Must they hold up to "abuse" or normal wear and tear? These are two VERY different things! If "anything goes" in your house - toddlers banging cabinets with MatchBox metal cars etc, then you best go with oak cabinets which are very hard and durable. You know your own home and your parenting and housekeeping habits/styles. We don't. But when I hear the term "abuse", I do assume the worst!

Anglopholia you just articulated my worse nightmare. About to get white painted cabinets with two boys 3 & 5 who have 100's of Hotwheels! Cringe!!

I'm interested in this answer to this question for 'normal use'. TIA!

Mine have held up quite well after almost 2 years. White painted maple from Kraftmaid. Decided on factory finish after a friend went custom and had serious wear and tear after 6 months- especially on the trash pull out. I have 2 kids and a dog, no touch ups needed yet.

Hi johnsoro25, we are going with custom cabinets and I'm leaning towards white painted but am concerned about chipping. Do you know what type of paint and varnish were on your friend's cabinets? Thx!

I'm so sorry, but I do not. Certainly the quality can vary from cabinetmaker to cabinetmaker, hopefully yours is one of the good ones! Can you ask for references of previous customers to see how theirs has held up?

We remodeled a year ago with Barker factory finished white paint cabinets. I already have a couple chips and we don't have small children in the house and I try to be careful. Unfortunately, life happens.

Keep the Hot Wheels in the playroom (yes, it can be done) and they will hold up. Good prep is essential.

Hotwheels travel. Everywhere!

Another vote for KraftMaid, going on 4+ years. We have factory finish white shaker. 3 kids that have literally abused them... they climb onto counters, hang from pantry, bang into them on ride-on toys, drove remote cars into the doors, you name it - they've done it! No wear and tear yet except ever so slightly the paint finish is wearing on the edge of the trash. I'll probably touch up in a year or so. So far, I'm the only one that notices it. Definitely go for deluxe upgrades on drawer pull outs. I can stack my heavy copper pots and pans in one drawer and still not meet the weight limit. Oh, we also got a puppy last year. And alas, they've stood up!!

My white painted Shiloh cabs are doing well.

We compromised and did the painted white finish on the uppers and stained on the lowers. The lowers get the abuse. We have no issues with the uppers getting dinged at all. We used Kitchen Craft.

I should note that our dings are on the base cabinets' painted finish.

One year old Scherr's painted cabinets. No signs of wear. Stuff just wipes off with a soapy washcloth. Two large dogs and a messy DH.

What do you guys recommend? Do touch ups for chips work good enough? Do you suggest getting extra doors/drawers in case of chips? Which cabinets/drawers have highest amount of dings? Sounds like bottom mostly. I'm guessing trash and sink? Thx!

Thank you everyone! I do watch my kids very closely and they aren't absolutely terrors. However, kids are also kids and I can't control every little thing they do. Even without Hot Wheels cars, things can easily damage cabinets. We are trying to decide between doing a traditional painted cabinet (which I prefer the look of) and a polyester finished cabinet (which I don't like the look of as much but is more durable).

I should mention that we are looking at Wolf brand cabinets. Not sure how the durability of their painted finishes compares.

I think that what is as important as the finish itself is what the door is made of. When painted, often a "lesser" wood is used, which makes sense and might not be a problem for normal wear and tear but wouldn't hold up to abuse. We have five boys ages 12-3 and a baby girl, and in addition to heavy duty hardware (Blum), we are building our cabinets and using maple for the frames on the inset as well as drawer fronts because it won't "dent" as easily. I can't recommend a brand, but the composition of the cabinet is something to consider when comparing.

Another off topic thing you might keep in mind is that we currently have drawers with long handles and will be going with pulls because the long handles are far to tempting for little ones to use as a makeshift ladder when they can't see or reach.

Such an array of opinions!! As a cabinet maker ( not a rep for a line) it is one of the things we worry about the most. We need quality, long lasting finishes that look great. Customers want the finish to look and wear well, without added expense. It is not easy to achieve both, but it can be done.

