HGTV goes a long way to explain the white kitchen mega trend. On the show House Hunters, first time buyers tell you up front they want a white kitchen and reject a house they are shown if it does not. Similarly, on Flip or Flop, you are in suspense for about one second when designer Christina starts a sentence like "In this market, buyers expect......" and finishes it with ".......white shaker cabinets" Same thing on all the other HGTV shows.

Christina almost always does those hideous cheap espresso cabinets.

At the end of the day, get what you are drawn to. I have always had a white kitchen. But that said, I see the beauty in the natural woods as well.

Unless you re selling in the near future, I would put in a kitchen that you like and not worry about a future buyer.

White kitchens will always be in a style choice. It is what is paired with it them that is trendy. Upscale homes in my area (2 million to 3 million range new builds) all are still doing white kitchen and marble type counters.

Go on Zillow or Trulia and see what is happening with new construction in your area.

We have cherry cabinets--and we think they're beautiful. We will put wood cabinets into our new home (possibly even medium color cherry again). I am intrigued by the cream colored kitchens but DH really wants wood--and I can't quite think of those beautiful white kitchens as "mine", so I'm happy to go with wood again. And now that the decision is made, I'm really pleased about it.

javiwa - I love those cabinets! What brand/color are they? (Showplace??) I'm in the planning process right now and am loving a gray stained cabinet. I'm leaning toward custom, if he can get us the right color. My worry is that gray is "trendy", even though I fell in love with it before I was even aware of that.

Kate: good luck with your kitchen! Yes, Showplace's Rockport Gray Wash. During my search, I also stumbled upon an Ultracraft gray wash that was perfect, but it came only in alder (which is a softer wood, I'd read) -- UC's gray is Storm Grey, I believe. Head to your dealer's showroom and ask to bring a door sample home so you can view it in your kitchen -- this is a must. It was amazing to me how these shades can be such chameleons, looking nothing like what they originally did in the showroom! Here's a tip: have your dealer check the date on the back of the door sample, as colors will fade over time even in a climate-controlled showroom. My KD had SP order a more updated sample than what they/dealer had on hand. It makes a difference.

I'd always been enamored of the spa-y white/gray-brown/green look, so this wash fills the bill for me.

I like wood, it feels warm and cozy to me. I think painted cabinets can blend more in into the background. So I'm planning 2 tone with wood lowers and white uppers.

I love stained wood cabinets and would have put them in, if not for my tiny kitchen and somehat dark walnut hardwood floors, I needed to lighten up the space with white cabinets.

Javiwa and Renee Texas love those kitchens! Great examples of wood stained cabinet options.

Im not opposed to white but I think some can look boring and cheap. I have some favs I've seen here.

smm we have yet to see your full reveal but from what I've seen with your walnut island really adds richness and beauty.

Christina almost always does those hideous cheap espresso cabinets.

lol I was thinking the same about her always doing the white lately. I think she finally jumped on the white bandwagon. Today she did a white kitchen with glossy black subway tile backsplash and continued it all the way up around the windows. It was sooo bad. Believe me buyers will not be expecting that!

We finished our remodel two years ago. We chose eucalyptus wood for our cabinets and love it.

malabacat, I love the color of that backspash! That color family is throughout our house. I'm trying to decide how I'll bring it in to our kitchen remodel.

I think the issue with wood is that you need to make sure to choose a contemporary style of cabinet, or otherwise your wood cabinets are definitely going to look like the "before" pictures on this site.

If you don't care, then get whatever wood cabinets you want. But otherwise, look for wood cabinets with slab fronts, book matched wood patterns, shaker, or if you like a more traditional look, do it with inset cabinets (like a couple of the pics above). But avoid ornate details, cornices, staggered heights, trellises, etc. Things that will make the kitchen look more dated to the mid 2000s when wood was more popular. Lots of beautiful wood cabinets on this forum, but they tend to have clean lines. I think that is the key to keeping a wood cabinet looking beautiful and timely in 2017.

MaWizz, thank you. I bought a sample walnut wood door home and it didn't work with my wood floors. So we decided on sticking with white and putting walnut on island. Here is our before: it was wood overload. The wood floor is throughout first level. We are bringing in wood in accessories and new table/chairs

Personally I prefer natural stained wood - my own kitchen is that way, though I think the white kitchens are pretty too. Some of the white kitchens lack color or warmth which is important in northern climates, but the coolness can be welcome in warm climates, so location is a factor. Usually beach houses have white and ski lodges have wood.

