In my opinion, everything will look dated after a certain point. Styles change over time and things that were once in style look dated. I say pick what you love and make sure the kitchen has a cohesive look with your finishes. You'll be using it every day so you might as well pick what makes you happy. For what it's worth, I think your cabinets are gorgeous.

I would agree with megs. I think the cabinets look great as well. Obviously how it looks with everything else we on here cannot see, but the cabinets look great and I do think that because they are not trendy, they will have a longer life.

I too am looking at Wellborn and on the fence about painted or stained.

That is a beautiful cabinet. Just keep in mind that going with all dark wood on perimeter upper cabinets in particular, will create a more closed-in feeling than something lighter. That may be fine based on your preference, or based on a roomy space to begin with...just something to keep in mind. Wood cabinets will also age to be a bit darker than when first installed fyi (which may also be fine if you are looking at a sample color you like that has already aged)

A cabinet with all those panels/beveling already looks "dated". It's just way too ornate. The picture looks very "busy".

Most of the stained wood cabinets being used today are very high quality wood and have slab doors to best show off the grain of the wood. Stain or paint - I would choose a far simpler style cabinet, either a slab or a shaker.

I also think these "driftwood" finishes are already dated. Start over.

Ccwatters- thanks for the input, that’s a good point. The space is already tight. I don’t want to make it feel smaller. People keep telling us that as long as the floors are lighter it’ll be ok but I’m not sure.

If you love wood, go with wood. I love white kitchens, but I know that they are not for everyone. The biggest issue is making sure that you have good lighting and bring in lighter colors with the counters and backsplash. This kitchen is great example of a current dark kitchen that feels light and bright.

Momofthree- yes we were going much lighter for the floors, counter tops and backsplash. And lots of light and windows... painted cabinets look too plastic-like to me, but I am seriously doubting myself with this pick and if we shouldn’t stick with white, which feels “safer.”

The good thing of Houzz is that you can look at many pictures. You have to find out your style. Are you traditional, contemporary or transitional. People that are transitional do shaker style. If yo do wood cabinets, and in ten years from now you dont like the color, it can be change.

You said you are doing wood floors In the kitchen. Please provide a photo of what the floors will look like, or at least a description - type of wood, what stain. You only said they’re “lighter” which is almost meaningless. You cannot know whether the cabinetry wood you show in your OP will be right without considering the floors in concert, together. It is a mistake to pick colors one at a time.

I have to wonder about a few comments here that the molding or detail on the cabinets is dated and that shaker or slab are the answer. I tend towards traditional/transitional and have tried to like the slab which I find just beautiful in anyone else's home (but NOT mine). I do find shaker attractive and can certainly understand why it's so popular- but I don't think I prefer it to the more traditional. Do most people really find the style of door (that davenport one posted above) as dated?

The cabs you like are gorgeous but will never give a rustic feeling as they are quite formal and too dark. You may want to consider a balance of color like the photo HERE http://designstiles.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/kitchenremodel.jpg

I really like the first picture that Holly posted. I agree with others that we need to see what the floor will be to decide whether the cabinets go well. I prefer white and/or lighter wood unless you have a ton of light in your kitchen.

The cabinets are beautiful. If you love them, use them. Please dont follow a trend. A house is never a home, unless you pick what you yourself love. White kitchens have been so overdone, that one looks just like the next one, so its very refreshing to see something a bit different. Block out all thoughts of what others might like, and think hard about what you, yourself love and want, and your kitchen will be something you will love for years. Dont second guess, anything you really love and want.

ruffian - if you are wanting a wood-tone-cabinet kitchen, I would not go with white based solely on what people say/you fear will be dated, etc.

Keeping your space, house style, and other existing elements in mind (floor, amount of windows, adjoining rooms, etc), and focusing first on the layout is key to ending up with something you will feel is timeless/still love down the road.

In my home, I currently have "dated" cream-colored-raised-panel cabinets with mocha glaze on perimeter / raised panel cherry on a 9' island. I have porcelain tile floor, and tumbled marble backsplash. Ugh! I deigned the kitchen myself 16 years ago and loved it....and 16 years later people still ALWAYS remark every time they walk in that they absolutely love my kitchen.

Every material in it is something dated now, but all together it feels cohesive, comfortable, and pretty....and it functions like a dream. I designed it with drawers everywhere instead of base cabinets, tons of counter space, great appliances (double ovens, gas cooktop, pot-filler, prep sink, etc,) and an island for cooking/baking at one end and eating for 5 at the other. The space is roomy with a vaulted ceiling on one side and the other opening to a cozy family room, and tons of natural light with casement windows all around and two skylights for this North-East facing space. Lots of room for "gathering" with a large wood table off to the side in addition to my island seating.

