Hello,

I'm another medium stained maple! White kitchens are also not the norm in my "real world" either. I love how "warm" my cabinets are. We are in the process of replacing our island and it will be painted white. We are also upgrading our counters to granite. We put in corian and laminate during our new build 5 years ago, with the intent to later upgrade. Pic below.

Another non-white kitchen planned here! We're probably going to do natural cherry, maybe with a very slight stain but my husband (a GC and cabinet maker) is SO opposed to painted wood. It's the one thing that he probably wouldn't compromise on - he cringes when his clients want to cover their beautiful wood with paint or a stain that covers the grain of the wood. Personally I love some of the white kitchens but I also love the look of natural and stained wood too.

I love both white kitchens and kitchens with natural wood and stained wood. Three of my neighbors have redid their kitchens completely with cherry cabinets and it is beautiful! I also visited a friend who redid her kitchen with warm white cabinets and stunning granite and that I also fell in love with. A beautiful kitchen with enough natural light or installing lighting that has everything go well together complimenting the design, is what looks cozy, pretty and bright and cheerful. Kitchens with dark cabinets and light cabinets with plenty of the right type of lighting, looks gorgeous. White kitchens done right, looks cheerful and beautiful also. I am still not sure what I am doing with my cabinets but I love looking at the beautiful kitchens and counters giving me idea as well as eye candy to look at. Thank you everyone for sharing.

I went from cherry to white myself, but still love dark wood.

Here are two of my favorite dark wood kitchens:

Dark wood with white island

Dark Wood with Black Accents

HTH!

I've got stained cherry cabinets, and my kitchen is almost scarily cheerful:

Who has the stained wood kitchen with the black vintage look stove? I remember seeing it some time ago and thought It exemplified warmth, beauty and coziness. Definitely a fav of mine... If I could find it...

I did it backwards...went from white to natural cherry!

While I can appreciate white kitchens (especially in combination with black granite or soapstone), my real love is stained wood! I've always dreamed of a stained cherry kitchen - and now, I finally have one!

Mine are a medium stained cherry with a coffee glaze (I like both with and without glaze, I just happened to fall in love with this wood/stain/glaze combination when I saw it in the showroom - it was one of those "love at first sight" moments!)

We did stained and when in my kitchen it does feel bright and cheery and warm and cozy. Well maybe more comfortable than cozy. But I think wood can capture both of what you and your husband want.

Here was one of my favorite inspiration kitchens during our own planning, done by Crown Point:

More inspiration:

Our kitchen, please overlook the paper on the fridge. Our house tends to be more on the real-life, down to earth side more than the magazine ready side :-)

All these beautiful kitchens is making me rethink that counters of any color can be beautiful and easy to live with when the rest of the kitchen have a lot of light and compliments the counter. Maybe working on a dark desk is not the same thing as working on a dark counter. SO far I love all the kitchens I am seeing and dark can be cozy and beautiful as well as white when done right.

I admire the look of white kitchens, but like rhome, don't picture myself in one in my home. We're going with QS oak cabinets (love, love, love this wood!) in a natural or light stain. Floors will be medium stained. I'm toying with the idea of doing painted uppers and stained lowers. Love that look. But I also love QS oak. Still haven't made my mind up.

If I did painted uppers, I'd chose a warm white or pale cream. I either need to match my white molding or paint the cabs a few shades darker so that it looks on purpose and not a near miss.

Hi.

I am presently planning my second white, painted kitchen.

But, for my third (Ha! Maybe with a new husband), I would definitely go with the QS White Oak like Senator's pictured above. With soapstone. A few people on here have done them and I think they're exquisite.

Go with what you both love,
Katie

needsometips08 - I LOVE your kitchen. What is your granite? I also love your inspiration photos.

EcoBuzz, why thank you. The granite is Golden Beaches. It is a beautiful granite and I still love it. It hides a lot, sometimes almost too well!

I also wondered about our decision to go with stained cabinets, but I know I would soon tired of an all white kitchen. I love the beautiful white kitchens shown here on GW, but am I alone when I think they all start to look the same?