We always use Maple for our paint grade projects; some ( many ) use woods like Alder or Poplar, which are softer and more prone to dents. Using a water resistant glue for joints will help prevent cracks at joint lines. We create a seamless lacquer coat by applying chalking to all joints after the first primer coat is sanded; this gives the cabinet door and drawer fronts a cleaner look and a more stable base for the color coat- zero gaps!

Our lacquers are catalyzed which makes them harder and more durable, and we can easily add a UV inhibitor to prevent fading. They can be custom tinted to match just about any color swatch - so no limit on the selection and they come in sheen from 5% to 80%. We have recently started offering an Italian finish that offers the ultra high gloss finish and another that touts a 15 year exterior coating - both of which are in high demand here in Hawaii.

So a 'factory' finish might be better - but we strive to give our customers the very best - that works for us!

Pacific Dream Builders, our cabinet maker only uses primer and paint. No laquer. Should I be concerned? Is this a deal breaker for painted cabinets? Thank you.

Kids are just going to be kids. There will be the inevitable dings, unfortunately. You can either get stained lowers and white uppers as someone suggested, or hold off on a kitchen renovation until they are older. My old cabinets were oak and held up pretty well to 3 kids and a dog. But oak is a very hard wood. Maybe a thermofoil would hold up better?

We are building a new home, so we have to chose something. I am not really a fan of the two toned kitchens personally. I would like white and am okay with a few dings. Just want something somewhat durable.

Thank you designsaavy! Does anyone have polyester or themofoil cabinets? I was told they aren't as easy to repair.

Thermofoil cabinets are the worst option because if the "sealed" edges become damp or dinged, they can separate leaving moisture a path to the MDF or partical board or whatever they are made of, which creates expansion that causes the finish to fail.

Dreamhouse26, I'm going through the same decision making process and I think I've found my solution. I had fallen in love with a painted finish with a subtle drybrush done by hand to give it some character. Had all but signed on the dotted line when the designer/sales person mentioned the touch up kit that comes free with the cabinets. I screeched to a halt at that! Then started asking around and looking more closely at my mom friends' cabinets. I have two boys, 6 and 7, a toddler girl who likes to help out in the kitchen, as well as lots of cast iron that I sometimes get clumsy with. Scuffs along the edge like in designsavy's photo would drive me nuts, though admittedly I hadn't noticed any wear in my friends' homes until I started looking.

I started shopping around and decided that a high quality thermafoil is a better option for us. The range of finishes is vast and I found great options that I love (now trying to choose "the one"). I borrowed some samples and beat them up a bit - the stuff is amazing. I was unable to dent or scratch it at all. I agree that it probably wouldn't be as easy to repair if something did happen, though I'm choosing something with a bit of texture and subtle striations in the colour rather than a solid so I think I probably could fix nicks. I am having all the bottom cabinets done in thermafoil but upper open shelves as well as other furniture details in the kitchen (special trim here and there) will be painted in a coordinating off-white that is the same as the woodwork throughout the house.

I am a little bit worried about the heat sensitivity of thermafoil, though I've been reassured that is a problem of the past. There won't be any above where our kettle is, and I'm fairly confident that new appliances are insulated enough not to cause issues. Fingers crossed!

Thank you jesslake! If you don't mind me asking, what brand of cabinets did you go with? Thank you!

We had Ikea Adel White Thermofoil doors and drawer fronts (Ikea Sektion Grimslov equivalent) in our previous house. The finish was amazing! We brought home two babies and a Rottweiler puppy in the seven years we had that kitchen and even though we're a pretty messy crew the cabinets looked fantastic when we sold. A quick wipe with a damp cloth is all they required. We got an above asking price offer within 15 hours of listing in a suppressed housing market in 2014 and I'm convinced those cabinets helped sell our house.

eta: not all thermofoil is created equal. I think cheap stock thermofoil from bix box stores doesnt hold up.

