I'm totally in favor or bribes and tears, for the record.

: )

I think the real dichotomy in terms of wear and tear is painted vs stained. Not that you wipe one down more than the other --- I don't see big differences there. But that the paint can wear off or chip.

In that case, it's partly a matter of budget. We used Rutt custom cabinets in our last kitchen, which are pretty costly. They were painted. But the finish was incredibly durable. We put them in 9 years ago, we have a 7,8 and 11 yr old and they still look new.

Do you really think its about maintenance, or the look? If you think he really just likes the look of wood, give him a wood counter or island to ogle over ....

We have had a white kitchen for years. I painted the cabinets of the previous one myself using white with grey undertones and using melamine paint. It lasted through lots of cleaning (I'm not a neat freak but I am a clean freak) and 2 active boys. No chips.
Our new kitchen is white again, this time custom maple cabinets with custom paint done at the shop. This stuff almost looks like its lacquered. I could scrub to my hearts desire and nothing is going to rub or chip this stuff. It's all in the talent and attention to detail.
We did put, as part of our peninsula, a dark stained maple 18" overhang. That was for me. I had wanted white perimeters with dark stained island but didn't like the floorplan that would have given me that.

I guess it depends more on how much you clean. I hate to clean. I wiped down my cabinets maybe a handful of times in the last 10 years. We had white melamine cabinets. It showed everything...juice spills, tomato sauce. And I didn't always wipe it up right away. I am so looking forward to wood cabinets with a darker stain. So as to help hide my poor house keeping inclinations.

We're doing a white kitchen after several years of stained cabinets, in part because I'm still pining away for the white kitchen I left behind in my previous home. My take is this: yes, white shows more, but I think that simple fact makes the cabinetry easier to keep clean. With our stained wood kitchen, I was always having to tilt my head at odd angles and get the light just right to be sure I was catching everything. With white, you can see it and clean it.

So if you're talking about wanting to have the cabinets hide messes you don't necessarily intend to clean up, I think stained wood would hide it best. If you fully intend to wipe up messes as you go, white makes it a whole lot easier to do that.

I have 12 kids, so I understand the benefits of materials that help hide dirt, but I can't stand dirty kitchens. White it is for me! :o)

I think white is EASIER to maintain.
I know this sounds crazy but truthfully it is easier.
The trouble with Cherry, Birch, Maple, black painted...
is that I could never see the spatter of spaghitti sauce,
brownie finger prints, peanut butter flecs, grease...

Now with white it shows up fast. You see the dirt and
it is easy to clean it up. Much better than touching
a cabinet and feeling something sticky that was not
cleaned up the night before. Gross.

Now how to charm you DH? I guess I would tell him he
ought to drive a pink car. If he can drive a pink car
than you would be more than willing to give up a white
kitchen. And the lovely thing about a white kitchen is
it is gender neutral. Where Pink can really make a
feminine statement. Even in 2011
~boxer

My DH gave this little creature up for our white kitchen.

A few garden web links that talk about this subject.

How high maintenance are white painted cabinets?
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1219192611285.html

White Cabinets: Are they hard to maintain?
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1213392828882.html

How to clean painted kitchen cabinets
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cleaning/msg0117364214140.html

painted white vs stained cabinets & cleaning them
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg082351354449.html

Here is a link that might be useful: remedy for cleaning grease splatter on white cabinets?

I am commenting not on the ease or not of white kitchens but was in the same dilemma with my husband! He doesn't like the white kitchen I wanted. I have decided to go with a darker cabinet, now you are making me rethink it! LOL!!
I will add that I have had black appliances and now I have white and the white are much easier to keep clean! Same reasons as mentioned above- you notice the stuff right away and the darker always shows the fingerprints, dust etc and feel like I always had to wipe those down.

Thanks for all the great responses. World Mom, 12 children! And you're going to have another white kitchen? Then I'm sold. Our son is grown but we have two small grandchildren. Our six year old granddaughter likes to help me bake cookies.