Our last two kitchens have been stained wood. In our previous home, we used QS oak with fruitwood stain, which I loved! This time DH wanted hickory, so we used premium hickory stained chestnut. I also like it alot. Paired with natural character hickory floors, it's a nice contrast. We still have crown moulding to put up. We're using a deep double bracketed moulding with picture rail. Hoping it's the look I'm envisioning.
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

From friends kitchens and visiting open houses around the neighborhood, I'd say that around here (California) the vast majority of kitchens have stained wood cabinets.

Even here, there are a lot of kitchens with stained wood - though there were more when we were redoing our kitchen 5 years ago.

I think that our kitchen is both bright, clean, cheerful and warm, comfortable. When I originally posted my finished kitchen pictures someone called it a warm cool kitchen. It's even more bright and cheerful now because our recent update replaced pickled redwood paneling and a huge faux rock hearth fireplace in the family room with cream paint and a more compact modern fireplace.This picture was taken after replacing the floor and the toe kicks hadn't been replaced yet. Might take new photos this weekend.

Our kitchen isn't completely finished yet, as you can see, but we went with stain grade maple and the stain is a match to our maple hand scraped hardwood that will be throughout the kitchen area too. It's hard when you see so many beautiful white kitchens on here but I've always loved dark hardwood!

I forgot to mention that our cabinets are natural cherry, granite (which is geologically a quartzite) is Azul do Mar and the floor is natural maple. The paint is Kelly Moore Alhambra Cream - I've avoided yellow undertones in my decorating in the past, but this works well with the other colors and has grown on me.

The fireplace will have a natural cherry mantel which the cabinet maker for our family room cabinets is making.

In the second paragraph of the earlier post, when I said "Even here" I meant Garden Web.

Wow, thank you all so much! I don't feel lonely anymore.

So many pretty kitchens, each one unique and beautiful in its own way.

luv2laf-I would love to see pictures of your alder. I was not familiar with it until I started following GW several months ago. When we went to the cabinet makers shop, he had a beautiful door sample that impressed me. I was considering it for bathrooms or study, but maybe I should the kitchen too.

beagles-I have remembered your dog room from other threads. Love the beadboard look. Might have to have that on my island.

biochem101-Do you remember where the picture "dark wood with black accents" came from? That is DH's favorite so far.

needsometips08-What are your cabinets and floors? I really like how they coordinate. Our layout is actually very similar, just flipped.

Keep the great pictures and ideas coming! Just a couple more weeks before I have to nail down my cabinet order.

Here is my nearly completed kitchen. This shot is of a recently dried grout. These are cherry with a honey stain and a coffee glaze. Like an earlier post, I fell in love with a showroom display stain. While these are shaker cabinets, I have the stiles and rails with a routed rounded inner edge to all doors. It gives them a slightly older look IMO. This is an old farm house and a small kitchen. This wall of cabinets is half of my kitchen. The other half is a foot longer.

We went from clear finished maple to stained (refinished with new doors). Our last two kitchens before this were honey oak, so we were ready for a change from lightish wood. We waffled between painted and stained, but eventurally we chose to try staining first. We figured we could paint it if we didn't like it. Please excuse the junk in the picture. We obviously aren't finished.

Luv2laf: Please show pictures when you can. I have been thinking I should have done a painted grayish/green island, so would love to see if it would have worked out.

Both our floor and our cabinet are birch. Our cabinets are stained. I am really happy with both. Birch is a softer wood so I had my concerns, but they proved to be unfounded. The floor does take a beating but it hides it so well I am quite pleased.

Hi krmanda,

Like you, I envisioned a cheery white kitchen when we began planning our remodel last fall, but my husband came across some pics of jodi_in_so_calif's kitchen that we both fell in love with. So, hers became our inspiration. Cabinets are maple stained cherry.

Best of luck to you as you plan and remodel. Rely on all of the brain power of this forum. I received extremely valuable advice and support; they're a great group. That's why even though our remodel is complete, I still hang around. :)

I know this is my third post but this thread is so interesting to me. I really love all the different style kitchens and the stains and the painted ones. I really feel what makes a beautiful kitchen is how everything in the kitchen works together to create the wow factor and the cozy comfort factor. Again, thank you everyone for sharing and helping one another. This truly is the best forum.

