Hmm. Our cabinets were 40 years old when we replaced them. It wasn't until we actually removed them that I realized how aged they really were. I thought they were in better shape than they were. My point is that if you're going to spend a significant amount of money, you might want to go ahead and replace your cabinets now because their natural life is coming to an end sooner rather than later. Just a thought.

this would be a great space to gut. Good looking door/window/wall molding...lighting is current....floor looks good. The cabinets should come out and get a different kitchen completely,if it were mine.It doesn't have to be a big ticket ordeal,either. Can you post dimensions,if you feel open to a re-vamp?

My opinion: white appliances look best with light-colored (medium at the most) cabinets, either painted, natural, or a very light stain. I like white appliances (we kept ours), but they do tend to look less upscale than stainless unless you have very expensive ones. They can also skew retro or vintage. Our appliances are very much like yours except that we have an electric stove.

We just went through pretty much exactly the same decision you are going through. Our cabinets were in good shape except for some discoloration of the door edges. They really were in good condition -- they were European-made and quite costly at the time they were bought. I tried all sorts of ways to make them work in our new layout (we needed a new layout) but ultimately it was simpler to replace all of them. That doesn't mean it is also the best decision for YOU, of course. What happened with mine was that I was going to add some IKEA cabinets (same construction -- frameless, and at a price point that agreed with me) and the old cabinets were different dimensions than the IKEA ones. Both height and depth were off by a bit, so either the IKEA cabinets or mine would have to be cut down, and there were enough new ones needed that it would not be an entirely trivial thing to do. So factoring in 3 things, it was simpler to replace. The 3 things were: 1) needing to cut several cabinets down and mixing new ones with the old throughout the new layout, 2) needing all new custom doors if we did that, and 3) Habitat would demo the kitchen for us if we would donate the whole shebang but not if they could only have half of it. My hesitation on getting custom doors was that we wanted white, and I decided that there was no low-VOC, low-odor (we had to have that) paint I could use myself that would be as durable as a factory finish (we have dogs and small children).

Anyway. If you want a light maple door, then I think white appliances will look fine. If you do an Internet image search for "white appliances," you should be able to find some photos of kitchens so you can see what you think. If you want a dark stain, then white might stick out more than you like. And by the way I would not have hesitated to finish custom wood doors myself -- the finish I used on our new wood floor would have worked nicely for cabinets too (and it doesn't stink). Painting them was what gave me pause, given our restrictions on odor.

Good luck! By the way, I would like to see a close-up of your backsplash if you don't mind. :) I have to figure something out for ours. Is that the one you put in yourself?

My old kitchen has maple and white appliances. It looks fine. However, I'm with herbflavor on this. With what it will cost to reface and add cabs, you can get a new kitchen. One huge benefit to that will be your ability to switch from base doors to all drawers.

Thanks for all the replies.

herbflavor, suzannes1 and remodelfla,

I did look at new cabinets first, but I don't have all that many options for how to layout the kitchen and my cabinets while old are really in good shape. My refacing estimate, which is about 40% less than replacing the cabinets, includes replacing all the draws and adding a couple of cabinets. While I'd be open to changing my mind, I'm still stuck with my original dilemma, which is how to integrate the white appliances.

herbflavor,

The space is 16'-3" x 8'

The pictures I posted shows the rear door as you could probably guess there is a doorway between the stove the fridge. I don�t have an option to move the sink from the corner and while you can�t tell, the cabinet around the fridge is only 21" deep, we stole 4+ inches from the wall behind the fridge to get ~4' between the fridge and the counter, so the fridge really needs to stay there.

northcarolina,

Here is the picture of the backsplash, which is just 4 different 4x4 tiles placed randomly.