkable perfect wet gloss, but it's not the look I'm after...Anyway, the Rub Effect stuff gives it a nice satin sheen. The rub effect stuff is actually just a polyurethane. Do a google search for "Bob Flexner" and "Waterlox" to get the scoop on Waterlox. I think some people are deceived into thinking it's some sort of tung oil miracle concoction, which it is not.

Thanks, all! Nosoccermom, we did not paint the doors. We were concerned about that pinkish tint, too, but decided we could always paint in the future if we hated them as they are after installation. As it turns out, they are definitely an off-white, but the pink seems to depend completely on lighting. In natural and direct light, they are warm white but not pink. In dim light, they do take on that pinkish look. We have the white fridge right next to the cabinets, which you can see in a photo I posted above, and in another area there are cabinets adjacent to wainscoting painted with BM simply white. You can certainly see the difference in those locations, but we don't find it jarring. Those spots are the areas where the pinkish tone is most prominent in dim light, though. We didn't replace the fridge, since the old one still works fine, and we are happy enough with the way it looks with the cabinets that we will probably go with white again when this one does need to be replaced. So, I would say to anyone considering these doors, you have to bring a sample home and see how it looks in your home with your lighting to really know how it will look.

We are in the middle of a kitchen remodel of similar proportions and budget, BUT we are able to do a lot of the work ourselves so our costs for wall repair and floor refinishing and levelung are very minimal. We also have plumbers in our family and saved a couple thousand there. We saved another couple thousand because we know a licenced electrician who was willing to do our work as a side job. Our $25,000 kitchen remodel should have cost us closer to $30-35,000. We had a window made smaller, that cost $1200 for window and install (does not include interior wall repair and finish as we will do that). Making a bigger window requires more work (headers) and will cost closer to $2000 with intall. We found it was cheaper to have a local cabinet maker make our cabinets, plus he was able to come and measure and adjust the plan and he will intall and actually scribe the end cabs to fit against our plaster walls. It ends up being cheaper because whereas Lowes has stack boxes, the custom can build the boxes to the required size which depending on the design can be way more efficient. Our cabinet quote from Home Depot was $20,000 ($15,000 with discounts) Our cabinet quote from the local custom was $12,000 and the install is only $1200. Hope this helps! Also, I like the looks of the area with the fridge and I see what you are going for visually, but my first thought was also "that fridge door is too close to the wall and won't open!".