Agreed. Paint them white or go with glass shelves. It will look great with your pottery collection with the glass doors.

Glass shelves.

Order them with the cabinets. Or have them made at a glass shop. The second option would probably be less expensive.

Our builder already ordered the cabinets, so I could look into a glass shop.

Sounds like your builder made a mistake in ordering wood shelves and now it trying to make you eat it. Don't fall for it.

We were told upfront that they would only order wood shelves (not sure if there were any other options through the cabinet company). I should have asked if I could pay additional for white shelves, but was a bit overwhelmed with designing the cabinetry and didn't think about it!

Is it the shelves alone or the entire interior?

It's the entire interior that will be a wood color.

Oh, okay. I would get some raw wood beadboard, line the interiors and paint the beadboard either a matching white or complementary color. The paint will hold-up better than on the cabinet finish. Then, get glass shelves cut to fit.

It will surprise you how inexpensive the glass shelves are! I remember being delighted when I finally broke down and bought some glass shelves for my little townhouse 10 years ago. :)

Either way it sounds like you need to paint the interior, glass shelves or no. Annoying, but should look fine when it's done - probably not a big deal if it doesn't color match exactly (I was kind of irate that our cabinet place couldn't give us an exact paint color since they tint it in house but our floating shelves match well enough regardless).

Let them know you will be using the glass for shelves and ask them to show you the different edge finishes they offer for this. They can be seamed or polished for shelves. (Otherwise you will get a blunt edge such as would be practical for a door insert.)

(They can also do a round-over and bevel but I would not recommend those options for shelving.)

I would definitely paint the interior. If you have wood cabinets, it should paint well, but if they don't have plywood backs then, as mentioned, it may not paint well. Some backing material is difficult to tell if it's wood or not by just looking at it. You may have to find out from the manufacturer.

Glass shelves are great for display, I wouldn't want to put a lot of weight on them. Are you using them exclusively for display or will you have full sets of china on the shelves? I definitely think you are being jerked around by your builder, there is no excuse for this.

practigal-at this point I'm not entirely sure if they will be only for display. I do need a place for our wedding china, but I could put it in the bottom of the buffet.

As this is something that came up for me this week, I'll add this question because it might be something you want to consider. If you are planning to light the cabinet to showcase your pieces, wouldn't you want glass shelves so the light illuminates all the items? I live in earthquake country, so I'm still on the fence about glass shelves and my precious pieces.

Isn't it amazing how one question during the design and installation process just leads to another? :-)

Here is another thought. Forget clear glass and install mirrors in the doors. Keep the shelving. It will be strong enough and you can them to store your china. This way, the items in the cabinets don't have to be beautifully displayed. The mirror provides reflected light. Just a thought.

All of this can be handled by a glass shop. They do this all of the time.

Would tempered glass shelves be able to hold more weight?

Off topic, but maven19 did you ever find pendant lights? I remember you had asked about mine and they were no longer being sold but I found some that are almost identical on a different site...

homechef59--that sound like a lovely idea as well! Our buffet is directly across from our patio door, so there would be a lot of light to reflect!

lcskaisgir- I ended up going with pendants from West Elm. It was such a hard to decision to make!!! There are so many lovely pendants out there!

I made and fitted my own glass shelves. I wanted to use 3/8" plate glass, but I got some regular 1/4" plate glass given to me for free. My cabinets are 33" wide, and I added additional shelf supports in the middle. the doors have faceframe between them, if they hadn't I def. would have had to use much thicker glass.