We built our house in 1998, and at the time had custom cabinets built throughout the house. (I'm on this site now because we are redoing a kitchen in another home!) The ones in the kitchen are natural maple, with a clear finish (I'm not sure of the product but could ask DH). They have help up very well with 2 exceptions. 1-- the cabinet under the sink has some milky spots from water. I'm kind of a seal sometimes, and water doesn't always stay in the sink. 2--the toaster oven that sits next to the refrigerator panel seems to have dried out that wood a bit. Could probably refinish these areas. Now, our cabinet maker was/is an amazing craftsman--everything is bookmatched, the wood is beautiful. I'm wondering if larger custom shops use a finish that is more durable?

We've had our white custom cabs since October of 2010.
So far just a couple of nicks, but they clean up well with just an occassional wipe down.
They're painted with Martin Senour automotive paint, color matched to BM Gardenia and then finished with a catalyzed lacquer

This post was edited by willtv on Mon, May 13, 13 at 22:15

Ours were stained (spray stained for the yellow, hand stained for the chocolate ones), then sprayed with some kind of fast drying poly in a clean room at the cabinet shop. Holding up beautifully, not a mark on them. Only 18 months in so far for us though.

The custom cabs that we have currently were installed by the PO. They look absolutely brand new. The inside of the sink cabinet has a white mark towards the back from perhaps a slow water leak. There is not a ding, dent, or scratch anywhere to be seen. We have lived here for 17 years and the po built the house a few years before selling so I would say they are probably 21 years old.

I built, stained and finished with lacquer my original cabinets in 1986. They've Held up great, although I did give a light sanding and a couple coats in the late 90's for a quick freshen up. We recently updated the kitchen with new doors and drawer fronts, but did not need to refinish the cabinets, still looking good! I had to use water base finish on the new doors and drawers, (no more lacquer in California) ...we'll see how it holds up

Ours are poplar painted in BM Aura and are fine, but definitely not perfect after 2.5 years. (Caveat: we also have a toddler and a giant dog, so...) We have some weird problems with discoloration on a couple of doors painted white that I need to call the cabinetmaker to get fixed, but just haven't had a moment to do. Half of our cabinets are gray and those are doing well, though. Otherwise, the finish is fine but chipped in a few places. Not enough to bother us or motivate us to get the touchup paint out yet, though. And honestly, I'm not sure it would be much different with factory finishes--our cabinets get rammed with toy wagons and push toys regularly, run into by humans and canines, etc.--so we're not exactly gentle on them. On balance we're quite happy with them, though if we were doing a painted kitchen today, I might experiment with some of the newer products (e.g., BM Advance, which had just hit the market when we were choosing paint). We have Aura throughout our house and I adore it for walls in flat/matte/eggshell, but am less thrilled with it in satin for trim and cabinetry.

Thanks Anne2326- That's good to know, be careful around the sink and watch the toaster oven. Though 1998 is quite a while ago. Good luck with your new kitchen!

Thanks willtv, we are getting catalyzed conversion varnish, think that's the same thing.

That's great Holly-kay! I hope I am just as lucky!!

Thanks tagggie, that combination sound lovely!

I admire your abilities ctycdm. Wish I was handy. You must feel so proud whenever you are in your kitchen!

Thanks for the advice artemis78. My kids are older than yours, but my dining room hutch has quite a few distressed areas from where someone banged their fork on the door!

I finished hand painting our custom Crownpoint cabinets in Fall of 2006, and moved into the finished kitchen at the end of 2006, so 6 1/2 years of hard use, and they're like new. I used Fine Paints of Europe's ECO primer and paint.

Ours are holding up just fine. We moved in a year ago April. Our dogs have a bad tendency of jumping up on them even though they are not supposed to do that and oddly there is not a scratch on them despite this abuse (wish I could say the same for our floors)

We had Plain & Fancy custom cabinets installed 2010. The finishes are holding up well. The island is slightly distressed maple, so no issues there! The perimeter is medium cherry that has darkened and continues to look lovely, except where someone chewed on a bottom cabinet corner!