Nowadays, white cabinets are considered to be more modern than light wood.

White!

selling in five years? save your time and money...new occupants will do it their way...

If you like the look of light wood you should go for the look that you love. Five years is a long time, particularly if you might not sell at that point. The overall look, the style of the cabinets, the lighting, etc. will all contribute to the total look that will attract buyers at the time you decide to sell. I would not want to settle for something now in an attempt to predict what buyers might want in the future.

Agree you should go with what you would enjoy for the next 5+ years. There is no way to predict what will become popular in the 2020's. What's "in" this decade may be deemed "dated" in the next, and a future owner will remodel to their own taste.

I totally agree you do what YOU want- when we were house shopping I didn't care that the owners just put new cabinets and granite in- If I didn't like it and it wasn't my style we were tearing it out… AND if we were tearing it out, then we offered a lower price.

Go with the stain if that's what you like. If new owners want white they can paint them. Once they are painted it would be very difficult to go back to natural wood. Good luck!

What type of light wood are you thinking about? I think a traditional light wood like maple is out of style now, which is the wood I think of for a colonial home. The black appliances won't outlast your cabinets so don't design around them. I'd do the white kitchen as it's a classic and works with oak and a colonial style. It's better with hardwood floors. For resale, many people love white kitchens and the rest can at least tolerate them. I'm not biased against wood as I put in natural cherry cabs four years ago and love oak in a Shaker inset door style with very little grain like this vanity. It all depends on how they saw the oak to eliminate or enhance the grain pattern.

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I can relate to this question. I like light wood; I like white. I really like them equally, and I'm in the camp of "you'll never guess what a buyer wants, so go with your own preferences".

Obviously, this means within reason; for example, no matter how much you loved your years at Clemson, you should not paint your cabinets orange with purple accents -- well, you shouldn't do it and expect a buyer to love it. And obviously the whole thing should mesh well with the rest of your house; for example, if you have all white trim around your windows and doors, white cabinets might echo them nicely.

Having flip-flopped on this topic, we chose to go with light wood for several reasons:

- Wood tone is considerably cheaper than painted cabinets. If I were absolutely dying to get white cabinets, I'd splurge on them, but since I'm wishy-washy, why not pay the smaller cost?

- White is more likely to be knicked and dented through everyday use, meaning it'll last a shorter amount of time.

- White will be more work to keep clean.

- White has been a super-trend for a while now, but while it's still unquestionably "a thing", it's being pushed out by grays and other paint colors.

- Wood tone can always be painted to any color, but painted can't realistically be made into wood tone.

We gutted our condo 5 years ago thinking we'd be in it for a long, long time. I put in cherry shaker cabinets because it is what I had wanted for almost forever. The white shaker cabinet style was really gearing up back then and most of the folks here were putting in white shaker cabinets. Fast forward to now and we've decided to build new and sell our current place. Our cabinets work with the rest of our condo, so no one is walking in and saying, "but you don't have white shaker cabinets." Instead they see the kitchen and feel it works with the rest of the condo.

Do what you want and like and what will work best with the style of house. If you make it look good, it will sell no matter what the cabinets are.