Depends on what the finish is. The Axstad finish is not very impressive to me. The step molding detail is rough (not well sanded) . Overall looks like a quick production finish with not much prep involve. Also the inner step detail is shallow and doesn't look very high end.

Bummer to hear it’s hard to keep clean. Can you post photos your Axstad kitchen??

I’d buy a door and test it. They’re inexpensive enough.

I'm the original poster, and I did go ahead with the Axstad because I wanted the bright white. I'd say, in my experience, that it is _slightly_ harder to keep clean, but it certainly hasn't been a big problem for us. My kids are middle and high school ages, though, so not sure how I'd feel about it if I had toddlers still. It shows greasy fingerprints (think potato chips) but I haven't had trouble wiping them off with some 7th generation or windex. I may spend an extra 5-10 minutes a week wiping down, but that could also be because I have pretty cabinets now vs. my uber ugly old ones. :)

I did get a small door and tested it before purchasing and I found that if you got something on the front face, it was easy to wipe off, but the edges are harder because they are slightly rough, as jdesign_gw mentioned above. The edges are mostly covered since they sit so flush with one another so we've not gotten things on them much and so far everything has come off easily. I tested with mustard and tomato sauce. We did get some tomato sauce splattered on the cover panels above my stove recently and it came right off.

I'm a planning sort of person, so I did think about what I'd do if they turned out to not work for us...and that was that I'd purchase some non-ikea doors, like semi-handmade to replace them. That's worst case scenario, obviously, but helped with my anxiety about it.

Overall, I have no regrets going forward with the Axstad and I absolutely love our new kitchen. I'll try to post some pictures later.

Thanks!!! Can you post photos?? Still not sure if I should go with Axstad or order wood doors.

Here are some photos of my kitchen with the ikea Axstad cabinets.

Wow this is incredible!!! Did you design it yourself?? What do you love? What would you do differently next time? I can’t wait to remodel!!

Thank you! I hired Inspired Kitchen Design (https://inspiredkitchendesign.com/) to help me with the planning/ placement. I hired Maria Killam to help me with my hard surface choices (https://www.mariakillam.com/) because I was having so much anxiety about every decision. (A kitchen remodel is so much money, I didn't want to get it wrong!) We had a small space to work with, and I think we did the best we could with the space we had (we are a family of 5). I absolutely love the cabinets, everything works so smoothly and all their organizers work perfectly in them. My kitchen has so much more storage, and everything is easy to access, except the very top shelves since I used their 40" uppers and I'm short. I can't think of anything I would change, except maybe my floors which we didn't remodel. ;)

Just a note that these pictures are a couple weeks old, and I have updated the paint color too. I don't have current pics ready yet, but these are really close. (I went one shade darker in the greige for slightly more contrast.)

Matte sheen cabinet is, in general, harder to keep looking clean.

It looks amazing! I definitely will look into your recommendations.

I have a matte finish from my cabinet maker and do not find them at all hard to clean -- a sponge with dish detergent does the job in seconds, and that includes splatters from the stove. I can see that a slicker, glossy finish might make things slide off more easily but also might show smudges from fingers more, too.

Dawn Roth, your remodel looks great! and what I can see of the floor looks fine, also

One other question - where is the kitchen table from? It looks so homey! Love it!

@melindapardes, it was on clearance at pier 1, and is a magnolia home product. We needed a very narrow table for our small kitchen that will still seat 6. The grooves catch every crumb and are a pain to clean, but it is very sturdy and the size is perfect for our needs.

Dawn Roth, I notice that you seem to have a fair number of Ikea's 5" deep drawers. Are these working well for you? Do you wish you had chosen 10" instead for any of them?

@3z3z3, Yes, they are working well for us. When we were planning, I sat down and made a list of *everything* that I needed to store in my kitchen. Then I thought about how and where to put it. I used a lot of graph paper. :)

Mostly I planned to use 15/10/5 units, but I realized I had too many short things, so I added one 15/5/5/5 unit. I use them for silverware, knives, foil & wrap & baggies, spices, cooking utensils and apple/egg slicers, and dishwashing items next to the sink, etc.

I could probably have used 10/10/10 units with the additional hidden inner drawers, but I'm all about saving steps and I figured having to open two drawers to get to the inner stuff would drive me nuts.

Thanks, Dawn Roth! Your kitchen is lovely. I have the same opinion of those "drawers-within-drawers." They sound like aggravation to me.

Dawn and 3z

We've installed plenty of those hidden Ikea drawers. We have no problem to access whichever drawer we want whenever we want, with just one pull.

We've found an easy peasy solution that allows us to have access to either the outer drawer or the inner hidden drawer as desired. Love my hidden drawers within drawers!

As I don't want to hijack this thread, I'll start my own.

