It looks pretty, but if you cook a lot it's veeery high maintenance. I had two all white kitchens. We cook nearly every day and it's such a pain. Drips and splotches end up everywhere, you get dust/oil buildup on every surface, etc. Unless you want to do a thorough cleaning of your kitchen on a weekly basis and after every meal, I wouldn't recommend it.

We are doing Cherry cabinets (medium color, not dark) and considered white cabinets. We both like white, but when we looked at pictures of kitchens online we were more drawn to the stained ones than the white ones. I see comments about stain going out of style but of the three friends who redid kitchens last year, 2 did white and one did stain. Another friend is about to replace cabinets and are going with stain (and their current kitchen is white). If you search “reveal” on this site and look through kitchens there are more white kitchens, but plenty of stained cabinet kitchens too. Do what you want. If you love the white do it. If you want the cherry go for it.

Do what you love and it won't go out of style.

"It seems every new kitchen is white"

Do you want white because you love it or because everyone else is doing it? This is your kitchen and should reflect you and your life style. Do what you love!

So dirt that builds up unseen is a bad thing in my book. Aside from being dirty- ick- it's eating away at the finish on your wood. Ignorance is not bliss in this case.

You should do what you like:) In a recent post a designer said that since January she has had more request for stained cabinets than white. In my area new kitchens for the past few years have been about half white, half stained in new homes. Sometimes, the area of the country affects what is more or less popular too.

I am about to have my third white kitchen. Why? Because it’s what I like. I would be completely miserable in a kitchen with stained cabinets. My SIL just built a new house and put in espresso stained cabinets. Get what speaks to you, don’t get a fad. If you get a fad then they will go out of style- to you.

But I do have to say that I cook everyday and cleanup is cleanup. If you spill on white you would have spilled on brown. It still needs to be cleaned up.

Wow! This was very helpful! I gravitate towards white. I have white plantations shutters on most of my first floor window. I just did a bathroom over in white and grey. I had talked myself into the Cherry thinking it was a little different. I could still add white in via the counters and backsplash. Now, I think I may always long for the white kitchen if I don’t do it now!

What do you love?

For me, that was a tough question. It was hard to discover what my husband and I both each loved. When I perused catalogs, searched on houzz and visited showrooms I had trouble trying to figure out what I loved. Sometimes I loved white, sometimes I found an espresso and my husband loved his craftsman look... It was difficult. And everywhere I looked I would see these stunning white kitchens. Trying to figure out what I liked and what my husband liked was a bit of a challenge. Since I am not building a house I needed to find a kitchen that would fit my space but also be something we both love.

The truth is I love all kitchens. I love the dark, the light, the medium, the Spanish, The beachy, the white, the dark modern, the walnut, ... So I understand your question.

Is white king? Probably and that is why I am drawn to it. I have had a white kitchen before and thought I would mix it up a bit by going dark but I am finding myself going right back to what feels good for me. We are going with white for so many reasons but the biggest reason is we love it. It's a perfect backdrop for all the other things we love on our kitchen journey.

Despite what you see, I urge you to really dig deep and get what you love and don't be swayed from your dream. When you flip through a magazine what stands out to you? If it is dark, go with that, you will be so happy you did.

Thank you! This is me exactly

I have had 2 white kitchens. Love them. I don't understand the comments about white and the dirt. Dirt will be there whether the cabinets are white or not. You can make your life easier by choosing cabinets with as few nooks and crannies as possible - it's one reason why the Shaker style of cabinets is popular.

My primary reason for liking white cabinets is that it makes the kitchen brighter. I have a large window in my kitchen, but it faces north and has a lot of trees. I appreciate how my white cabinets make my kitchen look bright and airy. And of course, at night, it doesn't matter how much sunlight your kitchen gets. So that's why I choose white.

The OP didn't mention floor choice - don't forget to take into consideration your floors for this decision. Will the floors be tile, wood, marmoleum, vinyl, etc.? And how will those floors look with your cabinets? I guess there is a chicken and egg thing here on which decision comes first, unless your kitchen already has floors in place that you are keeping.

We have always had wood floors in our kitchens, so to me white makes the space bright and also is much easier to coordinate with a wood floor. I do like a different colored island however - but it's all personal preference as others have stated. White is a classic look IMO it always will be although cabinet styles, metals, hardware etc will change. I like being able to see dirty hand prints or food splashes on my cabinets so I can wipe them right away. It's a benefit of white for me!

Painted whether white or some other color simplifies cabs to their form more than when the patterns and color variations of wood tones are used. That can work for some spaces and is easier to integrate when you're using wood for flooring. It can work when you've got living-dining-kitchen as a single space if you have painted trim of a color different from your wall color. Or not depending on your style.

It's such a hard decision. I like white. Also navy. Also walnut.

two toned kitchens, in a somewhat generously sized space, is a great look. Medium to darker cherry wood base drawers with painted wall cabs for example.

When I think back at the kitchens that I've had, most were stained (light, medium, dark). I did a yellow kitchen last time that I really loved except that I discovered that it was really difficult to co-ordinate paint (or anything else, for that matter) because of the greenish undertones. I decided on a white kitchen this time, not because I love white, but because I had done most everything else. I do like the white and what is interesting is that having the white kitchen makes it look bigger as well. One of the best parts is that I now see any spills, etc. immediately. Kind of makes me cringe to think about what was hiding in my previous kitchens.

Ditto. Go with what you love. I have white cabinets because my kitchen is small and wood would be dark. They look lovely with our old fir floors.

I certainly don’t have to wipe them down after every meal. If I see a drip yes I wipe. But a white kitchen is no harder to keep clean in my opinion. My kitchen cleaning habits haven’t changed from when I used to have wood cabinets.

We are doing 2-tone: white and birch (or pickled oak). I really surprised myself with the colors I picked. I have always preferred dark woods, and I assumed I would want dark cabinets. But when I started looking at pictures, I was really drawn to the white kitchens, and also the two-toned kitchens. Our kitchen is small and doesn't get a lot of light, so dark wouldn't work well in there anyway, but it wasn't even a trade-off. I just love white and light woods in a kitchen.

I'd agree with everyone else here: do what you like.

I prefer painted cabinets, regardless of their color. But then I do NOT have an open concept kitchen, so the cabinets don't need to look like they're part of the LR furniture. I also have 18/19th century English antiques in the rest of the house, and wood cabinets end up looking like bad reproduction furniture.

I love white kitchens - they are always pictures that draw my eye! But I didn't paint my own new kitchen white; I painted it a light gray. No, I did NOT paint it gray because it was "trendy" - I painted it gray because it was in character with the age (70 years old) of the house, and it flowed well with the non-gray colors in the abutting rooms. White, in this full-west facing kitchen, would have been blinding except when the trees were all leafed out, blocking the sun a bit.

It's YOUR kitchen! I rarely hear anyone say they don't like a white kitchen; some people do dislike stained cabinets. Your call...