mine are not glazed, and are painted OC-11 Clay Beige---here's a pic--it's similiar to the kraftmaid cab color-mushroom.

My cabinets are SW Divine White, no glaze. Creamy without being yellow (although I like yellow, just not with the light in there), but it can take on a pink cast depending on the quality of light since there is a drop of maroon in the formula. Works great for my north facing kitchen.

The yellowish cast on cabs on the left is from the awful florescent light box I can't wait to rip out. The color on the right is how it looks day to day. Oh, and my kitchen hasn't been reno'd yet. I just did some cosmetic things so that I didn't hate walking in there!

BM Cloud White, creamy, no pink or peach (a must for me). No glaze. You need more than a handful of chips to consider what color will work in your kitchen. The amount and quality of the light in your kitchen will influence and affect the color you choose. My kitchen has east-facing windows, yet I have light all day long. In the afternoon I pick up some green light from outdoor foliage.

Picking whites/creams is one of the hardest things for most people. Make sure you have large painted samples, ideally about the size of a cabinet door. Move them around, live with them for a week, narrow it down to your two faves. Either one will be fine. Good luck!

BM Simply White or AF20 (mascarpone) are my out of the box, go to whites from Ben Moore. SW Creamy and Dover White are my Sherwin Williams picks.

But yes, whites/creams are hard. If you're a person who can't see undertones well, look at the deepest color on the strip of whites. It will basically show you whether a color is likely to go peach, green, etc.

And don't skimp on painting a large board and looking at it in your space for several days.

My cabinets are painted Sherwin Williams Westhighland White. It's just creamy enough without being too yellow or beige. I love it. I agree that Dover white is nice, too. A little deeper than Westhighland, though.

BM Halo. They are glazed and very very lightly distressed but I don't think you could see it in the photo. The purpose of the glaze was to simulate brush strokes.

close up showing back wall, beadboard with a wash of Palladian Blue
{{gwi:1575153}}

mtnrdredux...i LOVE those bowls. where did you get them?
to answer the original poster...bm sugar cookie.

oh thank you all for the colors and most important the pictures! I just love pictures lol.

christine40 I love your granite!

grlwprls, thanks for the tip to look at the deepest color to see undertones. I don't see them well at all on chips, but get it on the wall? oh my them I'm stuck with it.

I don't want any pinkish or greenish undertones. I'd rather err on the side of yellow.

At lunch I'll be hitting up SW and BM for chips and maybe sample pots. Now, anybody want to pick a sink for me????? :)

Just a comment about the strips and undertones. BM Simply White was one of my cabinet paint finalists. I happened to have an old color strip with the paint I chose for my bedroom, BM Camouflage, a very soft gray-green. At the top of the strip (lightest) was Simply White! If there is any green in Simply White, it is beyond my ability to perceive. Check out Breezygirl's cabs, done in Simply White. Nary a trace of green. Perhaps the strip was unrelated colors that BM thought complimented one another? Just something to think about.

Terri, I don't want to hijack, hope you don't mind but I have a question for all you who, it sounds like, didn't get a white finish from the manufacturer: how durable is your finish? Did you topcoat with something to help it hold up? Did you paint them yourself or pay a pro?

I haven't found quite the white that I want in the price range I want to pay. They seem to be either too starkly white, too gray, too yellow (even too yellow with pick undertones!) even though I wouldn't mind a very subtle yellow undertone.

Raee

Raee, I paid a pro to paint my cabinets. They did the (new) doors and drawer fronts in their shop and the boxes in-place in my kitchen. It wasn't inexpensive. I've had the paint job for a year. I'm the only one using the kitchen, besides one of my cats who can open all the lower cab doors. The finish still looks brand new. I clean them with only mildly soapy water. I was very paranoid about scratches, dings, etc. the first few months, but they're hardier than they look and I've stopped obsessing.

My cab guy said he is going to spray a lacquer finish on top. I'm hoping this makes them extra sturdy. And I'm also hoping it doesn't yellow..... better ask about that.

A034 - Anthropologie. Actually I have them in 4 designs, i just love them. I also like their diminutive size (~ 1 cup). I can't help it, I like everything that company does.

Raee, I have purchased cabinets twice in my life, both custom. The first time it was the Rutt brand. They paint their cabinets before install, in a paint booth with a special paint and paint process ( i forget what it is called and all I can think of is the phrase "catalytic converter" but I know that is not it!).