So even though it is filled with "dated" materials, the dated elements don't stand up against the comfort of the space and how all the elements work together visually ...and it still has its own style at a time where seas of white kitchens dominate.

I do have a shaker-style-white-cabinet /hardwood floors/white subway kitchen at our cottage, which I designed 9 years ago. I loved it when I designed it and still do...but even while sitting in this kitchen, people remark that they LOVE my kitchen at home....my dated cream-glazed-raised-panel cabinet/porcelain tile/tumbled marble backsplash/ogee-edge-granite kitchen at home ;))

My point is, no cabinet style, material, or other design element (counter, backsplash, etc) alone will be able to be timeless (though hardwood floors come closest) because TRENDS change. But the way you pull everything together, if you pay attention to what will maximize the function and "good-feel" of your overall space/house, is what will give you the best chance of having a space that you will also love 16 years later.

Look at pics for inspiration, but pay attention to the layout you have FIRST before settling on cabinet colors. If dark wood makes you feel too closed in on a perimeter with that layout, maybe look at going with wood in a lighter stain. Check out Holly's beautiful inspiration pics she posted, wood and white is always crisp and so appealing to look at!..... BUT, If your space can handle the richer color, and you love it, go for it! Take into consideration your ceiling height, room size, windows for natural light, adjoining rooms, etc. Look at your inspiration pics and stick with what makes you happy...especially if you have the space and light for it!

As an aside, my mom just picked ivory doors for her new kitchen and gave me that to work with in designing her space. Ivory is "dated" .... it is not trendy because hardly anyone buys it, and it is TRICKY to find other elements to work with it. But it's what made my mom feel good and we are now almost done building a truly gorgeous kitchen in a house where white would have looked like it didn't belong...and I personally love that it ISN'T white ;)

Honestly if you want modern farmhouse for the house, you’ve already dated your house because modern farmhouse is a trend and anything that is trendy will eventually be dated.

Do the cabinets work with the age and style of your house? If so then absolutely do them.

I can't add anything to what others have posted - forget about dated - forget about trendy. What do you love - which pictures of kitchens do you instinctively gravitate towards. When I've chosen stuff I love, I have continued to love them. I have stuff bought in college which is Art Deco, Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau which I still love (and I wasn't reading design magazines or even knew what I was attracted to - this was my pick from the thrift stores that I frequented to furnish my early places on the cheap LOL).

Conversely when I bought stuff that was theoretically on trend, I never really liked them all that much and was relieved when I could justify getting rid of you - Goodbye earth tone sofa.

I just finished a remodel and went with quarter sawn white oak cabinets stained a medium caramel brown. Ironically from what I have read in the design stuff, wood kitchens are coming back - at least in the most high end cabinet makers like Christopher Peacock and Smallbones. Not that I care about what is currently en vogue because five years from now I am reasonably certain that I am not going to be wringing my hands because my kitchen looks "dated".

So far as I am concerned white and gray kitchens are now the kitchens produced for the lowest common denominator of taste - white Shaker cabinets with white subway tile and white quartz counters are the kitchens that seem to be predominant in builder grade subdivisions and I suspect that a decade from now houzz forums will be filled with the same threads as we know see for the builder grade honey oak cabinets with cathedral arches :-).

My sister just bought a new build. She loves the white cabinets and white subway tile. But she’s close to the beach and coastal style is in every new build. Will this be dated in ten years? Perhaps, but look at the years of joy she’ll be getting now. Few styles are everlasting. Here’s a picture of the model. She’ll be adding blues and some green. Opens to family room and dining area where she’ll bring in color.

I live in a coastal city and I don’t have a single thing other than my bowl of shells that says coastal. And yes greens but mine are paired with tans and hints of reds.

And like Helen I have always loved craftsman, art nouveau, etc, so that is what my whole house is.

If you do what you love, it will stay timeless

@decorky. The issue I have with the white kitchen posted is that it ignores functionality since every single lower cabinet is a door instead of a drawer and I suspect that none of the lower cabinets have rollouts. The doors are also partial overlay

It is the issue I have with most of the new build kitchens I see on tv or when I look at listings. They are delivering a look with not much thought regarding function.

OP, should do what she loves, there are multiple wood vs. white kitchen threads going right now.
If you love wood, do wood, if you love white, do white. Ask for advice on layout, colors, kitchen gadgets...these boards are a wealth of info.
As an anecdote...we fully renovated our last house and it was in pristine condition. The buyers still had all sorts of little issues that they wanted to negotiate. I also work in real estate, and a well designed kitchen is a selling point whether it is wood or white. Just a long winded way of saying, do what you love, and enjoy the home that you live in.