Some woods do change over time but also the finish. Older oil based finishes amber, and the use of fluorescent lights brings out yellow and orange tones in some woods. I think that is one reason people complain about "orange" wood in the last decade, and just changing lightbulbs would help sometimes. Maybe one reason I'm seeing more natural wood is due to the change over to LED bulbs.

One thing I would like to see is a move towards more sustainable kitchens especially when it comes to cabinetry. A solid wood door and frame can be refinished and brought back to life and a good solid painted door can be refreshed many times too. If we let ourselves get talked into being hung up on a particular door style as being "in" or "out", we cause perfectly good and functional cabinets to be thrown into the dump and resources used to make new ones. I would like to see a move back to good local cabinetmakers who can match cabinetry if a kitchen needs a change up and refinishers with the tools to make it easy to revive older cabinets.

Smm after see that that you made the right choice! Love those floors btw I see why you kept. I had the opposite problem ...no wood! I think that can play a big part in ones decision as far as what materials to use too! Still waiting for your reveal :)

yes jhmarie I agree location can somewhat dictate kitchen cabinet color choices as well as style of the home.

Javiwa, I have had the same feeling many times - I see people tearing out their old kitchen and feel it looks like my new kitchen. (I'm still working on selecting a backsplash.) I've seen kitchens I love of all types: white, grey, blue, mixed, stained, natural wood. I did, however go with a stained alder and am happy with it but am considering going with white cabinets for my bathrooms I'm redoing.

I can scarcely open a design magazine without seeing a white oak kitchen. I would say wood tone kitchens, mainly light wood, though the occasional dark in more of a salvage finish, is very much on trend in high end kitchens.

I think wood can allow for very timeless design. But the key here is everything else needs to be perfectly styled. You put a speckled granite on top of wood stained cabinets, then yeah - it is going to looks dated. You go with overly fussy cabinet doors, or white appliances (because you just don't buy this "stainless trend"), then yeah - that is a 90s kitchen.

White is timeless in the same way that denim (in American culture for the past 150yrs) is timeless. Yes, people will still be wearing jeans in 10yrs, but not the style you purchase today. Similarly the white cabinets which will be popular in 20yrs are unlikely to be the white shaker/marble/white subway tile backsplash, etc. Same thing with wood.

We had white in our previous kitchen, and found that it did hold up well at all. I don't know anyone, no matter how high end the kitchen, who cooks frequently and has kids who has found painted kitchens to hold up. That's the major reason why we went with a stained wood this time around (Walnut, with quartz countertops). It works well as we don't like wood floors in the kitchen, so we paired it with a gray tile.

I think wood is important to a kitchen. Even the most modern of kitchens, with glossy sleekness, warm up with that big chunky cutting board on the counter top.

While I do agree that white is as timeless as timeless can be, trends do change over time and white has been the must have cabinet for some time now, so it wouldn't surprise me that wood stains are increasing in popularity again. You simply cannot worry about your kitchen being "dated", otherwise you'll be remodeling it every 10 yrs or so. And I agree, I hate to see good, solid cabinets torn out because someone thinks they are dated, it just seems like a waste to me, when perhaps they could be refinished and refreshed. We may all have a good laugh if honey oak makes a comeback, after so many of us got rid of them. Trends come and go, it's inevitable.

I recently renovated my entire house and made all of the design and product decisions (a ton of work). The decision I am most happy with is the decision to have custom cherry shaker style inset cabinets in the kitchen. I spent a lot of time educating myself about cabinets - lingo, options, etc., - a lot of that information was gleaned from Crown Point's website (thanks, CP!). But my architect convinced me to hire a local cabinetmaker and am I glad I listed to him. My cabinetmaker did beautiful work and was a pleasure to work with - he made my kitchen and mudroom cabinets, three bathroom vanities, cabinet and drawer inserts, a linen cabinet for one bath, a built-in dresser in the entry to the master bedroom, and a fireplace surround. Everything in natural cherry and it is gorgeous. When people come over they are effusive about how gorgeous my renovation turned out and much of that is due to the wood work throughout the house. If you are in the DC-Virginia area, I highly recommend him.

signature custom cabinets in cherry with a cinnamon stain. medium sheen. quartz counter top ( calacutta vicenza)

We just did stained cherry cabinets, Woodland w/sienna stain. This took the cherry tone down. Initially we wanted walnut, but that pushed our budget out of whack. In the early days of planning I was set on a white kitchen. My BF was set on maple. It took a lot of research to find a middle ground that we could both embrace. Now that it's done, we love the cherry cabinets. I was concerned that our kitchen would be too dark with stained wood cabinets and dark counters, so we put in a large window on the sink wall, added a solid pane of glass to the side of a sliding door on the opposite wall, kept the walls, flooring and backsplash light. We also have a lot of LED lights with nice dimmers, so we can adjust the light levels across a wide range.

