Are you kidding me? I want modern high gloss doors too, but ALL of these cabinets are CRAP!!! They are all particleboard and MDF! No offense, but that is EXACTLY what Ikea is! At least Ikea prices it's cabinets at a rate that matches the lifetime they will last: 5-7 years. I LOVE St. Charles, but I imagine they cost well over $50,000. Anyone know for sure? I really want vintage metal cabs, but they just do not fit my kitchen. That's why I'm trying to go Mid-Mod in WOOD - NOT PARTICLEBOARD! The Ultracraft cost $17,000 a few years ago? Ikea costs $7,000 today for the same thing. Granted, their sizes suck (none of the turquoise glass doors I want fit my kitchen). For $17,000 you can buy wood cabinets from PA and order custom high-gloss doors from another company and still probably have the carcasses custom painted. After seeing these prices for particleboard, those plywood cabinets are actually looking like a bargain (though NOTHING compares to the solid wood cabs in my original kitchen). And all this "Green" marketing is B.S.! Particle board and MDF do not last - MDF disintegrates in water! Wood lasts. Having to dump and replace your kitchen every few years is as far from "green" as you can get! Nevermind all the toxic resins and glues used to make particleboard and MDF. FYI: If you truly want to go modern and are willing to pay $2,000 a cabinet (what these "lower end" ones average), then do yourself a favor and go with solid stainless steel - they'll last forever. It's mostly custom (outdoor kitchens), but many offer interior options with colorful non-stainless doors. St. Charles is powdercoated steel (you cannot paint / powdercoat stainless). Personally, because I know the costs of the raw materials and I can build, do everything myself, I know that ALL cabinets are a major rip-off - the cheap ones are CRAP and not worth the money / time to install something that won't last, and the high-end ones have exhorbitant markups (mostly sales/ design, less actual manufacturing) built-in that is well into the hundreds per hour. The only reason I don't want to build my own cabinets is because I don't have a dedicated woodshop and I've never worked with Blum glides (very technical) and I actually want my cabinets to function and last at least 50 years. Therefore I am looking into having my bases truly CUSTOM (to my exact specs) built and I'll probably build the uppers myself. For example, I need a custom 14-15" deep base 4-drawer cab for my dishes that is 24" wide and 39" high with 12" Blum Blumotion undermount full-extension soft-close glides, solid 3/4" maple dovetailed drawer sides, 1/2" plywood drawer bottoms. The 4 drawer boxes ((3)-8"hx21"wx12"d", (1)-3"hx21"wx12"d) should cost no more than $230-300 (that's high - I'm trying to find a boxmaker willing to do dovetails and the 1/2" bottoms). 3 solid maple (not plywood) 10" x 24" slab drawer fronts should cost about $60, and one 5" x 24" maple slab front should cost about $15. Then I need the cabinet made - I want 3/4" plywood sides and solid face frames - the material alone should cost no more than $100-150 (prices keep going up every time I check). That would be $405-525 materials cost - that includes the labor to make the drawer boxes with attached glides and thedrawer fronts. To that I'd add $200 for the labor to build the simple cabinet carcass and install the pre-made drawers and pre-made drawer fronts. That would be $100 per hour. (A real cabinet maker can make a 15"x24"x39" cabinet in an hour easily, then installing / aligning the drawers should take another hour. If it takes longer than that for a professional, they are a joke (read woodweb - many of them do face-frames in 10 minutes). Total MAX for a top-of-the-line ALL WOOD cabinet like this should be no more than $625-750. Then paint and hardware - that I'll do myself - .75 Liters of Fine Paints of Europe Hollandlac Brilliant high gloss $30 and primer $35. Plus sandpaper / brushes (have those) = $75. 4 Mid-Mod knobs ~ $40. All-in-all, the cabinet should come in well less than $1,000. Heck, at that rate, based on savings compared to the cabinets listed here, I can buy a good paint sprayer. Even if this was a full-depth 24" cabinet it would only cost about $150 more in materials (longer glides, longer cab sides and deeper drawer boxes - all other dimensions would be the same). It actually costs a lot more per square foot to build a small cabinet like I need, but I have no choice.

Wow thanks for all the responses! I think both of the above kitchens are very nice, and katienic, you know I already love yours! You bring up a good point about what pops. If you don't want your appliances to pop, then what you did makes sense. I'm a counter top or backsplash person, and that is what I want to pop. We're considering Cambria Quartz in Victoria. Our sample is not as golden as the link below shows on their website. It's sort of busy, so if we choose this I probably will have a painted backsplash, or very plain tile. I am planning a stainless panel behind the stove like the above picture. And depending on how dark we go with the stain, we might just choose a creamy off white counter in the quartz. rhome, yes it's Amendoim, not cherry :). We chose pecan wood, and I do need to ask if that can be stained darker. If not, I'll go with a dyed maple perhaps. I think cherry is going to be out of my price range. sweeby, he gave me some reasons he won't do it, most having to do with technical things like the door hardware having to attach to the stiles. But I thought that concealed hinges had to go in that way anyway. We are going to see a kitchen he did on Monday evening, and I plan to take some pictures, so I'll post them. This kitchen was done in pecan wood as well. I'm thinking maybe if I just go darker on the wood that might be okay. Even 1" overlay would be better than 1/2". I'll ask him more on Monday after I see his work. He told me in his view what dates my kitchen are these three things: 1. uppers don't go to the ceiling (but they can't due to cathedral ceilings, and I don't want them to anyway - DH and I collect old things we put up there). 2. the look of the doors (he's right) 3. my lowers are not drawer bases So maybe if we can compromise with 1" overlay, and we go darker, having the drawer bases will be a good look. Either way, I'm leaving now to go look at a new kitchen place that started business in New Orleans and have expanded to Baton Rouge. I called and the manager said their cabinets are all wood, and are made to their specs, but I don't know who makes them. He also said they do granite, and no one can beat their prices on cabinetry or the granite. Hmmm, I'll have to see. I'm going to ask if they're using China plywood; my cabinet maker warned me about that. Here is a link that might be useful: Victoria quartz

You know, I had been so sure I wanted a white kitchen, too. But when decision time came, and the more I thought about it--mainly thinking about the scuff marks and dents that would surely mar the finish anyway--I decided on stained maple cabinets too. I just love the grain-less look of maple! After redoing our kitchen this past summer we love the casual country look of our maple cabinets. For the perimeter we chose a light stain, that pale natural light color that you don't like--although I love it, and while not in style right now it looks so beautiful after junking our crappy dark 70's cabinets. However for our island we did a dark maple stain--called Country Cinnamon-- and I gotta say we absolutely love it! A beautiful rich reddish-brown, and I love the minimal grain look. We also used the satin nickel cup pulls on the drawers and simple knobs on the the doors, and it looks beautiful. The island with the dark maple stain and hardware reminds me of an old general store, with the bins of candy and flour--that kind of casual antique-y style. Now I know it is more difficult to stain maple dark, but there are special techniques that the cabinet makers should be using if they know what they are doing. Make sure to get a sample so you can see how it looks. I will try to post a picture tomorrow. Right now my island is covered with about 20 little pumpkins and the craft supplies my daughter and I used to decorate them today!

I think the crisp muslin is pretty. Computer monitors don't always translate color well. I have similar tone cabinets and my paint is a light creamy beige - lighter then your present color - just enough color to set off my white trim, but not too much contrast - a look similar to the Crisp Muslin. I am seeing a lot of warm woods mixed with creams and whites in newer design pics.