I put in lightly stained wood cabinets in 2017, and personally I wouldn't have them any other way. Unless you are flipping, do what YOU like!

alder is softer..prone to dings and with hard wear w kids pets some can have an issue. It is NOT like oak. Hopefully you are aware,,,,,it is a hardwood and nice for cabinets as the stain stays in the browns not orange or red particularly, the benefit you have added is "rustic " species and the toffee color...so if a ding needs filling .... it will be simple but also...the occas or possible ding will be part of the character of "rustic" with knots of various sizes etc. I think you're doing fine. Alder is a warm beautiful wood. You'll love how inviting it will be. there's a lot going on besides white cabinets. white is kind of a default..nothing wrong with it ..some love it ....lets give that sentiment its place ..... granite /stone is part of all the counter options......some go in/out of favour over time.

Yes! I choose things I love for my house, regardless of whether or not they are popular or trendy. Wood is timeless. I, too, am not a fan of white kitchens (or grey flooring). Your kitchen choices sound beautiful!

I am on the same page as you. I am doing natural red birch and Cambria Hadley dark navy for the counters. The rest of the kitchen, tile and walls will be warm white. I didn't want white either. I like other people's white kitchens but I didn't want one. I need a work horse kitchen not one where I worry about staining.

We did light stained hickory cabinets and leathered steel gray granite. the lines are more modern with shaker style cabinets, simple angular stainless fume hood, etc. so it is partly on trend partly off. i have no regrets. one thing ive noticed is males tend to rave about our kitchen. it may be more stereotypically ”masculine” than whats right on trend.

whats on trend now will be called ”dated” soon enough so might as well be happy!

I didn’t follow trends when I did mine in 2014. I went with what was going to work best with my home and my taste in furnishings. I also kept my location in mind. Decided on a medium stained alder, cafe Creme granite and an irregular subway tile that blended well with the granite. At the time quartz reigned, white was in demand. BTW, while alder is relatively soft, it is easy to cover up dings. My SIL did her’s at the same time in white and it’s completely marred up and needs

I like well-done white kitchens *in the right setting*. My house is about as far from that setting as you can get.

I am in the midst of a kitchen refresh. I have hickory cabinets and replaced the old countertops with Costa Esmeralda (soft green) granite and matte dark green backsplash. I'm still waiting on the new reclaimed wood freestanding island and recessed lighting, then paint, but so far I love it! Certainly nowhere close to being on trend, but honors the essence of my log-sided house.

I've had the following cabinet colors over the last 22 years: white, stained, stained, stained. I am building now and will do white ... nothing to do with trends, just ready for a change. I put in very dark stained cabinets in my last house because it was appropriate with the Spanish style of the house and complemented the existing beams. Future house was designed to be lighter/brighter and white cabinets was part of that. I will have stained vanities in 2 bathrooms.

As far as having to clean a white island all the time ... the stained island would be getting just as dirty, but you just wouldn't see it as easily! White cabinets get dirtier than stained is an urban legend!! ;-)

Honestly, I prefer to be able to see the dirt, specially when other people in the house wouldn't clean up a coffee spill if it blended into the stained wood and darker counters!

Alder is just above pine and poplar on the Janka hardness scale at 590. Red oak is 1290. You may want to choose pulls that keep fingers away from the surface.

This post reminds me of this fabulous monologue from The Devil Wears Prada - replace lumpy blue sweater with wood cabinets and granite countertops -

“This “stuff”? Oh, okay. I see. You think this has nothing to do with you.

You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean.

You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic “casual corner” where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of “stuff.”

I have dark oak cabinets with granite. I love it & it works great for us!! I love the look of white kitchens in other people's houses, but they are not for me.

@Shannon_WI so true and I have had white kitchen cabinets before, but never the white on white on white that is trending now. My first "grown-up" kitchen was white cabinets and red Formica counters. I loved it!

Frankly, we are all trending and dating just by the fact as we are using the products offered at this point in time. 10 years ago I would have gone with dark arts and crafts stained oak, fast forward I want a lighter look and arts and crafts style has waned.

With the reno we are in the midst of now I wanted forest green, hubby wanted wood.....neither of us thought we would end up with navy counters but, they were there in the showroom and we liked it with the cabinets..........bucking trend using the 2020's options LOL.

I did my present kitchen in 2013 with maple cabinets stained wheat with a chocolate glaze, not on trend, Typhoon Bordeaux granite on trend I think, a Whitehaven farmhouse sink which again I think was on trend. The kitchen I’m doing now is anatural stain maple, on trend because stained cabinets are regaining popularity, my counters are still open for debate. They could be Corian, quartz, granite, or quartzite. Some are trendy others not. I will make that choice when I find what I love but my choice won’t be driven by anything other than personal choice.

I think that almost everyone will chose what they love for their kitchen regardless of what the trends are. Sometimes final choices are made on the basis of availability or cost but the choice will still be personal preference.

I love a beautiful white kitchen, I love a well done modern kitchen, or a lovely traditional kitchen. Just because something is trendy doesn’t mean it was chosen because it was trendy. It’s a good thing that there is room for all of us and our differing tastes.

I love seeing all the trends in home, fashion, hair style, etc. I also know that I choose what I like for myself (and budget) that also aligns with my preference to keep items for a long time. While I may change out a throw pillow cover for my sofa, I will keep furniture and fixtures until they can no longer work. 13 years ago when we bought our house the 1960’s kitchen needed to be gutted. We chose white cabinets with butcher block counters and wood floors. I loved it then and love it still today. (I find them very easy to clean and maintain).