We went from a white kitchen to dark stained lyptus but with a few white painted uppers to keep our small kitchen from looking too small.

Oh, I love this thread. Wood just settles in somewhere really deep inside me and calms me -- long day and I need it. The wood is so deeply settling. I hate to say it, because I can tell how much so many love their white kitchens, but it doesn't do it for me either. I mean no disrespect, but I appreciate knowing I'm not the only freak who feels this way. It's nice to feel the company in the stained wood corner, isn't it?

Here's my pantry. There are more shots of the cherry cabinets in my photobucket. I guess I should post them here for completeness, but, well...

Here's a messy overview that got posted recently to great acclaim. While many profess great tolerance of the laid-bare chaos, still I'm embarrassed and beg your forgiveness given this is supposed to be a cabinet shot.

I don't have pictures yet because we just ordered cabinets on Monday, but I am going with an espresso colored cabinet. I debated the espresso and a toast color with a sable glaze. I just like the look of the espresso.

The house we sold, built in 2007, had white custom built cabinets. They were never my favorite, and my 4 year old constantly complained that my kitchen "was not up to date." When we began building and it was time to pick out a cabinet color, I was VERY surprised to find out that painted cabinets were an upgrade! I had no clue, and to think how much I despised those cabinets for years. LOL!

I love wood. We went with natural cherry cabinets and have natural maple floors. I love how the cherry has darkened over time:

Seeing all these warm wood cabinets especially the Maple ones and the ones stained cherry and even the dark espresso ones has me now confused if I want off-white cabinets are warm wood cabinets. I wish I was talented to do a photo-shop in changing out the cabinet colors in my kitchen and seeing how the doors would look in my particular kitchen.

CFire, I love your backsplash and I also loved Jodi_in_so_Calif Kitchen. AnnaC54, love the stain on your cabinets! Lizzard2You, I love the warm cherry cabinets in your kitchen so much. FiveFootZero, I love the warm Maple cabinets in your kitchen and the way you designed it. Joyce6333, love the quarter-sawn kitchen cabinets stained in that warm color. Chocolatebunny, I really like the stain on your kitchen cabinets and the style of them. I thought they were new. kris_ma's beautiful kitchen has a cabinet color that is different and warm and her kitchen says Wow! I also love the very dark wood on KitchenAddicts kitchen cabinets and her light counters so much that has the Wow effect. Mom2Seth, your medium maple cabinets are so warm and pretty that I am finding out that I just want anything other than my builder grade oak cabinets. Buehl, I love your kitchen and always have since it is so warm and beautiful with your stained cherry cabinets and gorgeous tile floor. Needsometips08, I love your granite counters and your beautiful hardwood floors. Senator13, your light quarter sawn kitchen cabinets are also so pretty and I would have never realized that I like woods of all stains. But then again for my home, I feel either a cherry would look nice and make the family room go well with my kitchen due to my Brazilian Cherry floors and beige taupe sofa in the family room or off-white cabinets but I may be wrong and maybe other looks will go nicely.

P.S. Enduring, I like the warm look and would love to see finished pictures of your kitchen when you are ready to share after it is completed.

Many of the white kitchens are stunning and elegant and I love seeing all the photos. However, in my own spaces I am drawn to the warmth of stained wood. We went with a medium stained cherry perimeter and a distressed maple island. I wasn't sure if I should have painted the island, but I fell in love with the maple wood and couldn't bear to cover it up. It's fun to see all of these lovely kitchens again.

If I had the right kind of house, I'd love to have the white quartersawn oak cabinets. My house is too traditional/newish for it to feel comfortable to me.

I have stained lower cabinets on either side of the range, then a pine hutch that is also stained. The rest are painted.

Here is a link that might be useful: my kitchen

Copper and pine produce an English-style kitchen of uncommon character and charm really describes your gorgeous kitchen Allison! I love the mixture of the warm painted island with the stained cabinets. I love the warm beautiful tiled floors that have a complimenting grout that blends with the floors. You have such exquisite taste in every room I have seen of yours in your beautiful home. Thanks for sharing.

krmanda,

I am pretty darn sure that kitchen was someone on GW.
Because I was able to save 3 large shots of it, different angles.
Like it so much myself, if we had moved (which was possible for a time) it was on the short list.