@pippabean_5b, good to know, thank you! does it depend on where you place your hand when opening?

Nope... ;-)

@pippabean_5b, you are a tease, lol! You must share your secret! It is for the good of all humanity! :D

Just be patient for a little bit. Will post when not in the office...

I wish I could patent our little solution, lol. It's too simple though, no new technology or complicated design solution. Alas...

@pippabean_5b, thank you!! That is really an impressive solution! If I had known about such magic, I would have gone with those inner drawers.

You're welcome.

You could always add an inner drawer into an existing tall drawer.

That's one thing I like about Ikea cabinetry: it's so easy to change things along with changing needs. Love the flexibility.

@Dawn I love your kitchen! I missed your original post, but this is the first Axstad kitchen I have seen 'in the wild'! It is so lovely. I spent a few hours at Ikea this morning planning my kitchen and talking with the kitchen designers there. I am really leaning towards an Axstad kitchen, I'm glad to hear you like it.

Dawn - Very nice! Can you share where you got your wood shelving or anything about it? Thank you!

@meagain1, Thank you! I bought the shelves at Target, Threshold brand. Be forewarned, they are very narrow. I really wanted some wider shelves, but by that point in the process we just wanted to be done, so we went the faster route.

https://www.target.com/p/wood-floating-shelf-pine-threshold/-/A-78347405?preselect=17305433#lnk=sametab

Thanks so much. I like them. Threshold line is pretty nice stuff and I need to get over there and look around. Might do white also.

What width are your cabinets to the right of the fridge and how wide are your drawer pulls (between screw holes)?

@Dawn What width are your cabinets to the right of the fridge and how wide are your drawer pulls (between screw holes)?

@HU-949850529, the drawers and upper cabinets immediately to the right of the fridge are 30" wide. The drawer pulls we used there are 10" wide. We used 3 sizes of drawer pulls throughout the kitchen and I love the look.

We just completed our kitchen reno. We were originally going to go with the off white ikea cabinets but chose the axstad instead and I couldn’t be happier! I too have 4 kids and 3 animals and I find these are not hard to keep clean at all. I just use dish soap and a sponge and it works perfectly.

@tayadasilva Your kitchen looks so beautiful! I love the counter & backsplash and your light fixture too! Everything looks wonderful together.

Dawn and Tayadasilva, your kitchens turned out beautiful! What countertops did you pair with the axstad? We just started our remodel, and I need to start making decisions on countertops. Both of your choices look great with the white cabinets!

I too am curious to hear what counters you chose for Axstad. I'm going with IKEA options and was considering Frosty Carrina or Organic White.

ETA: here is a photo I took at IKEA of the Axstad kitchen with Frosty Carrina counters.

Anyone struggling with paint colors that work well with the Assad white cabinets? I want a neutral color that goes with my modern farmhouse decor. Any suggestions? Everything looks yellow or blue.

@Vanessa Babiuk, I used an online interior designer (Maria Killam) because I had analysis paralysis. She suggested Benjamin Moore Classic Gray or Edgecomb Gray with my Axstad cabinets. I chose the darker Edgecomb because I didn't feel there was enough contrast with the Classic. I love how the Edgecomb turned out. I think you will need to look at the color of your counters to be sure of the right choice. If you look at Maria Killam's blog she has lots of posts about choosing the right neutral.

@AMS, apologies on the lateness of my reply to you, I didn't see it. Hopefully it is not too late. I used Silestone Pearl Jasmine quartz for my counters.

@Vanessa Babiuk i also chose grey. I went with a very light colour because I was going for a crisp and clean look and it turned out perfect. Its Behr silver city

@Dawn Roth i actually just saw your comment now. Thank you for the compliment on my kitchen Reno. i am very happy with how it all came together. Your kitchen looks great as well!

@tayadasilva What are you countertops?

@B N they are quartz.

@tayadasilva Do you know the color?

@Dawn Roth Do you happen to know what you used for molding on the tops of your cabinets? Was it the Ikea deco strips or something different?

Try using Clorox Disinfecting Bathroom Cleaner Spray without bleach. It removes the grease stains on Ikea Axstad cabinet doors. Looks like new! It also removes other stains as well.

@Dawn Roth- Beautiful White IKEA Axstad Kitchen! What is the name of the color of your quartz countertops?

Try using Clorox Disinfecting Bathroom Cleaner Spray without bleach. It removes the grease stains on Ikea Axstad cabinet doors. Looks like new! It also removes other stains as well.

@E N, apologies just saw this. We used regular molding strips from Home Depot and painted to match.

@dove41, thank you! The countertops are Silestone pearl Jasmine.

Thanks for the cleaner tip!

Curious what color was used to paint the trim to match the cabinets. My project has been 3 years running. I can't find anyone who will put in the trim/filler pieces!