They boasted how well this paint would hold up. They were right. Nary a chip or scratch, 8 years of use or so and three little kids. When we sold our house they still looked new.

Great, right?

I know this may sound odd, but they were too perfect. To me it was as thought they were not wood, the finish was so smooth and flawless.

So for my new kitchen, which is also in a less formal, more country home, I really wanted to see brush strokes. These were totally custom from a carpenter via our GC. However, everyone said that they really needed to be painted in a spray booth with that same procedure. Then, afterward, they would do a very light glaze to add the brush strokes.

I have no idea if that was good advice or not. I still wonder why people couldn't just paint them in situ. Not enough profit is my guess.

BM Timid White:

I painted mine. Yes, there are areas that have worn and some chips from getting whacked with tools-my DH isn't very careful with anything.

Most of my worn areas are from child locks rubbing because SOMEBODY wouldn't depress them before trying to close the door. He also doesn't use the knobs or pulls, so I have to clean the painted area often. If I lived alone, they would still look great. The cabs only I get into are fine. I used SW Pro Classic Acrylic Enamel in a Satin finish-because I like the soft glow. Semi-gloss would resist dirt better. No top coat because I knew I'd have to retouch in my household.

Mine are BM Wihdham Cream... my walls are BM Barley

Here is a link that might be useful: more photos here

This post was edited by donaleen on Mon, Jan 21, 13 at 13:16

Interesting.... creamy says yellow tone to me. Apparently it is very popular. This quote says it is grey and yellow.

BENJAMIN MOORE WHITE DOVE OC-17: "The one color that people consistently pick for moldings and windows is White Dove. It has the softness of alabaster, with a little gray and a little yellow. For long-term livability, what helps is that yellow cast. Put it up against other colors and you'll see how well it works. It's practically universal."

Alabaster....good description. On their own, I am not aware of yellow. I previously had really creamy/ivory cabinets, and those were definitely yellow. These do read 'warm' white rather than cool. So, that could be the yellow in them.

donaleen, I think BM White Dove *does* have a bit of gray in it. At least that what's distinguished it from BM Cloud White, which might have a bit, but a lot less.

I think that the cream that works depends on the situation... the light, the other colors.

Some say it also depends on location and how dark or bright it is (sunny southern California is pretty different from Portland, OR).

Cream says yellow to me also. When I was picking my white for cabs, anything that looked creamy had yellow in the formula. And BM White Dove? Sickly, gray yellowish-green in my light. Horrid. Nothing white or creamy about it.

Regarding the white at the end of the strip having the same undertones as the darkest on the strip, that's false as Linelle pointed out. I had to choose colors for every room in the house towards the end of the reno when my decision making muscles were exhausted, especially the ones associated with paint after selecting my cab color. I finally hired a well-respected color consultant as it was cheaper and faster than me buying another three dozen little paint cans, paint large pieces of poster paper, and then agonize for weeks over which was right.

She explained to me the way paint companies compile the strips. They are not the same shade of a color with varying gradations. IIRC, they are simply colors that work well together. You can't take the darkest color and add some white to get the next color up on the strip. They are different. As Linelle mentioned, my cabs are BM Simply White. Over the year or more I gathered paint strips, I found SW on several different strips. There is NO green undertone at all and being on a strip with green doesn't make it so. The formula is a pure white base with just a couple (or maybe it was three) drops of black tint. That's it.

Mine are sprayed with BM Satin Impervo Waterborne paint, which gives them a subtle, soft glow. No glaze. I love them. Mtnrdredux meant to say hers were sprayed with a cat lacquer or pre-cat lacquer. That will wear better than regular latex paint like was used on mine.

Donaleen--Windham Cream is simply smashing in your kitchen! That what I picture when I think "creamy". For Sherwin Williams, it's Creamy that comes to mind.

OP--if Windham Cream is too yellow, try BM Mascarpone, Cotton Balls, or Cloud White. For me, these had a bit of yellow which made them warmer than stark white, but weren't as yellow as Windham Cream. Definitely buy some paint samples and paint them on large poster board or paper. Then hang them up in different parts of the room and look at them at different times of day and night when the quality and quantity of natural light is different.

This post was edited by breezygirl on Tue, Jan 22, 13 at 2:17