Please right click on the pics and save them to your computer in case I take them down at some future time!

But here are two more:

And another!

Good Luck!

I found this picture recently, and it makes me sigh. Definitely lovely, warm, cozy, and bright : ) .
{{!gwi}}From October 13, 2011

If anyone knows any more about that kitchen, or has other pictures, I'd love to hear/see.

Becky

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen photo

We also went from white cabinets (albeit horrible laminate ones!) to natural cherry. My husband is a closet-woodworker, so it was a no-brainer for him :) I really love all the beautiful white kitchens I see on this board, but wood is just warmer and homeier to us. In my next life I'll have a home with seven (or more) kitchens to satisfy all the looks I love.

Here's ours (not quite finished -- finally putting in our backsplash and should hopefully be done for real this weekend! We have also added in window treatments and some other stuff. Hopefully I'll get finalized pictures up soon!)

Another stained wood cabinet person here. I don't have any pictures yet because we are still in the planning stages. Wood will be walnut and stained a couple shades darker to even it out a bit. I also love seeing all the white kitchens, but with so many white kitchens in my past that I had no choice in the color, I'm ready for some nice wood.

joyce_6333 - you are not alone.

You don't necessarily have to stain wood cabinets. I've seen lovely natural maple and cherry cabinets. I have natural walnut.

I'm another who replaced a white kitchen with a wood kitchen. (My white cabs and formica weren't great quality.) I love the look of wood with a beautiful grain, and cabinets like Sochi's make me drool.

Our cabinets are maple with a stain and a glaze:
{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

The white kitchens are lovely, but they're not the ones that make MY heart sing. For my kitchen, that called for natural cherry. It's been in for a year now, and it still makes me smile every time I notice that it's gone a shade darker again. To each their own, whether or not it's "in", and whether or not the neighbors and family have it/like it.

Cj

krmanda and AnnaC54,
Thanks for the nudge I needed to get my 'almost finished' kitchen posted. Now, I need the final nudge to finish up the punch list and call it done! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Almost Finished Alder, Silestone and Granite Kitchen

There are so many helpful folks on this forum! Looking at some of this wood cabinetry made me momentarily rethink my white cabinets ;-)

Circuspeanut, I am now searching out all photos of your kitchen...marvelous. And Sochi, how could I have forgotten yours, with that wonderful art?! Beckysharp, now that kitchen looks divine! And so many other beautiful ones posted....

krmanda, you must now be convinced that a kitchen with wood cabinets can be bright and cheerful!

Becksharp that kitchen was in House Beautiful (Kitchen of the Month) in 2006, I believe. I loved it too! It was walnut with wood counters on one side and slate on the other.

I have stained cabinets too -- the original gumwood.

Thanks, sayde : ) .

By the way, sayde's beautiful gumwood kitchen is here (down below).

sochi, that picture isn't nearly big enough to do your kitchen justice!

Becky

Here is a link that might be useful: sayde's gorgeous gumwood kitchen

Boy, I am happy to have chanced on this thread. What beautiful kitchens, one and all.

Eyegirlie,

You're kitchen is going to be really nice. Do you mind sharing the stain that was used on your cabinets? And what color are the walls painted? Nice kitchen.

Another stained kitchen here. Our lovely Amish cabinet maker is working on our espresso-stained maple cabinets now! We're putting white quartz counter tops in to brighten things up!

Cherry wood with Brandy stain and Chocolate glaze.

Jodi-

This is a really helpful set of pictures in tackling the stool-dilemma... as in what to get. I hadn't quite realized that it is a harmonizing-with-wooden-cabinets problem.

cj - are your stools comfortable? They look nice!

TIA

I love the white kitchens and I had one in my previous house. This time I wanted to be more contemporary and very clean lined. So maple with a wheat stain worked. I love the spareness of my kitchen and how easily everything works so far.

Here is a link that might be useful: