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We are renovating our 25 year old kitchen.

We have oak wood floors and stained trim to work around.

My kitchen and family room are one open room. I have floor to ceiling built in oak bookcases in the family room that match my existing kitchen cabinets.

I think white shaker cabinets would probably look the best with the floor and trim but I haven't made a final decision.

Anyone that has or had painted cabinets, do they hold up as well as stained? I have heard they show dings a lot more and the finish isn't as durable.

Any suggestions, ideas or things I should consider?

Thanks!!!

I havent painted cabinets, but there is a paint called Heritage Traditions Paint that is supposedly quite good for cabinets. It takes 30 days to fully cure (you can use before that) and has a built in top coat. No sanding or primer needed generally - jus use their deglosser.

Look for their Facebook page and follow it— good community that answers ALL the questions and show what they have done for their kitchen renovations. (It is that paint’s page, so you will generally hear only about their paint, but you will see LOTS of great, easy DIY renovations and ideas on how to make your existing cabinets look like shaker cabinets.)

I love looking at what everyone there is doing or has done- great for ideas!

Sorry, I wasn't clear in my original post. We are getting new cabinets.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will check out that site. I was against painting because I don't like the door style and it seems like a crazy amount of effort for a temporary fix. It would save a ton of money though.

I love looking at pictures but after a while it makes me confused and crazy.

Factory finished cabinets generally hold up better than ones that were painted in the field. They bake the paint on and use different paint due to that. On top of that often what looks like a painted cabinet is actually a laminate finish.

White shaker cabinets are in style right now. They will go with all your oak.

Factory finish on cabinets and flooring is much harder than regular paint.As someone else posted it could be a laminate and I would stear clear of that.

Thanks!!

There are white painted cabinets that are wood and also that are laminate?

Yeah, I don't want laminate. I will need to ask the contractor if it doesn't specify when the bid comes in. Thank you for pointing that out.

I am leaning towards the white shaker. Of course if I pick those I'm sure they will be dated in a year.

Do you think I will need to paint the bookcases in the family room to match? They are solid oak and stained.

My sister just went through a 4 month home renovation enlarging the kitchen and dining area and adding a 4th bedroom. She says NEVER AGAIN, she'd just go buy another house. She was without a working kitchen for three months! She got the white shaker cabinets and they really are beautiful. Her back-splash is brown brass and they put down light brown color wood flooring in kitchen and dining. Beautiful! But she was stressed to the MAX trying to get workers to finish it.

I am not really looking forward to doing this but our bathrooms really need to be done. There is more there than cosmetic improvements. So we figured while we are dealing with that we should just freshen up the kitchen so we are ready to sell if we decide to pull the trigger.

Fortunately we can stay with my sister while the work is being done but it is still all very stressful.

I love the light color wood flooring!! Your sister's kitchen sounds really pretty.

I've had white kitchen cabinets and wood ones; the white ones most definitely show dirt more easily. The areas around the knobs, in particular, would get quite dirty, from the natural oils and dirt on hands touching it, and even have layers of paint start coming off. My wood ones, though, unless a spill of some sort happens, don't really show dirt. Now, my parents' old wood cabinets (nearly 50 years old) have shown dirt on them for quite a while, but, then, the newer finishes of today can be kept clean much easier than those of 50 years ago - something about the way they finish them nowadays.

Anyway, just something to think about as you decide.

Thank you wiser. That's the kind of information I'm looking for.

I love the look of white cabinets but I'm afraid of exactly what you described. Wood cabinets seem to hold up to cleaning and stay nice looking a long time. I actually use my kitchen so that's important.

We have all new white cabinets downstairs waiting to be installed (yeah ok we are lazy and honestly i have NO idea hoe to get the ones ON the walls lol. The ones we have now are falling off...two have come down already, so not done correctly!!!)

Anyways, old ones white, new ones white. No arguing that white shows dirt. So i thought maybe if i polyurethane the new ones they would clean up better.

Anyone try that???