I am somewhat of a neat freak so wiping down the cabinets is no problem for me. I am going to get my husband on board and look at all these wonderful white kitchens so he can start getting use to the idea.

I like the idea of a wood counter to bring in a masculine touch in the kitchen, also thinking about cork flooring.

I'm with allaboutthefood. I hate to clean, and I don't have time to anyway. I've had 2 white kitchens in the past and hated having to wipe them down all the time. I chose medium stained cherry this time and love it.

The one thing I KNOW I want for this remodel is white cabinets. I agree that I think it will be easier to keep clean because dirt will be obvious.

I liken it to my dog. It's funny because people at the dogpark always comment about how hard she must be to keep clean. I tell them (as the dogs play in a giant mud hole) that she's no dirtier than their black dog, but fortunately I NOTICE the dirt before she jumps in my car/on the couch/in the bed!

Keeping her clean is easy. Keeping her in the yard is another story, LOL.

Whew! Thanks marcydc...I was beginning to think I was the only poor housekeeper on this site! (Just joking!)

"Do you find yourself wiping down the cabs more often than you thought you would have to?"

No. I went from dark-stained to white. I wipe up if I make a mess while cooking immediately. However, this is quite rare. Normally I am just wiping the backsplash down.

"How can I get him to become receptive to the idea?/ Anyone here have a husband who resisted the idea but finally came around to your way of thinking? If so, how long did it take to convince him?"

My hand is up. My husband was used to a dark stained kitchen, so it never crossed his mind to consider anything else. His gut reaction to white was "NO!!!!!" However, I showed him photos, talked about the look I wanted to achieve, etc. Either he decided white was good also or he got sick of me talking about it and gave up. I'm not sure which happened. :)

During the design process, we did go to granite yards together to look at options. He is the one who was especially drawn to antiqued cambrian black because of the texture. As it turns out, I had lots of examples of white kitchens with black granite. He liked the combo after reviewing the photos. I think this is what made him think white kitchens were ok in the end, honestly.

I think your husband, like mine, might need time to think about it and absorb the idea. :)

I wanted white, my husband actually talked me into dark stain. And after they were up, I just could not warm up to them, and I lost interest in the kitchen (so to speak) and after a while, DH decided that his desire for stained oak was outwieght by my desire for painted white.

Now that they are white, DH says he thinks it all looks so much better as we have little natural light, and I knew those stained cabs were going to make it look like a cave.

I keep asking DH - in all of our 30 years together, when has my color and decorating ideas not turned out fine even when he could not envision it. He is a creature of habit and if left up to himself, he would have recreated the '70's kitchen he grew up with. He has little to no imagination - lots and lots of pictures helped. I don't even try to explain an idea with a pencil and paper.

In the end DH decided that having me HAPPY in the kitchen was the most important thing. I guess that goes along with the "bribes and tears" comment LOL!

My kitchen is white and to address the question about wear and tear...my cabinets are painted with a type of paint that is almost automotive. I asked my cabinet maker about it before I had them built and he said there is no way that the finish is going to wear off. I accidentally hit it with a board and it didn't scratch so I'm pretty confident.

I'd say my kitchen stays considerably cleaner now that I have white cabinets. Just a wipe up here or there is all it takes on my paint. Good luck convincing your husband.

Food, I was beginning to think that the white lovers outnumber the wood fans on this board about 8:1. It looks even higher now!

I like that a white kitchen not only looks clean, but is clean or you know it right away. I also love the wood look, but having the white show dirt or splatters more obviously is a definite plus for making the decision. It is more hygienic.
I had 2 washed oak kitchens (both from POs) and keeping them looking good was tough. You could not tell as quickly and I was always afraid of ruining the finish. I can say in the 2nd house, when we bought it, the areas around the handles were almost black with grime. I don't think the PO would have let it get so bad with white cabs... gross!

I had late 80's white laminate cabinets. When I told kitchen designer I was thinking of replacing with painted white cab's, he got "that look (like he smelled somethingb bad)" on his face and said that is a dated look.