I know I don't want thermofoil. My mom has them and I hate them. They're yellow. The fact that IKEA only has white (off white) in thermofoil and not wood is what is keeping us from using them. So we went to lowes and got quotes for Kraftmaid and Shenandoah. We can live with the Shenandoah quote. And we are pretty happy that we won't have to assemble them.

After reading many threads on cabinets, I finally bit the bullet and called a custom cabinet maker yesterday to make an appointment to compare costs.

But now I'm concerned about the paint finish. Is it likely to be even close to a factory finish? We're already wearing out the paint on our current cabinets, which I believe were painted right before we bought the house. The paint is actually worn through around the knobs on the uppers that hold dishes and glasses. And we have many many many chips on the lowers. I don't want to spend a small fortune redoing my kitchen only to have it end up in a similar state in another 7 years.

Sigh. Nothing is easy about a kitchen remodel.

I am confident that your custom cabinet builder will be able to offer you a high quality finish and great prices! You will get so much more than you expect!!

If conversion varnished cabinets like designsaavy's wear after just one year, it seems there's not a lot of hope to find truly durable painted cabinets. We're moving and I suspect our next house will be ready for a new kitchen; it will be our third renovation in ten years. Not looking forward to the cabinet decision.

Yes, it's quite upsetting. Some of you may remember my fiasco last year when we had the majority of our doors and drawer fronts and refrigerator panels arrive with paint quality issues. They were good enough to send more, but again, many issues. Finally got things ironed out the third time around.

Now I wonder if there were still issues with the quality of the paint. Wish I did my base cabinets with unpainted wood drawer fronts. :-(

I have three kids who are pretty rough on things (well, two of them are. The third is 5 months old) and my Shiloh white cabinets haven't held up as well as I'd hoped. The trash pullout looks terrible and the edges of several others are chipping. I'm not happy at all, especially after what we spent.

I remember, designsaavy. I'm so sorry :'-(

I have custom cabinets that are white (catalyzed), that are probably what Pacific Dream is describing. I haven't had them long enough to recommend as to longevity, but the neighbour that used the same cabinetmaker as me has had no issues with the finish after 3 or 4 years and with 2 young children. I looked at them and they are in great shape. Also, my painters somehow hit one of my cabinets with their brush and left a 2" or so stroke of paint which I didn't see until about a month later. It took a lot of patience but I was able to remove the paint from the cabinet without damage to the cabinet paint.

Good news today from 2 references of my custom cabinet makers... Both are 3-4 years out with white painted cabinets and have had no issues with chipping at all! That was a relief. Both have kids. One has some areas showing dirt/oils from kids hands (not using pulls!). But that's it. One of them is using the cabinet maker again for bathrooms. Both are happy with the finish and how they are holding up. Yay! Plus sherri1058's post above was great to hear. Nothing is perfect but am glad to get this positive news!

With regard to Thermofoil option: Yikes! I have yet to see a high quality option. The product is basically a sheet of plastic, printed to look either like wood or a high gloss lacquer. The MDF or particle board door is shaped and then a heater is applied to shape the sheet of plastic over the top and around the sides of the face. It is cooled and cut off along the back edge. Any cabinet next to an oven or dishwasher, will have issues. Period. Over time the sides tend to delaminate and you will get lifting and loose looking edges. Eventually they rip. Trying to match one, if something breaks a door is very difficult and expensive.

If your cabinet line offers a free touch up kit- that is wonderful! Just imagine that when your counter top is being installed, they accidentally bump a door face. This is not a warning of an inferior finish- it is a thoughtful manufacturer.

We have decided to go with a white painted option from Wellborn (premier line). I have been impressed with the "durability" tests I have performed on their cabinets. Hopefully that translates to real life!

Our current cabinets aren't white, per se, but cream colored and are perfect, fifteen months later. I know that is not long enough to satisfy your question, but 12 years prior to this remodel, we'd had our stained cabinets painted white and they held up beautifully.