If I were you, I would go with the birch/beech interiors rather than white. My kitchen cabs are birch/beech, and the cabs in the laundry room are white. The wood-look wears better IMO. Some of the white interiors and shelves also have a nubby texture that shows dirt a lot more. Unless you are specifically after a more mod contrasty look like Gaucho, I would think the wood would blend a bit better with creamy coffee (dark?) paint. Here's a pic of my wood interior together with the painted white doors. You cannot see the birch at all when the doors are closed, even when you're standing very close. My doors came from Advantage, and I got the factory-finish paint which was well worth the money. Installed 3.5 yrs ago, and today I have no chips or wear or anything, and they are very easy to keep clean. The few small strips of wood that I added later (around micro and oven drawers) and painted myself - on those, the paint has chipped and rubbed off a little. Factory paint = worth it. Advantage did my doors, drawer fronts, all filler pieces, cover panels, trim. l did have to give them exact specs (which I still have btw including spec drawings for hinge placement etc - email me if you want them). And I specified small tolerances between everything (I think 1/8"). I think you'll find that you won't even want or need edge-banding. I used it on 2 cabs, and that was only to cover the rough edge left on a deep cab that was hacked down. It was a bit of a pain to apply (especially on already installed cabs) and doesn't really look that nice (but it is better than rough particle board). I certainly wouldn't bother with a whole kitchen just to change the color of the cab edges, when the correctly spec'd doors already do a perfect job of that. This post was edited by jenswrens on Sat, Jan 25, 14 at 16:32

Dutty nails it with this quote: "Is Ikea for everyone? No. Are there better cabinets out there? Yes. But for the money, it's a VALUE and you can do amazing things with a little ingenuity. Plus, with the savings you can put drawers everywhere, inserts, soft close, etc. All of those would be UPGRADES with a cabinet company. The thing you need to be most careful with is who you hire to put it all together and PLAN. PLAN. PLAN⦠make sure you KNOW the product inside and out. " Dh was just drilling through a Home Depot particleboard panel that had an IKEA cabinet behind it. He remarked that it was incredible how much denser the IKEA cabinet side was compared to the no-name particleboard - not the same stuff at all. Also, he had a major allergy attack while working with the Home Depot particleboard - something he hadn't experienced during hacking the IKEA cabinets at all. I wondered if that's because IKEA particleboard is made to EU standards which limits some VOC levels, etc. It's a mistake to assume that all particleboard is created equal. IKEA wouldn't be able to warranty their kitchens for 25 years if their stuff was the same crappy material that my home's original 2001 builder grade cabinets were made from for example.

Gene: While the picture of me is amusing, I use it to myth-bust. I can't stand "facts" that have no basis: 1. "Granite is heat proof." I've been called to repair heat damaged granite. There is a pizza place several miles from me that's had their granite destroyed by the heat lamps above. The MIA requires trivet use, but the myth continues. 2. "IKEA cabinets are cheap junk." The hacked IKEA cabinets pictured above have no backs, feet, or toe kicks, yet easily support 180 pounds. 3. "All Chinese quartz is junk." If the Chinese are going to rip off your Breton process, they'll do a damn fine job. I'm sure there are more. Maybe we should start a whole 'nother myth-busting thread, but you've got to have documentation to substantiate what you say.

@alerievay -- We ordered samples. Honestly, I'm not sure its worth it to get the SemiHandmade glossy white over the Ikea glossy white. The Ikea white is very nice; sturdy and a lovely finish. The SemiHandmade walnut is gorgeous though; the grain is beautiful. I think that the wood is where SemiHandmade really shines.