Stained cabinets are everywhere still... And lots prefer stain over paint.. It's your choice. Both are nice styles in my opinion.

Yes - I have them, like them and would never have painted cabinets. Painted cabinets look nice but I prefer stained wood.

My current house has yellow painted cabinets, which we have loved and get many compliments on. We are listing house so painting white.

New house will have stained of some sort. It is a timber framed home so goes along with the style of the house. If it works with the house than do what you like!

White cabinets are still the most popular by far, but stained cabinets are beautiful too.

I have white. For me the tricky part is the flooring. We went with the same hard wood as the rest of the house for the kitchen flooring. It's the orange oak from the 50's. I don't know what color cabinets would have played well with this floor.

I'm having trouble finding inspiration pictures! Any suggestions how to search to have the right photos come through? I feel like I have to sift through pictures of 50 kitchens to find one with stained cabinets.

Our current flooring pretty much matches our current cabinets. We put in a new larger painted island with a butcher block top a few years ago. The new house will have tile in the kitchen (had tile in our house before this and much preferred it - especially for cleaning purposes).

Here is a thread from last fall with lots of discussion and photos of stained cabinets. People love them!

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3470232/what-do-your-stained-or-natural-wood-cabinets-look-like

Searching for more inspiration pictures - if you go to houzz, photos, kitchens, then scroll down the left-hand side there will be an option to chose "cabinet finish" and you can select light, medium or dark wood. You can also make other selections such as tile floor, appliance finish, counter type, etc. to get inspirations that match your situation.

I've never had anything but painted cabinets in multiple residences over my 72 yr life span! I love them and don't like stained at all. Why? I have English antiques and to me, stained cabinets look like bad reproduction furniture. I also like the ability to touch up painted cabinets. Oh - forgot to say - ALL have been handpainted, not factory painted. I love that I can change the entire look of my kitchen with a quick coat of paint on doors/frames.

Of course, I also like white Corian countertops for the same reason. I can change the color of the cabinets/walls quite easily. I like permanently affixed things to be neutral or the color easily changed. But that's just me...

Thank you, omelet! I will check out that method of searching. I'm sure that will be extremely helpful!

When we reno'd our last house in 2011 we chose stained cabinets and loved them. This is a kitchen that got tons of light:

BTW, our nephew is buying a newly built house in the Houston area, and the kitchen cabs are a dark stain. The developer evidently read the market as wanting stained cabinets.

Love that, Suzanne! We are forgoing one wall of upper cabinets in favor of more Windows and the attached dinette will have a glass sliding door but our house will be on a wooded lot. Hoping we have enough natural light!

I loved the look of wood grain, so I prefer stained. It feels more natural to me. I like the look of painted cabinets in other people's homes, but I would never want them for myself. It's really just a personal preference.

I like both, as long as the stain isn't too dark and there's tons of natural light. To me, artificial light doesn't count. I hate having to turn lights on during the day.

Inspiration photos: https://www.houzz.com/photos/phbr3-bp~t_709~a_17-102-103-123

We're going with stained cabinets this go-around. We had white cabinets w/ black granite in our last house. I loved it, but they showed a LOT of wear (dents and chips) after 2 years with a little boy in the house. I'm hoping stained cabinets in our new build will wear better.

Our kitchen is open to much of the rest of the house, so stained cabinets look more in keeping. We have natural walnut veneer cabinets and are very happy with the look. Painted cabinets would be out of place in our style of house.

I had white shaker cabinets in my last house, and liked them, but wanted a change. For this house I choose quarter sawn oak, which I love, with a medium stain. I've combined my cabinets with two antique pieces, a hoosier and a wardrobe; they blend well IMHO with my cabinets; I don't think they look like "bad reproductions".

Sorry, Amber, no pics yet as my kitchen is not finished yet!

We put in walnut cabinets in our late 2013 kitchen remodel and love them! Never even considered paint. Instead, we opted to replace all of our golden oak window and door trim and baseboards with 3" wide enameled white trim. Updated the kitchen while updating our open concept home at the same time.

(zachin - I have always loved your kitchen!)

I'm like Suzanne -- high percentage of English antiques, and just wanted a traditional painted English kitchen to go with. White seemed too bright, so we went with heavy cream. Somehow, with all the wood in our house, we just couldn't coordinate stain, though we did stain the island. I love stain, however, and I think it is a very transitional look and an excellent choice for most decor. It never, to my knowledge, goes out of style. Have your stain and enjoy it!

I like the warmth of wood. Plus, it felt right in my home. I painted my island green-grey. I dont have many uppers and I have lots of natural light.

Ouch on the "bad reproductions" comment, what an odd thing to say! I have medium stained quartersawn oak, and they're lovely furniture. Not trying to be antique, just wood stained to bring out its natural beauty. I really need to take nice photos, but I have a bad phone one I included in the other thread, too.

