I recently had my white Merillat melanine cabinets refaced due to the doors turning yellow (but of course with no continuity!). I decided to go with an antique white, mainly because I wanted to keep it light, but was gun-shy of doing white laminate again due to the yellowing. The doors and drawer fronts were replaced, and the frames were recovered with matching laminate. Even though the interiors are still white, it is barely noticeable when the doors are opened.

EllenMel -- if we went with antique white it would probably be about the color of the yellowed edges (lol) so then I wouldn't have to worry about them! ha! In my head I think a light paint color (blue, green, gray, yellow, what have you) would look fine with white inside, but I can't visualize natural wood with white inside. I haven't seen any in real life to judge. Your cabs sound very nice!

We did white interiors with natural wood doors with the Ikea cabinets we used in the laundry room. The person I ordered from looked at me like, "are you sure" when I said I wanted the white instead of the fake wood. I preferred the crispness of the white.

I really like it, but maybe it's because it's in the laundry room and there is a lot of other white in the room with the w&d and big shelving/hanging unit.

I believe you can get some sort of wood edging tape to put on the ends of the interior shelves and frame so that any frame showing in gaps around the doors and drawers blend in with the exterior.

We had a cabinet maker friend make our bathroom cabinetry 20 years ago. They are beautiful cherry. At the time, he used white cabinet interiors and drawer boxes. He does it differently now.

{{!gwi}}

I have frameless cabinets and the interiors are white, except for end panels and the one with glass doors.

I was gonna say Ikea users should know. I was right!

I really think it would be fine. Anyone who would comment that it looks cheap has no business being in your cabinets. White presents such a nice clean interior and it's easier to find things. You might need to face the front of the boxes because the white might peek through but it's certainly no reason to avoid stained wood over painted.

zelmar and timber.j -- Thank you! The pictures help a lot, and you're right, it looks fine on yours. Timber.j, QS oak (is that what that is? I can see the grain in only a couple of the doors) is one of the things that got me wondering if I could use wood instead of painted. Love QS oak.

Fori -- yes, of course, Ikea, maybe I'll hunt around on the Ikeafans forum and see if it's come up over there. Good thinking!

Yes, it is QS oak. I was leaning toward white, but am happy that we went with dh's first choice. :)

In our last house we had melamine interiors with very nice natural cherry doors and drawer fronts. I actually fought my dh to have that again in this house, instead of the plywood boxes he wanted, because of the brightness and easy clean/no worry with the melamine. (He wanted plywood partly because of being a wood snob ;-), and partly because of the weight of MDF, and since he and our sons were the ones hefting them around, I decided it was his call.)

Hmm, my reply from yesterday has vanished into the ether...

Thanks for the reinforcement, rhome and aloha! Of course now this means I have way too many choices, and I'd have to rethink countertops too, and so forth. Fun stuff! Timber.j, your DH has good taste in wood. :) I have always liked oak and I like QS the best, even before I ever heard it called "quartersawn" or knew what that meant. I had always heard it as "tiger oak" before. Anyway, we have some furniture that's QS oak so I'll get to look at it even if I paint the kitchen cabinets.