I decided to go with an Amish cabinet maker who did custom cherry shaker cab's with a clear finish and I love them! I wanted something organic looking and classic because I don't think I'll ever get to remodel an entire kitchen again. It just looks very "rich" and unique. A lot of white kitchens kind-of look cookie cutter to me---sorry JMO!

I went with Halora granite countertops and natural stone tile for the backsplash with stainless steel appliances and it looks really good.

Anyway, long story short, I'm so glad the first kitchen person made me rethink white cabs!

I wanted to do my cabinets white, but I only did the island. I have 3 kids and I have to clean it more often then my maple cabinets. After living with only te back of my island being white, I have gotten over the sadness of not having white cabinets. They are not a good fit with my lifestyle right now.

Macybaby states my thoughts as well. When we had to renovated almost six years ago, DH talked me out of my dream white kitchen that I've envisioned since I was old enough to even *think* about kitchens. He just didn't like the pictures I showed him. Of course, at the time I was in to the brown glazing on them. My compromise was a natural cabinet with a brown glaze which looks great and is still very much "in" at least here anyway. Now, looking back, I'm glad he vetoed b/c of the brown glazing I would have done.

Now that we're going to be building, I've put my foot down and told him that we're going with white. I've showed him many photos and he's found several he likes. In the end, he knows that what I envision will turn out great. But he can't envision it himself so it's hard for him to commit. He's just going to have to trust me on this one. :)

I agree with Boxer.. i have found you see the finger smudges etc and I wipe them easily with a rag and sometimes hot water.. I have Mouser cabinets. Much of white I quickly wipe I would never see on wood cabinets and it would likely build up and be harder to clean over time

I have had two white kitchen. I did not find them any harder to clean. I only have one child. She grew up that if she spilled something she wiped it up.

I had dark wood when I first got married and hated them. The white kitchen just looks cleaner to me.

Cannot help you with the husband thing. Decorating was my department and his department was eating. If I was not happy he knew he would not be happy with what he got to eat.

As much as I do love to look at white kitchens I knew they weren't for me. Dh is a messy messy person and he never ever notices when he makes a mess. I'm often wiping down my cabinets/counters when he's in the kitchen but I can't always get to it right away.
At least with the stained cabinets (medium color, cinnamon) if I don't get to it right away I'm not emabrassed if someone stops by unexpectedly.

But truth be told, the main reason we went with stained is the cabinet maker had a base stain color (not an upgrade) that is an Exact Match to our existing 1920's craftsman woodwork and we felt that would fit the feel of the kitchen and the house more than a painted cabinet would.

My DH was adamantly against white cabs. I just kept looking at them and planning my kitchen with them. I knew that we were going with an IKEA kitchen because I loved them, and it was in our budget. I brought him down to IKEA, specifically to look at the Stat kitchen on display. He immediately noticed the one door in the whole display that had a tiny little chip on it. He also just didn't "trust that door" Arrrrgh.

I was not to be deterred. I brought a Stat door home to see how it looked in our kitchen, and I immediately thought it was too stark of white for our space. I wanted a softer, creamier white. (Seriously, I thought "creamy white" was my original description--LOL!) I started thinking that I could have doors made and paint them my preferred color. I started talking about "not a stark white, honey, a creamy white."

For some reason, "creamy white" sounded better to him, and he started to see that lighter colors in the kitchen would open it up and brighten it quite a bit. I bought sample doors and painted them, which really helped him visualize the whole thing. It took a while, but I did not give up, and he eventually relented.

Now I have my *creamy white* and could not be happier--and I didn't have to cry at all. That came later. ;^)

Love my white kitchen. We have a small kitchen and it just looks bright and airy. I love the look of some of the wood kitchens as well, but again for a small kitchen I think white is the right choice.
I agree with many of the above posts in that I am not cleaniing any more than I did before. I am not a messy cook and find the upkeep easy.

What about white under the seating area of an island/peninsula? Im worried about stools getting rammed into it, getting kicked etc... The rest of it.. I think I can handle.