We enjoy the lovely grain on our kitchen furniture.

Our kitchen is about 5 years old now, but if I did it again, I'd still do stained cabinetry. I love the warmth.

I also didn't even consider painted cabinets. They are nice in photos, but I don't want them in my kitchen. We ordered medium-stained quarter sawn oak cabinets, which should be arriving any day! I canNOT wait to see them.

Love seeing all of your gorgeous kitchens! Thanks, everyone!

There are some beautiful examples of stained cabinetry upthread. I think they can be a home's nicest feature.

A reason I think you may be seeing fewer in the last decade is because more people are choosing wood flooring in their kitchens - at least here in the Northeast.

In the past, wood cabinets provided a warm contrast to the tile and linoleum which was more common in kitchens. It can be done, but it's more of a challenge to choose woods that harmonize both in style and in tone that do justice to both the cabinets and floors. In cases, like my old builder kitchen (below), it ends up looking just too blah brown.

Choosing a darker wood for cabinets went against our aim of creating a lighter feeling space. In our remodel we incorporated dark stained wood in our new counter stools to contrast and add warmth to white painted cabs. I like your idea of having some of both - painted & stained.

That might be a good point about wood floors. In our last house where we remodeled the kitchen our cabinets were dark quartersawn oak but the floors were cream colored tile. In our current house the cabinets are medium oak and so are the floors so they match. At our weekend lake place the cabinets are light hickory and the floors are dark oak for a contrast.

Jillius-those are some beautiful examples. I love the look of those inset cabinets.

With respect to stained cabinets and antiques, I also have a fair amount of antique furniture from my parents and grandparents in various wood species including oak, pecan and walnut. It is precisely because of the beauty of the wood in those pieces that I wanted stained cabinets. To be fair, DH and I have never considered painted cabinets, as lovely and warm as they can be.

And I agree that with hardwood floors it can be tricky, but I love our cherry cabinets and maple floor:

I love the grain and warmth of wood. We had custom hickory cabinets and white oak floors ( with fruitwood stain) installed in our Spring 2015 reno. I love them both.

We finished a renovation in 2015 and have stained cabinets (walnut with a natural oiled finish). I adore the wood and it is perfect for our mid-century house.

Woodbine Kitchen · More Info

Woodbine Kitchen · More Info

Woodbine Kitchen · More Info

I love stained wood. I also love the grain in wood - I'd never hide that with paint. Painted cabinets generally look nice enough, but wood is what makes my heart "sing"! :-)

I did have painted in our old kitchen (from the 1990's) b/c I was looking for a light color and I didn't like any of the other options the builder had - and I regretted it not long after. Paint chips and wears out/off. I'm not a furniture refinishing-person, so painting them again myself was not really an option - plus with my DS and I having asthma, the last thing I wanted to do was sand the cabinets - even in the garage!

The Finished Kitchens Blog does have some pictures. Unfortunately, I don't think StarPooh maintains it anymore, but it's still there. I tried to search for stained/natural wood, but that wasn't an option. So, the best I could do is find the pages with thumbnails (or "flipcards"). You can quickly spot the ones you want to look at. Here's the link:

http://finishedkitchens.blogspot.com/view/flipcard

I have cherry wood cabinets in my kitchen now and love them. The floors are Ipe (Brazilian Walnut) and are a great contrast with the cabinets. However, they are a *itch to keep clean.

In my new build I'm doing off white perimeter's and a dark stained island. Although a part of me wants quarter sawn oak. I keep going back and forth as to what I want. Here's my cabinets now:

Cpartist, the off white cabinets with the dark island was our first instinct for this build but the wood keeps pulling at my heartstrings so I'm pretty sure we are going to reverse it and do the wood outer and cream island (possibly with the butcher block island counter again).

Still loving my natural cherry cabinets that were installed approximately 4.5 years ago

When I build my retirement home next year it will have either Cherry or QS Oak depending on what stone I decide on for the counter tops. I've always loved the look of natural wood grain and wouldn't consider painted cabinets regardless if they are the latest rage or not.

Something else I don't see mentioned much is the style of house and geographic location. My home will be a southwestern style located in NM. I began looking in the area over a 1 1/2 years ago and checked out Zillow on a daily basis for homes in the approx. size range and cost before I decided on a new build. After looking at photos of hundreds upon hundreds of homes I can honestly say I don't recall seeing any with painted cabinets. There might have been some I don't remember but in this area of the country and style of home they are few and far between.

amck2 makes a good point about hardwood floors and cabinets. I would still choose hardwood floors and natural wood cabinets, and get the contrast from other objects/finishes. I love the beauty of natural wood and what I have found is that when you choose what you love the home comes together.

The other thing I've noticed is that natural and stained wood almost always looks better in person - photos don't always do justice to the the grain, the movement in the wood, the depth, the finish.