I painted our ugly dark oak cabinets several years ago and they seem to be holding up well. My kitchen now looks bright and cheerful, rather than brown and dingy. I like the smooth finish of an oil paint, but oil yellows, so I went on the web to find an alternative and Cabinet Coat paint was mentioned on many painting forums, so I decided to try it. I think good preparation is the key to any paint job. I scrubbed the cabinets, sanded, primed with an alkyd made by Zinsser (OK, so I'm old fashioned) and finished with several coats of the Cabinet Coat paint. So far the finish has held up well. I have a few spots that got banged up, so I will be using an artist's paintbrush to fill in the chips. One thing that helps keep the finish nice is to always use the knobs to open doors and never open doors with greasy fingers. I can't tell you how much I enjoy my bright new cabinets. My kitchen was such a dungeon before and simply painting the cabinets white has made my kitchen a much more pleasant place to work. I was able to obtain it from my local Ace hardware store. Just make sure you stir it very, very well and use a good paintbrush. Here is a link that might be useful: Cabinet Coat paint

Another Ikea kitchens advocate here. Installed ours in 2003. Spent 11.5K on the entire 180 sq f kitchen - all cabinets doors and fronts were solid wood (pine, discontinued), tons of drawers, sitting area, stainless appliances, granite, etc. If you want to keep your kitchen for the next 50-60 years, spend $150K and buy solid wood cabinets. If you are like many other people will get bored with your kitchen and/or want more modern details in 10-15 years, Ikea is the best option. Thicker than other medium range kitchen MDF (0.75" instead of 0.5") frames, high end Blum hardware with doors and fully extended drawers that have soft closure option. Both solid wood and melamine doors are very durable. As for the designer look, it actually all depends on your design abilities. I've seen $70K kitchen and $115K kitchen that looked much worse than many Ikea kitchens. Pick a good counter, knobs, curtains; think about trim and light. I've heard this 'Ikea-kitchen-is-for-losers' song from many contractors, but never from the actual owners. I will use Ikea kitchen cabinets (hacked) for our master bath remodeling. I was interviewing several contractors - two of them tried to convince me to not use Ikea cabinets for this. When I asked them about the alternative, they offered their cabinets instead. After comparing their cabinets to the Ikea ones that I chose, it turned out that their cabinets are: 1. About 2 times more expensive without all drawers I want and about 2.5 more expensive with the drawers; 2. Have mediocre hardware without soft closure, etc. 'What are you talking about??' said one of the contractors. 'All hardware is the same!' Yeah, right... The new Sektion line promises to be even better - more drawer options, more glass cabinets, etc. It will also be more expensive than Akurum probably. So, if the budget is important to you, use Ikea fall sale. The spring sale is already over in US. I got 20% off this time and I am very happy.

After considering the responses, I am leaning towards either a pure white or a solid antique white (no artificial darkening/shadowing in the crevices). The photo posted of the glazed kitchen is gorgeous, but I am too chicken I think given the cost of cabinets. Regarding the rest of the kitchen, most likely I will go with an oak hardwood floor (to match the rest of the house it will be stained a golden & pecan color), stainless steel appliances, and I would like to keep the main color scheme relatively neutral. Most likely a travertine looking backsplash and beige to medium brown paint colors. I already posted a link to the cabinet door so you can see the style which is traditional-transitional, full overlay. The ends of the cabinets will be done in beadboard, as will the sides of a small center island. I was planning to do beadboard/wainscotting all the way around the breakfast/eating area to continue with that idea. The house is a 1942 Spanish style in Southern California, one of those Hacienda looking style homes, although it is kind of transitional since 1942 is getting out of that era. The link below shows an antique white kitchen that has many elements of white mine would probably look like if I did antique white. http://www.kitchen-design-ideas.org/pictures-of-kitchens-traditional-antique-white-kit002.html#axzz1VUakya4D On the other hand, I think pure white cabinets could also work: http://www.kitchen-design-ideas.org/pictures-of-kitchens-traditional-white-kit004.html#axzz1VUakya4D My main concern is about how antique white vs pure white cabinets age/wear over time, which is why I was originally trying to stay away from talking about the rest of the kitchen. I worry the antique white will start to look dingy if they pick up dirt over time. I want a white kitchen in some way shape or form, I just want to pick the right shade of white that I will be happy with over time. Thanks for everyone's help. Can someone please tell me how to set up my profile to be notified when someone responds to my thread? I looked in the settings and I'm not seeing it. THanks, MissLivvy

I think the best way to address your concerns is to ask yourself.. How do I cook now (or in your "before" kitchen)? Am I happy the way everything works? How can it be better? Is there anything you keep wishing you had--to use--while cooking in your "before" kitchen? What was definitely not working? What worked just fine? The answers will tell you whether you will use all those appliances and if you need the sizes you have. These are the questions I asked myself...and the answers helped me eliminate some, add others. Here are the details...what drove my appliance (and other) decisions as well as the results... Oh but first, my kitchen is basically 10'6" x 15'8" with one wall extending another 6' where the original house design called for the washer & dryer. The old W/D area that I had converted to a walk-in pantry was demolished and became the location of the corner pantry & ovens. In my old kitchen, I had a 36" double-bowl (equal sized bowls) sink, 36" standard depth refrigerator, 24" DW, 30" range, & large/family size countertop MW (sitting on an inexpensive MW cart). We're just a 4-person family but I often end up cooking two meals, or at least 1-1/2 meals every night...b/c I have Celiac Disease but my family does not (and I have decided not to force the rest of my family to go gluten-free!) I frequently ran into the problem of needing to use the oven at different temperatures for the same meal, use the MW for differently cooked veggies, etc. This meant that I often had food sitting out that had to be warmed up to eat (or I just resigned myself to making my food after everyone else's was done!) My DH cleans up and we were constantly bumping into each other while I was prepping and he was cleaning up (we only had 24" b/w the only sink & range). We also seemed to be constantly competing for the sink even though it had 2 bowls. When I baked, I had no room to work...basically either the kitchen table (it was an eat-in kitchen) or the 24" b/w the range & sink. It was the worst b/w Thanksgiving & Christmas, but it was pretty bad the rest of the year as well. So, when I designed my new kitchen, I took all those things into account; so I have... A kitchen that has cabinets & counter in a shallow "U" (I love the "U" shape!) plus along the window wall (where the table used to be...in a very tight space!) 36" double-bowl (1-1/2) main/cleanup sink in front of the bay window. The larger bowls fits my largest pan & cookie sheet flat. 15-3/4" square prep sink on the other side, where the cooking appliances are 30" MW drawer (crucial!) 36" Cooktop...OK, I probably don't need a 36" but I wanted the warming element + a bridge element and none of the 30" cooktops had both. 30" warming drawer...that I use 5 or 6 nights out of 7. I'd rather heat up a shallow WD than a 30" oven for warming, especially in the summer. 30" double ovens, w/Trivection on the top & convection on the bottom (Trivection combines...