Thanks Jessica. Yes, I'm going with my gut. The person I hired is back-logged and can't do until April. The wait is killing me. She did say she'd make a sample of both just so I am 100% certain.

Glazing is a matter of personal preference, but cabinet finishes are trending towards cleaner looks. However, we are on the east coast and atill do a good amount of glazing. Almost all of our stains are glazed and about 60% of our painted finishes, most with a light pearlescent tone to it, and a VERY light hand. It's done to add depth of color, not an aged look, and lately, never on oak. The issue you may have is that you are dealing with oak cabinets. Oak has grain pores which will collect glaze, hence the dirty and country look. But even without glaze the doors may not have a clean, modern look. Painted oak looks like painted oak, which, by it's nature looks more rustic and country. And if the doors have dated architecture, like arches, that just magnifies the challenge. Good luck with whatevr you decide to do.

Amazing transformation! I have heard that oak with its strong grain was very difficult to paint over. Is that why you did so many coats and can you see the grain now? We have some cabinet doors in our living room that are oak veneer and I would love to do them cream with a glaze but unfortunately as they are flat faced I don't think the glaze would show much but I am curious as to whether the oak is hard to paint.

2 years ago we went on a kitchen tour. Saw lots of these lovely glazed cabinets. In fact those cabinets helped convince my dh that painting our dark oak cabinets would be a good idea. So we started the process of painting our cabinets ourselves. Then I began to experiment with the glazing. It just made them look dirty and I decided that I liked the look of the white alone, so we went with just white. I'm so glad now I didn't glaze them. I am tired of the glazed cabinet look, but not tired of white cabinets without the glaze. (Not just referring to my kitchen, but we just went on the kitchen tour again and were in different kitchens--didn't see too much of the glazed this go 'round, but did still see lots of the creamy white cabinets) I would be afraid that it might become the same thing as when my mother did that "antique-ing" thing on her cabinets way back in the 70's.