I don't follow trends. I go with what I like regardless if it is on trend or not. I put natural maple cabinets with leathered steel gray granite counters in my current kitchen. I love it.

Our first house which was built in 1988, but we bought in 1999, was white on white on white!

I guess the original owners were the real trend setters! What you didn't have back then was internet and social media that shared those photos far and wide, but that doesn't mean that those things didn't exist just because an individual hadn't seen it in person in their own geographic area.

It not so much that white cabinets are a trend. Yes, white cabinets have been around for hundreds of years. Rather, it’s the white cabs with white plastic-y fake wanna-be-marble quartz counters that’s been the trend for quite a while. It’s all of those kitchens not showing one iota of individuality.

It’s your kitchen, and your hard earned $$$. So get what makes you happy. For me, that meant the warmth and graining of wood, and the earthy, silkiness of soapstone.

About a month ago, a friend came to visit. She hadn’t seen us since we moved in 2016, gutted the house, and put in a new kitchen. The first thing she said upon stepping into the kitchen was, ”Thank god you didn’t put in a white kitchen.”

Thanks everyone and I LOVE hearing about your kitchens and seeing the photos of your beautiful kitchens! I’ve sort of compared it to planning my wedding and picking a wedding gown. You always see other options / trends and wonder if you made the right choices.

And I do LOVE white kitchens! Originally I had planned to have only a wood island!

Well, I went both against and with the current trends apparently. Three years ago, we moved into an entirely grey house with almost black kitchen cabinets, white subway backsplash and light granite counters. The first thing I did and it was a condition for buying the house, was get the cabinets painted off white. I hate things to be dark, so I guess I went with the trend, although it was newly done in the latest fashion of dark kitchens. So I guess we went with the old trend. But I love it and will keep it like this. I then painted most of the house a pale cream yellow, which is either really outdated or newly in fashion again, I dont know which, but it’s my favorite color, so I love it. I put blue and white plates up on it and I love the combination. In the kitchen, I love my granite counters and like the supposedly boring backsplash. I do have a wood hutch and kitchen stools which brings warmth into the kitchen. I love our house!

Just about every choice can be beautiful when it blends well with the rest of the house, too. White it timeless, but so is wood. A very good friend decided to splurge and hire a kitchen designer to help her with a much-needed major overhaul. She spent her time steering him away from the trends he wanted and towards her vision of hickory with a quartz top that had some fabulous gold veining which looked like a million dollars with her light hickory. I can’t even begin to describe how fantastic her final vision came out, even though he was continually wanting her to go in a different direction. Fast forward to two months post-project—she walks into his store, and he has a NEW kitchen demo aera with her (nearly) exact choices of hickory and countertop! Best compliment ever. Was he a bad designer. Absolutely not. She just had a great feel for what she really liked and worked hard to pull it all together.

I love my white kitchen and i loved my white kitchen in my last house. if i were going to build again, which im NOT…i would use quartersawn oak and soapstone which i absolutely adore.

these threads do pop up every few months and usually turn into a bash fest.

ILoveRed - We just placed the order for the cabinets for our kitchen remodel. White perimeters, inset, with quartersawn white oak island. Soapstone counters. I’ll start posting photos when the install starts, in approximately two hundred years. Thanks covid.

@Shannie McQ - your kitchen choices sound beautiful. I am a big fan of granite because I’ve had such good experience with it. I cannot be a slave to my counters! (or my appliances or sink or anything). I would not include granite in the ”trend” group because there are a thousand colors and patterns combinations.

What sink are you getting? Have you chosen a backsplash yet - the advice on this forum is always to wait on the backsplash choice until the very end, but I am curious for you because of your counters.

Cant wait to see your pics arch!

Heck yes. Do whatever you want. ALL trends come and go. And in a few years, everyone will say of those white kitchens, 'guess this home hasn't been renovated since 2018.' it's your home. Surround yourself with what you love. I had a 'high end' designer here last year, and essentially got the 'paint everything white' treatment. First and last time she was here. We're on a painfully long covid reno. My own dumb fault. Anyway, I read a lot on counters in the threads, and if I hadn't gone with quartzite, I would've picked a dark granite. If you read the threads, the people with dark granite know it's the best, speaking functionally and for longevity.

Thanks everyone! My kitchen cabinets are in and I am blown away by how gorgeous they are! I think it was all a bit nerve wracking making such big decisions during lock downs, etc.

@Shannie McQ I know you made your choice, but my two cents...I am building a house, and there are some "trends" I love...smoked, waxed white oak floors, for one. But after having lived with white cabinets in my last house (love the bright look, but fingerprint heaven), white counters in Mom's (oops, dripped beet juice), dark floors in this one (pets footprints and hair)...I have come to the conclusion that for me, I must consider how I live and who I am. I'm a messy cook...I hate cleaning daily...why do that to myself no matter how much I might like the look. So I won't go dark floors OR light floors, etc. I will choose something that hides as much crud as I can, but something that still appeals to my taste...and enjoy seeing other options in other people's homes..Same with counters, etc.. (I guess I am admitting if you come to my house, it might not be totally spotless under all that camo...LOL.) Hope you post some pictures soon.

We remodeled our kitchen within the last two years and Blue Flower granite was one of my top choices for countertop. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a slab I liked, so we went with Blue Nile - which I love, very much like Blue Flower. I wanted granite because I heard quartz could yellow in sunlight and our counters get a lot of sun. I did go with white cabinets - mainly because we had had dark wood for 25 years and wanted a change.

Thank you!!! I did the Blue Flower and I am obsessed with it! Lol