White cabinets will make your kitchen look bigger, i love white cabinets, but i have to say, i love your kitchen the way it is, i really love it.

I think white cabinets would look great!

Painting cabinets white is a cheap fad right now.

"Cheap"? As in, doesn't cost much? Or as in, trashy looking?

I'll give you that it's been a trend for quite a while and may not always be the darling. However, I had my definitely bargain-basement cabinets professionally painted, added new doors and end panels, and it's worn like iron and doesn't look trashy at all. I mean, give me a break. It was not inexpensive to have them painted. If they looked bad, I could afford to have them replaced, but I don't need to, so I've invested my money instead. :)

ETA: A post that prompted my reply has since been deleted, but I stand by cabinets that are well painted and white.

Your cabinets are warm and classy. Please don't paint them white. Every buddy and their brother has boring uninspiring white cabinets. It make cabinets look builder grade.

Good cabinets will not look cheap painted white. A bad paint job will look cheap no matter what the substrate is.

I don’t have a tool but I have an opinion:-) I think they would look wonderful and give your kitchen an updated look. We live in the mountains and love all things rustic but I love , Love, Love white kitchen cabinets. Years ago I wouldn’t have painted any wood but now if that’s what I like I go with it. It can always be undone. Just a snapshot of my white cabinets. Not everyone will love them but I do going on 7 years !

I want to add I like white cabinets much better with a antique look . Mine are painted Antique White with a dark brown glaze in the crevices, corners and panel lines.

I like isabel98's suggestions. I would not recommend painting your cabinets white.

LOL to each their own. Now the glass inserts are dated? That's news. I love the way the top crown refers back to your floors. I would vote for leaving the cabinets as is. The back of the island could use something. Your mirror behind the stove is most curious. I know you said it is gone now waiting for the hood. I just have never seen anything like that. It appears to be a headboard. Do you know the story behind it?

I don't think we'd change the island unless we were going to paint white; meaning we'd move toward an all white kitchen.

We have removed the decorative piece above the stove which we think is a big improvement as we don't have as much contrast between the wood. Plus the decorative piece didn't follow how any other kitchen I've found was setup.

So our plan may be

(a) painting the wall behind stove (to match the rest of the wall)

(b) adding a range hood instead

(c) replacing the handles with something we like better

(d) painting the red door on the far left

(e) new light fixture(s)

I think that will go a long way.

I personally am not sure I am a fan of the antique-white over white... I often look at houses in my area for fun; maybe I'll run into an example I like!

arcy_gw, house is only 12 years old; not sure why they used that piece behind the stove! It's not a mirror; instead it was a stainless steel piece inside

I don’t have the tools or the knowledge on how to do that, Ryan. I do love well done white kitchens very much, though. I had one myself here in this house, BUT ran into one significant problem that I wanted to mention, and for you to consider. With an open concept kitchen, you absolutely need to consider how well the two rooms will blend. The furnishings, the style and colors need to flow from one into the other. To coordinate. In our situation, we did not want to replace our very good leather sofa and chairs, and our darker wood tables, tv lift system and our art to work with our white kitchen. We tried living with it, but the two rooms, while looking great by themselves, looked badly together. That said, I’ve seen many a white kitchen on Fixer Upper and other tv shows where the family rooms or dining rooms are decorated to flow wonderfully into the kitchen. Just some food for thought.

I hope this cures you of your desire to put white cabinets in your kitchen. I like your real wood cabinets better.

I love your wood cabinets as is. I have about the same wood color and the same kind of island. Thought i would like it when we bought the house since it has outlets built in it for charging phones but it has just become a catch all. I kinda wish it was just a big island. Our plan(when we have the money) is to put it new light colored granite or quartz counters and paint the island creamy white. I loved my butcher block counters i my last house so we may put those on the island too. We also have dark floors. Although I love bright white kitchens I had one before and have no desire to go back. Grease and dirt collects and all the crevices. My wooden cabinets show no dirt. I think your island alone wiould look great the same color as your dining chairs. That may be enough of a change to brighten things up in your kitchen.

bellburgmaggie ... funny! and thanks!!

Tell me, is the cabinet next to the range the same size as the cabinet next to the fridge? If so, switch the doors out. Put the glass doors and the wall next to the fridge and the solid doors next to the range. This puts the decorative elements together and gets the glass away from the range where it gets hit with splatters and needs cleaning more often.

Paint them white if you want to but get the best professional painter you possibly can. Look at photos of his work, ask for references and then follow up on them. This is not a job for the guy that paints walls, he's got to have experience doing cabinets.

Interesting, in the photo I don't think your wood floors and wood cabinets work well together. They look like they have two different undertones. I think soft white cabinets, not a stark white, would really make your floors shine.

If you are going to paint, have it done professionally. There are many mediocre DIY white cabinet paint jobs out there.

I love that I can see dirt on my white cabinets. All they need is a quick swipe and I know they are clean. Just because dark cabinets don't show dirt doesn't mean they aren't grimey.

A simpler island shape would update your kitchen nicely too. If the floors run under it, it would be an easy fix.

I do agree with the advice about taking into consideration the decor and trim in the rest of the space before you consider painting.

Arcy. I never said the glass inserts were dated. They are fine. The divided light adds more wood so my suggestion was to do a full glass insert to give it a cleaner look.

Also, if possible, change out the baby-proofing hardware to something that doesn't show.

