I had white cabinets when I lived in Venice, and I hated them. They were very bad for showing dirt, and I spent a lot of time cleaning them. If they have a high gloss finish, they will be easier to clean.

For wood cabinets, I like a bleached finish, especially birch, French ash, or maple. I think light colored woods are the best.

That said, I chose color for my cabinets when I renovated my kitchen in Cathedral City. To me, it is very cheerful and also calming. My kitchen gets lots of light and has a white tile floor, and so any more white would be too glaring. I do have white/gray quartz countertops in a sort of marble-look finish/pattern.

If using laminate for countertops, I would choose the laminate before deciding on the finish for the cabinets.

Lars, I thought about a light green cabinet but wondered if I'd get tired of it. My daughter showed me pictures of purple cabinets, lol, I told her she's going to have to try and sell my house in 20 years or so, maybe less, no one is going to want purple cabinets. Same with the green, I suppose. I also like light colored wood. My bathroom vanity is really pretty and maybe will match that color if I can find it.

If I can find it, I already know what laminate I want. Like this but with little sparkly glitter in it. Ready To Install Ice White II Quartz Prefab Slab Includes Backsplash | Floor and Decor I've seen it before in Lowes but when I was doing my bathroom last year they didn't have any and no one was around to ask if I could get it. So, I just bought an all-in-one peice of porcelain for my bathroom vanity.

I've had white satin gloss kitchen cabinets the last 10 years. I didn't put them in. They've been fine, although its my second round with painted kitchen cabs when what I'd really enjoy is a wood finish. I mostly do a more continuous cleanup of them being mindful of the doors and drawers used most often. Then every once in a while I get out my 6' household ladder, lightly wash and quickly dry them using rags. That 'once in a while' may not mean annually even but probably should. I have down draft ventilation and I do cook - its not the most efficient means of keeping clean kitchen air.

I haven't considered new cabs at this point - there are a lot of them and it wouldn't be a small project.

I very much like maple but some of the darker finishes too just not the grain in most oak.

There are some very nice easy care laminates avail for countertops - just be sure to do some price comparisons to other materials too as some of those laminates may not be cost saving.

I am having my wood cabinets painted white in the next couple of weeks. My home is 28 years old and the cabinets are just worn looking and dingey. I just want something different so Im taking the leap. I will have black handles and pulls, white small subway tile off set backsplash and quartz counter with white background and grey and beige veining. I have a very small kitchen and I am hoping I will enjoy the change. The floor is hardwood and will be left. New appliances will come at some later point.

I'm happy with my wood stained. While the white look nice, it's too cold and sterile for my style. DH especially likes wood tones, as do so many men. When my cousin walked into my kitchent/breakfast nook/family room area, he said, "Can it get any cozier?" We like cozy and I don't think you get that with white.

I have white cabinets in my mud room and laundry room. I wouldn't have picked them. They're kind of bright white...like owning a white appliance. It feels sterile. I like maple, hickory or cherry. I like my maple cabinets with the rope detail best...the uppers are 42"

Link to buy RTA Found similiar

I should add...that I use RTA cabinets in MY remodels. (ready to assemble), I buy them from a supplier in Denver. The rope cabinets are RTA.

I put a combination in my kitchen redo. I have light maple cabinets on the bottom and an off-white on the top. My kitchen doesn't get much light, just through a pass-through to the dining room. I love wood, but I was afraid of it feeling claustrophobic. I like the way it looks. I had natural cheery in my house, but this condo was not worth the expense.

I have white laminate cabinets in the lower cupboards and frosted glass doors set in 1 1.2” wide white laminate frames in the upper cabinets. The glass stops it from looking too stark. I deliberately chose white to encourage me to clean off small drips and marks regularly, which has been effective in the 30 or so years since the kitchen was remodelled (hadn’t realised it was that long ago until just now 😬).

Previously I had wood stained cabinets which hid the marks and when I went to do a spring clean it was a major mission once I got going. I didn’t want to repeat that.

I had my cabinets professionally painted white in my last house. I don’t have pets or children so they stayed clean, but I found that every nick or dent showed clearly. I’m a bit clumsy so I had a few of those. They tend to blend in a bit more when cabinets are wood.

I'm not crazy about wood cabinets and I don't like really stark white kitchens either. I got lucky 21 years ago when I and a Plain and Fancy designer did my kitchen. I have off-white slightly distressed cupboards and the other half are a soft sage green. I picked black soapstone counter and huge farmhouse sink and beadboard back splash. The refrigerator and DW were/ are built-in with panels on the front. DW broke so I got a black Bosch which fits it fine. The refrigerator side by side is still working . The large island has a maple butcherboard top. I love it when I turn on HGTV and these are the colors many designers are using to get the "farmhouse" effect. But I actually live in an old farmhouse and this is a very cosy warm kitchen. Sometimes the all-white everything kitchens remind me of an operating room.

Re the counter, my cousin couldn't afford granite tops, so what he did was to buy stone tile squares that were very flat and laid them with almost no grout line between the squares. You really had to look to notice they were tile instead of slab...got the look and functionality but at a much lower cost.

