I used an oil stain (3 or 4 coats actually...a bit crazy). Followed by many coats of polyurethane. Poly can yellow over time but is probably one of the most durable finishes. In my case, having my stain a little more yellow wouldn't hurt, and I can always redo it in 5-10 years when that happens if I hate it! Polyacrylic will not yellow, but I had reasons for not using that. I have 3 kids between 2-7, so I was most concerned about the water that spills an doesn't get cleaned up until the next day. You can lacquer over stain. As you add coats to the lacquer, you can add more color(say one particular boards grain is driving you nuts or you want to distress). My father did lacquer in their very high end basement redo, and it doesn't have the fake look that you get particularly with cheap furniture. I would assume you may like more of a satin finish, but maybe worth experimenting with. I used some gel stain on the chairs in my picture because the oil stain wasn't achieving a good color match. Gel stains kind of sit on top of the wood. I didn't like them, but others do. You can also buy pigments (think hobby lobby $10 tubes in the painting area). There are specific colors that stainers will use. For wood, I'm not going to suggest a type of wood as I don't know how much grain you like. It may be worth checking out a quality lumberyard rather than your big box guys though...higher price point but higher qualities of wood. Ana-white.com has one or two trestle table designs/plans. Potterybarn has several also.

Thanks, very helpful. Especially about noting the warranties. We're looking at a custom guy, too, whose work I've seen and it's good -- but I'd be concerned about warranty issues down the road. Given that we're going with flat slab doors, the kitchen designer will also price out a custom shop, as she thinks it may be price competitive given that we're going with such a simple design. What I'm hearing, though, is that natural wood veneer shouldn't be more susceptible to delamination, chips, peeling, dents, etc. than the fake wood laminate? On the more affordable end, I really like the look of Semihandmade and smile everytime I see my new bath cabinet. And I drool over online photos of Henrybuilt, Kerf, Build LLC's SPD, and others outside our price range. I don't have the same emotional response to the wood look cabinets. Just for ideas, I've been in several of the high end European showrooms, and while they're sleek and well done, it's not the same as real wood. I was going to convince myself to go with the fake wood if it would be more durable, but if I can have real wood (probably walnut or teak, likely grainmatched vertically), that's my preference. Would appreciate any other thoughts or advice, thanks.

Would it make a difference if the boxes are nailed, not dove-tailed? Because they are not dove-tailed. My gut tells me it should be fine--I never would have thought "no, we shouldn't do that, it will warp". But what do I know, I'm not a cabinet expert. But, this guy is starting to freak me out. this morning, he said again "these are going to warp". He also told me a spliced drawer front would solve the problem. I really hate that he is making me question this, because after all, I am not the expert, and frankly, neither is the KD (or GC for that matter). I just can't figure out why the cabinet guy is saying this and everyone else (including me) thinks it will be fine. Thanks for letting me vent!

So, what you seem to be saying is that if the center panel is flat, then veneer should be fine? Our Omega Dynasty II door (Anson) will have full 1/4" furniture-grade veneer center panels. From what I can tell, the rest of the door is solid wood. Is 1/4" a decent "thickness" for veneer? Our wood is cherry stained in mandarin orange w/coffee glaze. It was mentioned that sometimes the stain doesn't "take" the same on veneer as on solid wood...does anyone have any first-hand experience if this is true of the cherry woods? [I know, it's probably tough making this call w/o seeing it...but maybe someone out there has seen Omega's Dynasty II veneers and can speak from experience...here's hoping!] I'm also wondering now if the drawer fronts will also have the veneer panel--but I don't know b/c their site also says: (B) Solid Dovetailed Drawers Drawer fronts are solid hardwood (MDF if opaque) and are attached to a 5/8" hardwood drawer box with dovetailed joints on all four corners. All drawers are sealed and top coated for a fine furniture look. There's no distinction made b/w Omega custom & Dynasty...so, it sounds like the center panel in the drawer fronts ARE sold wood, no veneer center panel. Does anyone know this for certain? (My KD is out of town this week so I cannot ask her.) As a matter of fact, the only difference I could find b/w Omega Dynasty/Dynasty II is the veneer center panel on doors...everything else seems the same. I hope this is true! I plan to replace the Anson doors with Artesia doors when we save up money again...it's one of the "scrimps" I made (I tried to "scrimp" on things I can replace or do later.) TIA if you can help!