I have always loved classic white kitchens and have one now, but I don't feel the need to run and paint your cabinets white. I would paint the walls before I painted the cabinets and probably in addition to the cabinets if I were to paint those.

The piece behind the stove was a character piece -- something unique that makes your kitchen unlike every cookie cutter one you see, That's not a bad thing. It does look like they took a mirror and just put in a piece of stainless and you may not have liked that, but did you consider replacing the stainless with a tile -- glass, mosaic, subways (not white 3x6 -- something in a different size and/or color)? That darker wood was also the link to the dark crown that helped bridge it to the floors. If you leave it out, I would either tie in something darker (bronze cabinet hardware might do it) or replace the crown with trim that matches the cabinets. Painting them accomplishes the same thing -- it that why you are considering paint? If so, that is a much larger job that leads to a lot of other issues, as Lynn pointed out.

I do think that making the island all one level and just replacing the top on it would be the single biggest impact thing you could do to update the kitchen. As it is, it is just a barrier that accomplishes little. You can still see the counters, cooktop and sink. No reason for it. Make it one smooth surface, maybe even a little larger on the overhang, and pull up some stools. Friendlier kitchen.

If the child-proofing needs to continue for a while, look at the ones that screw inside the cabinet -- they look better and I think are easier to use. We only put them on cabinets where the kids could get into something harmful -- like cleaning products under the sink or breakable things -- but most of those were in upper cabinets.

- color of wall is not properly represented in the picture; it's actually a light tan color which is nice from my perspective

- we have removed the decorative stove piece and I think it went a long way to making our kitchen look better; we very much disliked it. Without it now we have less two-color cabinet madness.

- We definitely will get a new light; we need to figure out if we want to move the light or not due to it not being centered correctly

- We don't care about the child-proofing as it's temporary of course.... ;-)

- We are planning on getting a nice stainless steam range hood above the stove

I hate white cabinets and I'll explain why. Yes white cabinets makes a space look bigger, but thats the only thing it does and it comes at a big cost, and I don't mean money. To me white cabinets look horribly cheap. The look and warmth of natural wood is unmatched. Also white cabinets are difficult to maintain. Bottom line, anyone that says their not is lying. Lastly, painted cabinets is the worst possible thing you can do. As soon as you slap some paint on cabinets, they are instant garbage. Quality and durable white cabinets are done straight from the manufacture. They usually put formica, laminate or some other durable material, but not paint. Painted cabinets are NOT quality, far from it. Many people that are in the market for a house tend to stay away from kitchens with painted cabinets. (at least the ones that know better) I also can't stand trend followers. White cabinets were very popular especially early this year I remember. Like a bunch of sheep that can't think for themselves they just do what other people are doing. Remember high school? Something was cool this year... next year it was stupid. Same difference lol.

To pronounce that all stained wood cabinets are great and all painted white cabinets are horrible is completely foolish.

If you stain a cheap wood cabinet with a muddy stain, your wood cabinets will look terrible. If you slap some cheap white paint on some cheap wood cabinets, of course the white cabinets will look terrible.

Everyone has their personal preference. That doesn't mean that people that choose other looks are cheap liars. sheesh.

I've had white cabinets in 5 different houses since 1986. Am I a sheep too?

Another sheep here that has had white kitchens for decades and is planning yet another white kitchen.

Tony, I'm interested to know what your experience is with white cabinets. To say white looks horribly cheap is quite a large generalization and I've found that's not the case. Do you sell them, install them or have them in your home.

I grew up in a colonial that was built in the 40's and it always had and still does have white painted cabinets. I bought my own home in 2004 and the house had natural knotty pine cabinets which I quickly painted white (over three coats of Killz) and left it that way for 10 years until I could afford a remodel, to ...you guessed it - white cabinets. There is a thread on here dated back to 2014 asking people if anyone was doing anything other than white kitchens anymore, and that was nearly 4 years ago. My point is, people who like white cabinets, LOVE white cabinets (myself included). It is not a trend if it's something you've always loved. To call the OP (and all others on here with white kitchens, which is probably the majority,) 'Like a bunch of sheep that can't think for themselves' is probably just intended to get a rise out of us, but seems to me unnecessarily/intentionally harsh.

Actually rebeccamomof123, I just figured that dgw had limited experience in what he was talking about but he wanted to make a big impression anyway.

nosoccermom, White has been an established color for kitchen since the turn of the 20th century and the "hygiene" movement. It really has to do with personal preference, lighting in the room and the general look. And I really don't like white cabinets but I see that others do. Now I will rail on and on about white cabinets and white tops and white backsplashes all day long.

Ah yes...Tony once again reiterates his hatred of painted cabinets. LOL.

OP, I do like the color of your cabinets now, but I don't care for the different top moldings, and as someone else stated already, I don't think the floor color works with them either. If you are keeping the floors, I would say paint them. As someone that loves white kitchens and painted her own knotty pine cabs white (one heck of a job to do I will add) I still appreciate stained wood cabinets in many cases. Yours look quite nice. I agree about removing the dividers - I think that would improve the look. And clearly the removal of that piece over the stove has to be a big improvement.

I find white cabinets easy to clean. But I still dislike them :-(. With my busy schedule I don't get to wipe down the cabinet fronts every single day. I have to do that every 3 or 4 days. I find the natural wood look to be more forgiving between cleanings.