Have you compared the price differance? Friends building a new home looked at white and to get the surface so it holds up to the wear and tear of a kitchen they are dipped in a resin of sorts. Its not a cheap process. hahahha Patriciae 'living in filth' is a far cry from every little splash and splatter screaming at you all the time!!

I really really really love both!

I had always had wood cabinets (well in my previous 2 houses) and when I was remodeling the kitchen in our new to us home I had a hard time deciding.

I ended up going with a soft white for the perimeter cabinets, and a darker wood for the island.

I feel like I got the best of both worlds.

I have a tiny kitchen (12' x 5 1/2') with light maple cabinets, which I love. The top cabinets are shaker style but the bottom cabinets and drawers are slab. We did this because the 12" x 4" drawers were too small for a shaker design. It was a great decision, because the bottom is where spills and dirt tend to happen, and the slab fronts are so much easier to clean.

I love my white cabinets. And both my kitchen gave them.

We are remodeling a bathroom in my NY home. We are having a vanity made of Fabuwood. No joints! Our contracted actually has his kitchen made with it.

I don't understand why people feel white gets dirtier than a wood. If anything, if something dies drip, you see right away,

That said, I can appreciate light wood kitchen and like the light woods they are using now.

Why dont you want to know your cabinets are dirty?

I have white cabinets, grew up with them, and have never had anything but white cabinets. I'm with Patriciae- "why don't you want to know your cabinets are dirty?" We remodeled several years ago, and went with white cabinets; I think they're timeless. Of course, YMMV.

I dont have white at the moment except the enormous porcelain sink front set in that cabinet. I just make a point of wiping down the cabinet fronts when I am waiting for something to boil or what ever. I am by no means a neat freak though. My cabinets are fronted with a deeply cut beadboard and it is not easy to keep clean but I don't have a lot of cabinets. No overhead at all though I have metal shelving hung on an immense slate backsplash. The metal shelving is over my sink and it there to put washed dishes on. They drip into the huge sink. An Idea I picked up at a really cool bed and breakfast in Scotland.

I'm not going to be any help, because I like both. It depends on context for me. Some whites just don't look right, or look too stark, or don't play well with others in whatever space we're talking about. Some whites really brighten up a dark space, other times white is a big fail (IMO, of course). For me personally, white in a hard one to get right.

I like stained wood. However that too can sometimes be hard to get right. Best thing about stained wood is that it's almost never going to be too stark. But for it to look good it needs to harmonize well with other wood tones in the space (if any).

A space with no stained wood anywhere rarely looks good to me, because I love the warmth stained wood brings to the indoors. But that's all just me and I have no idea if that helps you in any way....

Good luck, it's a hard choice and I struggle with it too.

I love white cabinets and have never found them to look stark unless the overall look of the style, hardware, and room is stark. I do often notice discoloration (yellowing) around highly touched areas such as the garbage pulls. I wouldn’t consider this a cleanliness issue, it’s just what happens to touched paint over time.

As I said above, I have sage green cabinets which are shaker style, and the ivory ones are raised paneled. I do notice the ivory ones get dirtier looking quicker but the green ones just camouflage the dirt or smudges. I needed to remind myself to wipe all of them equally. My butcherblock brings the wood warmth to the room. Since the farmhouse sink, counters, and part of the backsplash are soapstone, I thought it would be too much for the island.

I love both! Have had both! My current cabinets were probably brown when the house was built in 1960ish, we think they were painted white in the 80s, and we repainted them white (BM Simply White) in 2005 or so. They don’t look sterile, they are of a country style. And white is good because it is a north-facing kitchen with a 6’ covered porch, so the light is welcome.

BUT, when DH makes coffee, somehow it spills and runs down the cabinet face and door. And he doesn’t see it or clean it, and by the time I get to it a few hours later, it has started to stain. We have tried a couple of solutions that help, but…

Our kitchen is located on the north/shady side of our house so we like white cabinets to brighten things up. If our kitchen was on the south side with the same windows we might opt for a light stained look.

I had my frameless (highly recommend) maple cabinets built by a fellow up in Dover, Ohio. He was able to make them to fit and utilize every inch of my space. They are "painted" - really a catalyzed conversion varnish - in a soft bone white (he color matched Martha Stewart 'Gull') so they are light but not stark or cold - matte finish. "Stark/cold" is a result of choosing a cold white instead of a warm one.

They've been in use for 10 years now, and the only tiny damage is from a time I dropped my paring knife and the tip hit the edge of the drawer. I habitually wipe them down with a dish soapy sponge (roughly) weekly, when I do my thorough kitchen clean (floor, range hood, wall behind stove, fridge front etc). It only takes 15 minutes, if even that long. They wipe clean easily.

My floor is wood, the counters are a dark granite, the walls are a blue-green. I find it quite peaceful.

I do love a soft sage or soft blue color on cabinets also, and have seen many examples that I would happily live with.