Try natural maple, alder, beech or birch.

I am by far no authority, but I am getting ready to redo my entire kitchen and I am also going with darker wood cabs. I think the style of a cab might read more "trendy" down the road than the actual wood and/or stain color. I would do some research on woods and how well they take stain and how hard they are. Wood forums are good places. ;) Also this site is a wealth of info.

I will personally be going with cherry most likely, as it takes a stain well and is fairly hard.

Lastly, my advice would be this, when you're shelling out all that money, and starting from scratch, get what you love!

Understand anything you pick now will be "dated" in 10 years. If it's not the cabinets, then it will be the sink, backsplash tile, countertop material, etc. Design and get what YOU love and will make you happy to be in the kitchen every day and don't worry about what will be trendy.

As an example, five years ago everyone was getting white shaker cabinets (and still are). Every kitchen I ever had was a white kitchen and I was tired of it, so for my condo, I put in cherry shaker cabinets. I love them. Not sure they are trendy, but they work for me.

Now funny thing, I'm building a new home and I'm going to put in, yep, white shaker cabinets. Well I also will be putting in a cherry shaker island, but the perimeter will be white.

It is true that we make too much emphasis on what is trendy and what might be dated. Its true, as cpartist said, everything will be dated in 10 yrs. Unless you are planning to sell within the next 2 or 3 yrs don't worry about trends and get what you like. Right now white is the popular look, and although it is fairly timeless, not everyone wants a white kitchen. Although I love a beautiful white kitchen, I am partial to stained wood. (I do have white bathroom cabinets however) Dark stains are popular now, a few years back it was all about natural stained maple. You can never predict what a buyer will want in a kitchen. You may put in a top of the line, beautiful white kitchen and your buyer prefers dark wood, or vice versa. I think if you go with white, off white, light, medium or dark stained wood, you will be fine. All of these are neutral enough for most people and are beautiful.

I know I've said this before, probably a dozen times, lol. I think the key to keep a kitchen from looking dated quickly is to choose styles and finishes that reflect the bones of the house. To me, certain styles of kitchens will always look right in a Cape Cod and are different than what might look great in a Colonial vs. what you would put in a MCM which is also different than a Craftsman vs. a log home, yada yada. What might look great in any of these different types of homes may not necessarily be trendy but would always just look and feel right, KWIM?

Since you're doing a new build, you get to choose! What style of home are you building? What kind of personality do you intend to give it? What kind of moldings will you have throughout the home? Are there any specific architectural features elsewhere in the design of the house that could be carried through into the kitchen area? Do you prefer a more casual or more formal lifestyle? Do you like color or stains? Do you like a lot of light or do you prefer things darker and more cozy? Will your kitchen have a lot of windows or is it more enclosed? If there are windows, is there a view? What type of light will come through those windows? What compass direction will the light be from? What kind of flooring? Is this home an open plan or will the kitchen be more closed off? Is it a large eat-in kitchen or a small one? If it is open to another room, which room and what style and colors of decor do you plan to have in it?

Yes, lots of questions. But I really think these are the types of questions you need to ask yourself to guide you to the right choice for your space. Probably the most important question is "what do YOU love?" What will you enjoy living with day-to-day? What will you love even if it is totally non-trendy, out-of-style and different than what everybody else is doing?

More than a dozen. More than a million dozen. In a million threads. By a million people.
Answer's always the same. Just today funkycamper has the wherewithal to go through it again.

Pick what you like. In a nutshell. You might be dead in 10 years, so who will care? (Not enough coffee nor sugar this morning.)

If I were putting in new cabinets, I would probably choose bleached maple or some of the very light or bleached wood - perhaps birch. I think dark stained cabinets look good, but I require a lot of upper cabinets and do not want them dark. Like you, I hate white cabinets, as they are very bad for showing dirt, and I cook every day. Any kind of light wood grain will not be as bad for showing dirt or smudges as white will, and they will still be light enough not to make the kitchen appear dark. My kitchen as four walls, and so I have to be concerned about light. I have natural maple cabinets now, and I am okay with them, but I think I would like them better if they were bleached.

You yourself said you do NOT want something that will be trendy, but others seem to have misinterpreted your statement. BTW, I also do not like oak, because of the grain, but I do like the color of pickled oak.

Things that don't go out of style are subtle design, and quality. If you have good quality wood it will have staying power. Stay away from style extremes if you are worried about longevity.

I never gave any thought to white cabinets when we bought our house. After 15 years, I am so tired of cleaning the white cabinets as they show every little speck of dirt, coffee etc. I am ready for a low maintenance, no maintenance home. In the past every house we owned had maple or oak cabinets that required minimal cleaning and they always looked good.

I wanted to decorate my next house and stay away from trends as much as possible. My brother was looking at a house to buy recently that had wallpaper, brass fixtures and parquet floors. This had me thinking about staying away from trendy decorating.

The good news is white cabinets are in style so when we sell our house it will not look dated! haha

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions!