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High Gloss White or Matte White Cabinets

5 years ago

Advice needed for modern/contemporary kitchen.

Need help deciding between high gloss or matte white cabinets.

We have a light filled kitchen with a lot of south facing windows and light/medium tone hardwood floors.

Will high gloss be too bright and reflective?

Anyone with experience with ease or difficulty of cleaning Matte White cabinets - based on google research sounds like the cleaning Matte cabinets can be a challenge.

Thanks for any feedback!

Featured Answer

pippabean

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

White glossy surfaces look fresh and bright, but reflections are not jarring to the eye as dark glossy surfaces tend to be. They do not look busy due to their reflections.

We used Ikea's Ringhult white gloss fronts and our kitchen receives quite a bit of sunlight yet the cabinetry never seems too bright. The windows on the stove wall do have white translucent shades, mostly because the view there is towards the neighbors house.

We do like contrast, not just between light and dark, but also between glossy and matte, so all our dark surfaces are matte and add calm.

Here a pic of our not quite finished kitchen:

Comments (7)

byac
Original Author
5 years ago
Thanks pippabean. Very helpful...your kitchen looks great.
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Not what you are specifically referring for... but I've had this mix of flat and patterned/embossed tiles in my head for a while (its a bit different from matte vs gloss mix, but yields a similarly interesting textural variation), and this seemed like appropriate place to share it, in a thread about matt/gloss textural mixtures. This isn't the backsplash direction we ended up following in our kitchen, (noooo... not me, I ended up with my heart set on something unique, but painfully-expensive from Walker Zanger), but it is one of the "reference" ideas we considered that still stands out to me, both for the mix of textures, and the 2-tone 2-wall effect in the publicity photo: This is a relatively cheap tile (Merola) than can be ordered from HomeDepot or Overstock in several colorways: http://www.homedepot.com/s/merola%2520Antic?NCNI-5 Cheap enough (compared to more "designer-y" tiles) that a large wall-filling installation is not stratospherically expansive?
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High gloss is not for me. Not because I don't think it can look good in certain applications, but because I would freak out at the first scratch. I learned my lesson (for me only) long ago on furniture and cabinets. In my first home I bought very expensive solid cherry coffee and end tables with a nice beautiful shiny finish. The cat went skidding over the coffee table and left a scratch about ten inches long. There was no way to hide it, buff it out, cover it. I'm better with painted or natural wood finishes that are more forgiving. If you don't have kids, dogs, cats or a spouse, it's probably fine. I remember my nephew once tried to figure out if a piece of jewelry was a real diamond by scratching the glass face of a vintage clock. Yeehaw, it wasn't a diamond but it did scratch the glass...
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It is always better to have contrast, white on white is not the best option , and all glossy will make you feel crazy after a while.
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Mid America Mom
5 years ago
I have gloss slab (not white). My biggest beef is seeing fingerprints (not messy hands either!). On the counter we went matte due to my issues with fingerprints in last few homes with granite/gabbro polished.
byac thanked Mid America Mom
pippabean
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Mid America Mom - I have a glass top on that laptop/console table in the pic above and see fingerprints on that. Luckily they wipe off easily - phew!

The one or two drawer fronts I've wiped off since starting to use the kitchen a couple of months ago just needed cleaning due to food splatters.

I cannot see any fingerprints on the Ringhult fronts, even when I'm looking for them :-)

It might be horizontal surfaces or stone and glass that show fingerprints, versus vertical glossy surfaces.

OT: I'm pleasantly surprised with the FP fridge. I expected fingerprints would be showing daily. Nope, nada. I've wiped the handle a couple of times but only due to stickyness. That's it.
byac thanked pippabean
byac
Original Author
5 years ago
Any regrets on stainless steel refrigerator vs panel? Also trying to decide between the two.
pippabean
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
No, not at all. The SS fridge seems to balance the stainless hood and backsplash on the opposite side of the island. We did panel the DW as I didn't want the base cabinet run interrupted. I actually like stainless, especially the "no fingerprints" kind.
modellie
5 years ago
Pippa - I remember your planning thread very well. It's been what? Maybe 2 years? Well it's been worth it. Wow! Your kitchen looks fabulous. Congrats!

Will you post a reveal when you're all finished? I would love to see more of your cool kitchen!

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