Helen, i do agree however if she opts for the gourmet kitchen then the bottom cabinets all have pullout drawers in them. New builds in her (and mine for that matter) price range generally don’t have much more thought to them then aesthetics. They can’t throw these homes up fast enough for the people wanting to buy. They really limit options and therefore limit originality.

Helen, one could argue that the same is true for most of the floor plans and exteriors as well. A casual browse through a major builder or stock plan website is enough to demonstrate that.

It has to matter to you enough for you to want better, and to want better ENOUGH to not get caught up in what everyone else is doing.

Thank you all so so much for your input! It’s all be really helpful and taken to heart. I went back to our cabinet place today, went back to the color floor model on display that I originally gravitated towards, and the designer is going to see if she can change our cabinets to that brand in that color/stain. It is close to the Wellborn drift but a touch lighter. We live in what I will consider the countryside. We have always dreamed of building a log home. So I rustic but modern has been our thing for a long time now... it resonates with the posts saying do what you want. Modern farmhouse wasn’t picked because it’s trendy, but because it’s “us.” TBH I didn’t even know it was trendy!

As far as door styles, I can’t even remember the exact one we picked but simple has always been our goal so I think it’s something like shaker style but a bit more curved / less 90 degree angled.

Holly- I love your inspiration photos! Thank you so much for them!

As far as floors go- we don’t have them picked out yet. Our designer encouraged us to first pick cabinets we like, as there are less options, and then pick floors that match. I know we’ll go lighter to lighten up the space and because we have dogs and kids so I don’t want something dark showing all the dog hair, etc.

I think the way you avoid looking dated is to avoid doing what everyone else is doing. ‘Looks’ become dated when everyone is doing them during a certain ‘date’. Oak cabs with fruit motifs, Tuscan, espresso cabs with builder grade granite, grey everything, modern farmhouse Joanna. The ‘looks’ are iconic to an era and thus while cohesive, they also typically lack imagination.

To avoid that, you should use elements that are harmonious but not ‘suburban tract development standard’ common. You also have to, ultimately choose what YOU like (just know your taste may evolve and change).

For example: I LOVE ornamentation. Gothic revival is some of my favorite as it has a distinctly fantasy feel. I consider my home very transitional. My craft room cabinets are ornate (rope molding galore) and cream glazed with black. AND, I know, get ready, I even have gasp a medieval floral motif in there! The horrors. And yet we’ve not had a guest walk by the room who doesn’t exclaim how gorgeous it is and more importantly I happen to love it. I think the room looks ‘classic’, not dated, but even if it is dated to some, so what? Design for YOU and your joy.

Instead of looking at home design magazines that regurgitate the same shtick, you can find some truly inspiring imagery looking up period historical decor and rooms.

I guess, all in all, don’t be afraid to be different, but also, if you love it, don’t be afraid to be the same either.

@decormyhome - That was my point - white Shaker cabinets with white subway tiles with white counters has now become the default kitchen of almost every home now built in America just as other kitchen styles - white formica with oak trim; oak with cathedral or arched doors; pseudo-Tuscan kitchens; avocado, harvest gold or copper appliances all completely overwhelmed and defined certain eras and are now the subject of threads asking how they can "save" their terrible dated kitchens.

These have become the kitchens of the starter homes and so if someone is remodeling their home and is afraid not to go with a look that isn't white Shaker/white subway because they think that look is somehow "timeless", my point is that ten years from now, it will most certainly be thought to be "dated" just as the other ubiquitous kitchen looks are. I have been binging on House Hunters and yes indeed every starter/builder home or new relatively modest flip/remodel has that kitchen including omitting the more expensive functional stuff like drawers or hoods. People want an island and often the island is at the expense of storage and lacks any storage below - if one is going to deliberately take away a wall of storage to make a kitchen open, isn't the island supposed to theoretically provide storage?

And if the kitchen on HH isn't currently white, the realtor assures the house hunter that a simple can of white paint will solve the problem - ignoring the cathedral doors and the expensive and/or difficult aspect of painting old cabinets. But I digress.

Now if one truly loves a look and is very sure about one's taste, then go for it whether it be white, or orange or walnut slab or whatever else one loves. However a person who is opting for design choices they love isn't starting threads worrying or asking about whether something is on trend or will look dated because that wasn't part of their thought process. There are all kinds of questions one can (and should) ask about kitchen design which will help one achieve a much better kitchen than one would have without the houzz community but unless one is flipping for sale within six months, relying on trends or anonymous predictions on what will be dated in X years is futile and ultimately self defeating.

@Helen- thank you for your comments. You have inspired me to go with the style and look we initially wanted (“trendy” or “dated” or not- it fits what we like!) and stick with it. So thank you, it’s honestly been super helpful in my doubting not going white and that being a mistake, even though I knew it wasn’t what we wanted.

OP, glad you're feeling more confident in your decisions.

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