I haven't done a reveal thread, because we are waiting on a few finishing items. Here are two (cell phone) pictures of our kitchen that I posted to another thread.

The pic below is actually showing a goof our cabinet company made. The top drawer fronts are supposed to be slab, but the top panel on the dishwasher is 5 piece. Additionally, the dimensions for the lower panel were also off. It's since been changed.

After we ordered the cabinets I had a moment or two of remorse that we hadn't gone with slab fronts for a more modern look. Now that they're in and we're essentially done I am happy with the 5 pc look with the slab top drawers and can't imagine it any other way. Well, I can...because TKO, but happy, happy to have stained cabinets.

(Clueless in CO was my cabinet inspiration. We have some circular reinforcement going on here. :) )

If you love natural wood, do it.

As artimis-ma and others have said if you love natural wood then do it. This past weekend a builder was the guest on a local radio show. Someone called in asking about stained vs painted cabinets. He said that of the homes he is building, it is pretty much 50% natural or stained and 50% painted.

I think the decision of which way to go depends in a large part on what's going on in the rest of the house. My house has beautiful trim and six panel doors all in the "golden oak" family. The beautiful white kitchens that I see on this forum just would not fit with the style (or lack of) in my house. When I decided to redo my kitchen I thought that natural cherry cabinets were a good complement to the golden oak in the house. I think one of the important things to consider when doing natural wood or stained wood cabinets is to have a good amount of contrast between the cabinets and the floors.

My natural cherry cabinets darkened a bit the first year but they have not changed noticeably since then. I'm glad I didn't stain them. I love the warm tone of the natural cherry wood.

I'm about to do white shaker cabinets in my kitchen Reno so I guess there are still probably others like me who still love them and are buying them regardless of trend or no trend. We're not selling for at least 15 years anyway so I'm just going to pick what I like. We too have wood overload in my house and I want to break it up &brighten it up with some painted wood for contrast. For me there can be such a thing as too much wood grain.

This has been a wonderful thread for me. I am just starting on my reno of my small NYC apartment kitchen. I was so lost last week and now I am really grabbing hold of what I like, don't like, etc. I am just at the beginning of the process, that is, going into kitchen stores and appliance stores for ideas but next week the fun begins when I meet with some contractors for design ideas.

I have decided on cherry wood cabinets, slab or shaker design, but most likely slab, with a light reddish stain or maybe natural. I was even thinking quarter sawn cherry depending on the price increase. I would like a lightish cream or such granite counter top with the same back splash. My one definite is that I dont want any stain that looks even remotely orange.

My apartment faces north and the kitchen area is galley with a pass through now. Therefore, it is darkish in this area of the apartment. I am going to take down that wall and make it an island so I can get counter space as I have virtually none now. I thought lighter counter tops would be a good way to lighten up the room since I want cherry wood.

This is about as far as I have gone until I get measurements and design ideas from the contractors/ people who will measure next week. I have to make some decisions pretty soon after that about going smaller on maybe my fridge (to maybe a 28" counter depth) to free up more counter space. I have a 30" fridge now and 24" range now and I swore, never again to that small of a oven so I will be upgrading to a 30" but decreasing fridge size to compensate.

Am I doing everything 'right' so far? Are my thoughts on wood cabinets with a light counter top and light back splash (probably both same material) a good one? Any suggestions? Thanks everyone!

New IKEA cabinets. Askersund. Saw them yesterday and love them.

Also, another new one, solid wood/veneer, Torhamn:

At the end of the day, get what you are drawn to.

Thing is, I like several different types of cabinets. Not everyone has a favorite-and-only-it-will-do.

The kitchen above was featured in House Beautiful over 5 years ago. It looks like it could have been designed today.

That's a lovely kitchen ... and I like to analyze exactly what makes rooms work.

