I was aiming for something that fit the style of the building, which is Spanish. However, that is a bit at odds with my personal taste, which is more modern and light and bright. After some searching, I discovered the Spanish Revival period, which is Spanish style from the 20's, so it combines traditional Spanish details with '20s Deco (clean-lined, white cabinets), and I thought that was a nice compromise between my building's style and mine. Spanish Revival kitchens have a lot of Shaker doors, a lot of inset, and a lot of doors that are sort of like Shaker plus -- Shaker with some kind of little extra detail/molding.

We ended up with Shaker with a little extra detail. Couldn't afford inset, and standard Shaker is so popular now in modern kitchens that I was worried it would read more contemporary than anything else. That left Shaker plus, and Ikea happened to have something like that in dark wood that went well with our stained baseboards. Good way to save money, made sense stylistically, and I could live with it.

My DH and I prefer simple, less "decorated" styles. It was a nice bonus that with the money saved on a less expensive style, Shaker, we were able to upgrade to cherry, my first true love, instead of maple. It's kind of embarrassing how much I love my simple but oh so beautiful natural cherry Shaker cabinets!!!

We also live in an older house (1920's), and although I can see a rift cut white oak flat paneled kitchen in my house, it's just too much wood for me. I'm not sure what my style is, exactly, but I do like clean, simple lines. What I am ending up with is a painted shaker style kitchen a combination of shaker and slab drawers. I am still debating between framed and frameless uppers, although I will go with frameless lowers. I think it is a nudge towards more contemporary while still respecting the age of the house.

dc, I for one would love to see a finished pic. Our tastes are quite similar in a lot of ways. :)

I am still in the process of researching, so who knows what I will actually end up with, but I am definitely leaning minimalist/clean lines. My home is modest and something fancy would look out of place. But I love something simple a lot of times anyway.

Gem: Laugh.. I was trying to steer my mind into a different direction so I could actually get some sleep. This is a question I have been wondering as folks have asked, "why that color in a shaker style?" and I had no idea what "shaker style" was.

I also had to look up tchotchke... stop using big words! lol

My grandmother was the same way, she liked that sort of thing. I am okay with "tchotchke but you can take a lot away from the focus of a kitchen when you have grape cluster knobs and pulls. We removed those pretty fast.

DC - that is a very nice clean kitchen, even if it is not finished. I like the floor and BS style as they compliment each other. Our examples keep getting feedback of "too dark" because of our BS ideas (We have not picked one yet) but I really like a darker BS, so who knows. I do not think we could do those cabinets. Those are "shakers"? If we go with the distressed turquoise, then it probably would not fit that style. We originally were going with an English Chestnut and that style would have been perfect, I think.

Jillius - Spanish 20's? I seriously want to see a picture of that. I find it awesome you are able to really pinpoint a year/style that well. I have Gothic and Renaissance down, but since we are talking cabinets and not church designs.. I am at a loss.. lol

Ooops, Sherri - meant your post about 1920's. I love the 20-40's.. so show us a picture ;) (when you get them going)

Learning more each day though!

Beth - looking forward to seeing your choices;)

Russ

We knew we wanted grey cabinets from our early inspiration photos. Our house is a Greek Revival from the 1830's and has all painted white trim. The only wood are the dark stained floors. So painted seemed like a good fit. Our cabinet maker came with a photo gallery of incredible work (high gloss sleek italian in a bright color, old world built around kitchen fireplace). We liked the inset shaker for this house best and matched with crown molding detail it is elegant and not fussy.

Another late 1920's homeowner here. For years before we bought this house I accessorized my simple furniture style with American Primitive items. (Authentic items--sugar buckets, dough bowls, antique crocks.) When we decided to redo the kitchen I realized I had started to enjoy the pottery and furniture of the 20's-40's, which was good because it matched the age of the house, and was relatively inexpensive compared to the primitive pieces. I found some old cabinets with Shaker doors on Craigslist, and that set the tone for the kitchen.

I've always found Shaker history interesting and because I like the simple lines of their furniture and crafts, it was an easy transition. There were several settlements in northern Ohio, so I like that connection, too. Once in a while I'll read that someone thinks Shaker style is 'too modern'--cracks me up every time.

"But you can take a lot away from the focus of a kitchen when you have grape cluster knobs and pulls." LOL!!

Don't laugh.. the house we are in now (which is being sold next Friday) had these brass looking knobs on everything. Let me see if I can find a picture:

(we replaced all of them the first week we were here and we could not give the things away.)

This is sorta what they all looked like. Imagine a fairly modern kitchen (built in 1999.. so..) with a bunch of these eeeeeeeverywhere:

Brdrl - very simple and clean. I am not a fan of white, but I actually find that style 'comfortable'.

Goose - I totally get the history thing. I always find that if you delve into the actual history of your choices, not only do you enjoy them more but it helps you understand your choices better.

I live in a Victorian style home, with wrap around porch and large turret in the front. But for a kitchen I prefer simple and clean lines :) So my doors are white maple raised panel, with bar pulls. I think they look updated yet the raised panel gives a nod to traditional.

Love seeing all the beautiful cabinetry!

Russ, I can so relate to the up in the nite, thinking about this! It's such an investment, I don't want to be like.....it's ok, but wish I had done this or that!

Johns.. I like! Very fresh and clean. I like the floors and the soft yellow colors.

Salt - mostly a 5yr old that wanted to lay sideways.. lol

R

My mother would love those grape pulls! She loves Victorian, French Country, and Early American, all in her 1980's ranch--but if it makes her happy it's OK with me. :)

I chose Shaker before I knew that Shaker was "in." I didn't find Houzz or GW until after we'd made that choice. Now I feel so common. ;-)

Our house was built in 1926. (It's a French revival). We kept one wall of original Hoosier-style built in cabinets. There was no way we were going to be able to match that exactly. So I decided to paint it a distinct color and choose a different cabinet door front for the new kitchen cabinets.

To choose the exact door front, I looked to other original details in the house and realized I could find a cabinet door style that is very, very close to the interior doors throughout the house. So I choose that.

I think/hope that making choices that are consistent with the house will result in a cohesive look that holds up well over time.

When DH and I set up household 32 years ago, we leaned toward Scandinavian teak furniture because of its clean lines. Over the years this morphed into a house filled with cherry shaker furniture, so when we remodeled our kitchen in our previous home, it was a given we would go with natural shaker cabinets. My dream kitchen. In our new home we also went with shaker cabinets, this time painted. I love the simplicity of shaker.

I chose a white raised-panel cabinet, frameless. The appearance is similar to the pics above from Johnsoro25, except on my cabinets the stiles and rails are a bit wider than Johnsoro's, and the center panel is narrower. I also chose knobs instead of pulls, in a shiny silvery finish; the pulls have no design - they are just round pulls.

The reasons for my choices: I wanted white because, well, I just like a white kitchen. I wanted raised panel because everywhere I looked I saw Shaker and wanted to do something different. The design is still clean and simple - you can opt to get infinite embellishments with raised panel designs, but I didn't.

I also chose frameless because I like the look, and wanted every inch of storage I could get (frameless offers a few more inches of interior space than framed cabinets).

Another late '20s house here, but we moved the kitchen to new square footage. I had pick of the color and wanted shaker. DH wanted a little more detail so he picked that. Just had to be in the same price category.

We landed on Omega Dynasty (we didn't ship outside the brand) Marion in Pesto.