Nancy... so right! I hate it when they do that and DH is also be blame! First he says... do what you want. then when final sign off is here... ummm, "you think that will look good?" Grrrr! I'm usually a Pacifist... but now I'm close to "passing a fist" right though his face! Just a little joke I saw on Facebook. LOL. Trying not to let this project get to me. drewem, your kitchen sounds like it will be a winner. If I had an island, I'd probably do something similar.

We bought a house recently and our kitchen cabinets are not old (~10 yrs) and great quality and we like the configuration so we decided the only thing we wanted to change is the color. They are currently stained with a glaze. We want a clean white or off\-white look (no glaze). We have a lot of cabinets and are not skilled in DIY so we agreed to hire a pro. The problem I am having is determining what kind of pro/process we really need. I have received at least five (5!) quotes which is a lot for me. We got two from painters and three from cabinet specialists. The cabinet guys' quotes were 10-12k. The painters quoted 3-5k. We got samples from one painter and two cabinet guys and I do think the cabinet guys' samples were superior - they basically look like factory cabinets but I am reluctant to spend that much money for changing the color and the painter sample seems good enough to me. I would go with the cabinet specialist, however if painting is going to be significantly less durable. The painter said he would use oil-based paint, no poly with a high volume, low pressure sprayer. One cabinet guy said he would use poly (I was less confident in him); one described a multi-step curing process (a franchise called n-hance https://www.nhance.com/blog/service/cabinet-color-change/)) that uses all water based products. Now I'm getting a bit daunted by the differing approaches and posts I've read and not really knowing the right path. Any advice? I've seen lots of posts about Cabinet Coat which I hadn't heard of. I'm including a couple of pics of our kitchen. http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3425364/hire-a-painter-or-a-cabin These are pictures from before we bought the house so we have changed wall colors and furniture and such but hopefully you can see why we want to change the cabinet colors \- they are beautiful but they blend right in with the floors, giving a sort over-all "blah" effect. Any advice is very much appreciated!

Looks beautiful! Did you paint them yourself? Were they sprayed or brushed? I'm thinking about painting ours but it seems daunting since we have a large kitchen like yours.

When you paint cabinets you have to use a particular kind of paint and follow a multi-step process in order to get a result that will last. You should do some research and then choose the white from the available whites in the right kind of paint. Also, there is no way for anyone to tell you remotely which white is going to work. Our perception of color really depends on the lighting, and colors don't look the same online as they do in person. The only way to find the right color is to sample. However, no matter which white you end up with, stainless steel is a good choice for new appliances.