Have had both - painted uppers/wood lowers and all stained upper/lower. Prefer stained wood; it hid a lot of sins when not perfectly clean. It does take some planning to avoid becoming too heavy on wood. DH still reads the newspaper in paper form with all its black ink. You wouldn't need a professional tracker to know his regular route through the house by the black smudges he leaves everywhere. Wish I could hypnotize him: "read paper, wash hands".

All the white cabinets I see look so lovely and pristine. My white uppers never looked that good but it may be that the finishes back in the day were not as durable as now.

Jennifer - Deliberating the same issues (among many others!) in a thread I started yesterday. Dirt/grime, I can deal with (simple wipe down), but nicks/chips would drive me nuts. Started with the notion of white uppers and stained lowers, and after much helpful input, I may very well have drifted towards all dark/stained (which I'd been avoiding all these years as my fear is having a too-dark kitchen, even though I have windows everywhere). The stain I'm considering is more of a medium brown w/ gray wash:

How dark are yours?

The pros will tell you that either will be fine with the proper finish but truthfully, if you ding a stained cabinet, it is still the same color. Not so with paint.

Paint is a surface treatment, stain penetrates through. If you want it to last 20 plus years, natural sealed wood or stained wood is the only way to get it.

We went with dark stained lowers and white painted upper cabinets and love it. We were initially concerned about how quickly the uppers would show dirt and grime around the pulls but after 7 months it hasn't been a problem so far. No little kids in the house anymore though, which probably makes a big difference.

I have had all painted white and it got grimy quick with little kids in the house. Then I changed to stained honey maple and after 18 years, it still looks the same. However, it did make my kitchen look dark and small despite facing south and being 200SF.

After the lower cabinet and island was demo from a flood, I was amazed to realize that I had a big kitchen. It felt so small when everything was there.

This time, I'm doing stained accent and island. The rest are painted a light color. Hoping it will turn out right and keep kitchen looking bright and large.

I have had all stained, all painted and since remodel last year, stained base and painted wall cabinets. I am pleased with how nice my painted wall cabinets still look after a year, they clean up easily with a quick wipe and while I have noticed a few little dings, I am not the most careful person, none show a different color. I do have a quart of touch up paint and some sort of sealer in pen form, but have not had to use it yet. The stained base cabinets have held up equally as well, except for the toe kick in one spot that I regularly bang with the vacuum cleaner. I am still amazed at how much bigger my kitchen looks and feels with the light wall cabinets!

So, wood for a rental?

I did a DIY paint job on my old cabinets -- and didn't use a premium or cabinet paint as I recall --after about 15 years they were still decent, survived a messy teenager no stains (I did wash them regularly, as I would if they were stained wood -- think of the not visible built up grime ick!) and only some wear around the most heavily used pulls and drawers. I expect the hard finish on my pro painted cabinets to wear and last much longer.