I have had lots of site kitchens (we have moved a lot). I do not find them difficult to keep looking clean. Dark hardwood floors are a different story.

Oh hardwoods are not the problem. It's the dark part that's the problem. Curse the real estate agent who chose dark when they refinished them to put this place in the market.

By by the way, if the only reason you are considering white is because you think it is on trend, I think it's probably already peaked. I love white kitchens and I don't care if they are trendy or not, but I do think they are not the hot thing anymore.

Oh I certainly love the look - its about all I see though. I had already thrown out dark floors because I a have a white dog and knew that would cause issues. I am looking to remodel the 1948 home with more a classic look than trendy. Not necessarily retro or vintage but something that will reflect the character of the home and will stand the test of time in the future.

We are on our second white kitchen and I knew the minute we decided to build that I wanted the kitchen to be all white. Everything is white with the exception of a wood island countertop. I have four children who are now preteens or teens, they grow up in the house first house with the white kitchen. I have never felt like the white caused me to do more work.

When spills happen, I find it much easier to see them on white which allows me to clean them up while they are still fresh, which makes it much quicker and easier.

Too dark floors would be a much bigger problem than white cabinets, everything shows on those floors.

White lowers can be a problem with pets and small children rubbing against them. A lot of times people realize this - the two tone look is darker lowers and white uppers.

Whatever you choose make sure the surface can be easily cleaned with plain old hot water and that it doesn't have nooks and crannies needing special attention.

I've had a white kitchen for ages and am about to install another white kitchen...but this time with white marble counters (now they are black). I agree with Corie Hall - I find it easier to keep the white kitchen clean because you can see everything.

I have a pale yellow kitchen that I am switching out to white. The yellow was absolutely no problem, and I cannot imagine the white would be any different.

I think of it this way -- what is the difference in cleanliness of a white kitchen vs. a dark/wood one? None, unless you are a person that won't regularly and routinely wash down all surfaces and only cleans spills that are highly visible. In which case, a white kitchen will generally be kept cleaner.

I did white cabs and a very dark cork floor. I'm in an older 1900s house and am happy with it all. It works.

We have sort a of speckled white perimeter counter with grey island (both silestone, blanco maple and cement spa respectively), and ironically the grey a 10x more difficult to keep clean because of the solid color. Moral of the story is that, regardless of color, a touch of irregular pattern makes any surface easy maintenance, and lack of same makes any surface a crumb and fingerprint display.

I recently was at a Kitchen cabinet design showroom and the designer had noted she did her kitchen 4 years ago and was adamant about having an all white kitchen. she made sure to get the best factory finish. She mentioned she wished she would have done lower cabs in wood because although with white you can see more dirt/food etc…. it was a pain to be constantly seeing this and cleaning. And they had not held up as well as she expected.

I have natural wood. I do see dirt/food as others with white kitchens but instead of having to clean it immediately I might just wait until my weekly wipe down. I do however, see milk and yogurt and clean those stains as soon as I see them.

I really think it boils down to you and how you use your kitchen and what bothers you. and what do you like? what fits best with your home?

For me in the future I think a combo would be the most ideal.

I have two houses=two kitchens. One is in BM Ivory Tusk and the other is in BM Mayonnaise. White enough, I guess. In any case, I don't think I would ever have anything else. It means touchups on the lowers from time to time, but the kitchen is always bright and clean looking.

I have a white kitchen a year and a half old and love it. Did 2 large apartments last year, white cabinets also. Just finishing up boyfriends house and we did white cabinets there too. We went from oak cabinets and it's so much prettier, lighter and clean looking. Love them.

To me, a white kitchen is timeless. The white kitchen in the house we just sold was 15 years old, we upgraded the appliances and it looked very current.

I think that to get what you love, most are willing to put up with a little inconvenience such as babying them a wee bit. I have black lower cabs and talk about high maintenance - they tend to show dust, flour, water spots, etc. way more than white or stained. But I love them and now that we are redoing our kitchen, I am getting them again.

My mom talks about how her stained cabs are so easy, but I wouldn't be happy with them. If you love white, go for it. Most cabs these days have pretty high quality finishes. You may just have to get in the habit of wiping down more often.

Slab doors would likely be easier than something like a shaker style that will catch dust and dirt.

I have two (almost 3) kids and I adore my white kitchen. Not hard to keep clean at all. I do, however, DESPISE my dark hardwoods. They are beautiful the 5 seconds per week that they are clean, but otherwise they always look filthy. They are impossible (not difficult, actually impossible) to keep looking clean because they show absolutely everything. We had them installed about 8 years ago and spent a fortune on them so they are staying, but I wish I could do it over and pick something with more contrast.

I've had white kitchens for 32 years and won't have anything else. While wood is beautiful and i can appreciate that I happen to find it oppressive. We have natural maple in the bathrooms, so just lower cabinets, but can't imagine having an entire kitchen of it.