My first thought is that it's one of those rooms that is "more than the sum of its parts" ... that is, everything "plays together" so well that you don't really see the individual items; rather, you see a lovely, timeless room. You almost don't see the cabinets or the countertops ... they blend together for a lovely space.

The hardware is unobtrusive ... natural light is a very big player in this room ... the ceiling beams area classic and tie into the cabinets ... the black appliances tie into the black lamp and window frames, but they aren't a focal point. It's just all harmonious.

White is timeless in the same way that denim (in American culture for
the past 150yrs) is timeless. Yes, people will still be wearing jeans
in 10yrs, but not the style you purchase today. Similarly the white
cabinets which will be popular in 20yrs are unlikely to be the white
shaker/marble/white subway tile backsplash, etc. Same thing with wood.

Your analogy about jeans works perfectly: When people say "white is timeless", I always cringe a little. Yeah, the color is timeless, but today's version of white is not.

Read the "new to kitchens" thread that is bumped to the 1st page.

enduring: Going to do that now. ..... thank you.

winonelson, I'd be interested in the name of your cabinet maker

badgergal : I love love love your kitchen. It has me convinced that I will go natural when getting cherry cabinets. They are stunning.

differentdrum (now I have Linda singing in my head!), my cabinetmaker was Matt Spence of Dovetail Millwork. Here's a link to his website (which could stand to be updated) - http://www.dovetailmillworkinc.com/ - tell him winonelson sent you and he'll know who it is. Good luck.

@ claudia c davis, regarding "meet with some contractors for design ideas." My experience with contractors was they were NOT at all kitchen designers. Even the "kitchen designers" I met with were more interested in selling cabinets and options/upgrades than designing the most functional kitchen. The advice you can get on GW, especially if you post your floorplan, will probably surpass anything you will get from most "kitchen designers" and contractors.

mdln: I really miscommunicated. I am sorry.

I am meeting at my home with 3 contractors and 2 'kitchen designers' (both recommended) aka essentially general contractors within a kitchen store. All 5 will measure my space and create floorplans as to how I can lay out my new kitchen, I plan on tearing down one or two walls. Once they measure, I will meet with each, review their plans, get estimates and pick one.

All the contractors I am meeting with have done literally hundreds of kitchens in NYC apartments, including my building. I have either seen some of the contractors work before or I will be seeing it this week (all in my building). One of the contractors worked on my apartment 13 years ago and I was thrilled with them. Due to the size of my apartment, there isnt much that can be 'designed' and honestly, there arent many 'ways to go' as far as 'set up' in my space. My apartment is about 675 square feet total. The kitchen might be 70 square feet...I'm not even sure.

Considering I am pretty much set on KraftMaid slab cabinets in natural cherry, there isnt much the kitchen stores can push me towards other than upgrades (which I pretty much know what I need and I dont get pushed too easily). Once the 5 contractors measure, and I get a few options on layout, I will be sure to start a new thread, post my layout options and ask a ton of questions. I am just not quite there yet.

I cannot wait to get everyone's input here as I have checked out everyone else's posts and finished kitchens and I was astonished. Everyone has such wonderful ideas! I am so excited to get this started and get your advice!

@ Claudia, No apology needed. Glad you are getting options.

I have a small galley kitchen and was told "there aren't too many things you can do." That was wrong, eventually came up with 4 very different layouts. Unfortunately I was talked out of my 1st choice by my GC saying, "it would not work," and went with 2nd choice that ended up having the exact problem he said my 1st choice had.

Good luck.

Claudia_C Davis, thank you for the compliment. I love my natural cherry cabinets. I hope you can find the perfect ones for your kitchen. Unless you like a lot of variation in wood. I would advise you to upgrade to select wood rather than standard grade for the cherry cabinets. Select grade should be more uniform in color throughout and grain matched, resulting in a more consistent grain pattern. Select grade should have only a minimal amount of sapwood in it. Sapwood is the wood that closer to the bark of the tree. Sapwood is lighter in color and does not darken a bit like the heartwood does.

Good luck with your remodel.

Well, I am in luck. The contractor that did my initial work when I first moved in still does small jobs (kitchen renos in apartments) so I made an appointment for him to measure and provide floor plans. I never had a better contractor or met a nicer businessman and I also completely trust him. The people who work for him are incredible as well and it would be a pleasure to work with them if I end up selecting them!

badgergal: I do like variations in wood but I will take your advice and ask for samples. I am going with KraftMaid (unless the contractor I pick has much better option) so hopefully they can show me samples.

mdln: I would think who makes the plans for my kitchen would know if they work or not. If they are all in there measuring, would they not know what would and would not work?

I too suggest getting your cherry matched as Badgergal suggests. I have multiple pieces of cherry furniture. I always get the surfaces matched. I forgot to do that with my dining chairs and there is a lot of stripped surfaces which I don't care for. If you have a rustic look it could work, but for most home use, I'd like matched.

Here are images of matched kitchen chair, and unmatched dining room chair, in that order. No stain:

See how beautifully the matched chair has darkened. The craftsmanship on that kitchen set is outstanding. I had it custom made by a furniture maker down in Texas. He works in walnut too.

when kitchen chair was new:

You know, for years I drooled over painted cabinets. I had the color picked out, etc. LOVED them. Made me sing!

I'd put the espresso maple in my MBR and have recently decided to paint them. SO over dark cabinets!

In the meanwhile, I got a bug in my ear and stripped some white, dinged up bead inset cabinets. OMG am I a convert. I stripped 6 of these, then stripped 8 cherry. Holy moly, I just stay in the kitchen and stare at them. I love them enough that I veneered some maple cabinets I'd made with oak just to weather them with the same stains.

No one is ever gonna love my kitchen but me, given the conglomeration of wood I have. The cherry on one side, oak on the other, and maple (as of yet unfinished) butcher block counter tops I made.

This whole thread is great, because I couldn't figure out how to keep the red or orange out of the cherry.

And to the original poster's question? Natural wood won't go out of style any more than white kitchens will ever go out of style.

Now I see what you mean about matching...I will have to call KitchenMaid and ask them myself. I dont trust anyone else to do that for me. Thanks for showing me the pictures. It made the difference.

Claudia, we have installed the Kraftmaid cherry slab fronts for a client. The Kraftmaid rep warned of mismatched woods but the clients were set on those doors, the samples were beautiful, so they were ordered and installed. And everyone hated them! They had big yellow " stripes " next to deep cherry " stripes ". Bad, but Kraftmaid would do nothing to rectify the situation because that is what their cherry slab doors are, and everyone had been warned.

This was about 5 years ago, so perhaps they have changed their ways...

Signet: Its interesting how a weekend can change my mind...I saw someone's cream kitchen and fell in love with it. They had cream cabinets, stainless appliances, a grey granite counter and gray granite back splash and gray porcelain (slate look) floors. I just loved it. I might go for that look now. I think before obsessing anymore, I might just get the floor plans this week and some ideas from those who come and measure and some designers. The obsessing is driving me nuts. Thanks for your input about the cherry.

I strongly dislike painted wood. When comparing wood to painted wood - wood is always timeless - paint will always go in and out of style.

We are building a new house and my brother in law just finished building his new house. He has grey kitchen cabinetry and an espresso island. He will be doing the white subway tiles as well. He has a ceiling full of canned lights that look like a space ship is about to land on you. Congrats - he has a standard modern American kitchen.

I don't want a standard American modern kitchen that EVERYONE else has. I want old world. I want the warmth of old world. My brother in law's kitchen looks like a modern, industrial cold kitchen.

In our kitchen, we will have simple colonial maple cabinets stained pecan (dark brown). They are beautiful and the grain makes the cabinets have depth and character (not like a flat paint). Our island will be a lighter stained maple to add brightness to the kitchen. There will only be 2 upper cabinets left open for glass or for a mesh (I haven't decided yet). There will be some open shelving. The lighting is all dimmable and and the lit areas are on separate circuits so I can affect the mood. I have pendants over the island and a pendant over the kitchen sink. There will be 2 sconces as well. None of the lighting can be sourced from a big box store - and they are beautiful.

It's been frustrating trying to gather all of the materials needed for my kitchen because almost all of the stores carry only the standard American kitchen stuff - and many of the designers/salespeople want to push everyone into buying into the "modern American kitchen style" that everyone else has.

I puke on the modern American kitchen!

I love our wood cabinets! I am not at all fond of painted cabinets and two tone seems to say "we cannot make up our minds" or "here is the new trend". We built 3 years ago and I LOVE my light cherry cabinets. If you think back through the decades wood has endured.

Going with natural walnut.

Our upcoming remodel we are Planning to use shaker cherry wood in medium stain.

tcronan40, I love walnut! I hope you do a reveal thread when you're done.