Anyway, I've raised boys and cats and never had problems. Our current kitchen is 5 years old and looks as good as the day it was put in. I spend 10 minutes every couple of weeks just wiping the shaker ledges which you have to do regardless, I give the handles a quick wipe which I would have to do regardless, so install your white kitchen and enjoy.

My hardwood is a mid-tone brown maple which doesn't show a lot of marks or dirt.

Our new kitchen is white perimeter cabs and I love it. Makes the space feel and look much brighter and lighter. I've got two young kids and two dogs and haven't had any issues. wouldn't trade it. we don't have super dark floors though - we used gunstock to match the existing floors. house was built in 1901

White kitchens have been around since the 1940's, maybe earlier. It's just in the last few years they've become more popular, but I wouldn't consider them a trend. I believe they'll continue to be popular in new homes as well as remodels since it's been proven they 'withstand the test of time'.

I'm with Daisychain. I have white perimeter uppers and lowers and a dark stained island and I clean the island a heck of a lot more that I do the white cabs. Actually I barely have to clean the white ones but the dark show every streak, every little dust speck and water drop! P.S. My husband and I both work and we have a 2.5 year old daughter.

I had a white perimeter with a dark island in my previous home, and just ripped out an oak kitchen to put in all white. Hubby works full time, I work part time, and have a 4 year old boy, 6 year old girl and 2 cats. I love white cabinets! I love seeing spills so I can immediately wipe them off. But my dark island showed everything too. I hated my oak because it hid things, and I would often see them by feel - which to me is so much grosser! What is it, how long has it been there?! My kids eat breakfast at the island, so I pretty much do a full wipe down after my four year old eats anything messy, but I do that at the dinner table too.

White is so 2104... ;-)

It is boring as heck though. Not as bad as black.

It's also so 1914. :) I never know whether or not to call my kitchen a white kitchen. The cabinets are technically off-white/cream (Adobe White) and green, with a black island. To me it's white, but maybe not as white as the kitchens that my ancestors painted to freshen and renew for very little cost.

rwiegand

White is so 2104... ;-)

It is boring as heck though. Not as bad as black.

Well, I definitely consider it AHEAD of its time, then!!! :)

This is a very white kitchen forum. I'm on the outside of that, in the real minority here. I can't get the beat-up look of my sister-in-law's white cabinets out of my head. When she redid hers this year, she went with beautiful wood. That's where I'm headed with ours early next year. I've seen threads on here from several years ago where people complained about their white cabinets and couldn't wait to replace them. Those people seem to have disappeared.

We're all different, and since you asked, I'm here to say that we're not all white kitchen fans. That bandwagon is going to pass me by without my jumping on. Good luck to you in your decision.

After being here at GW for awhile, I'm starting to like white kitchens more than I used to. But I still prefer either light wood tones or, if painted, cream, yellow and other colors more than just white for myself. But there are sure a lot of stunning white kitchens out there that are beautiful to look at. I just prefer to live with something that feels warmer in color tones.

When my kids were a toddler and baby, we had a very pale yellow kitchen and I thought it was very easy to keep clean. Since I could see splatters easier, if I wiped them off before they dried, they were much quicker and easier to clean.

I love white kitchens since despite cherry kitchens being so rich and gorgeous, living in a white kitchen or a kitchen with light wood, just makes me feel good. Once all my nonstop crisis events pass, I will be doing a white kitchen.

My old kitchen was so dark, with poor lighting, little natural light, and wood cabinets. In an effort towards both light and change, I'm doing white cabinets. I am going with wood (cork) flooring, and a darkish brown countertop - so I didn't want to overdo it with the brown. With two cats and mediocre cleaning skills, we'll see how that goes.

We are just wrapping up a kitchen project, where we replaced dated wood/stained cabinets with "greige" perimeter cabinets and a charcoal island. I LOVE my new white-ish cabinets, and wish I had done it sooner! I can't believe how much brighter and happier my kitchen is now. We've only been functional for a couple of weeks, and I will say that I do notice more stains now (for instance, made lasagna last night and did see some tomato sauce splashes on the cabinets), but what I think is -- eww, I would never have noticed that on my stained cabinets, and how gross they must have been!

Regarding floors, we also redid ours and went with Dark Walnut. I know a lot of people are going with Jacobean or even Ebony these days, but we had concerns about dirt and dog hair showing as well. My husband and I both work full time, and have three very messy kids and a dog, and I'm not a vacuum-every-day person. While my first inclination about the floors was that I wish I had gone darker, I am very pleased with the fact that we don't see every single dog hair or dirt on the floor. Happy that we got the 80's red tint out of the floors, for sure. :)

Kitchen before:

Kitchen after (not totally done yet, but about 90%! Can't really see the floors too well b/c they had JUST been done and still have paper down, but you can get a glimpse. Definitely "browner" than the reddish tone above):