looking at the above pic (beautiful kitchen from what i can see!), i personally think the white toe kick would give more of a finished look, but i suppose down the road when the dw gives out, you will have to be able to remove that little piece of wood to take it out and replace with a new dw, so maybe keep that in mind?

We have a DW with a cabinet panel on it. The cabinets are white, but we left the black toekick underneath the DW. Even though there is white toekick everywhere else, the black just makes it look like a little gap under that cabinet. Its only noticeable to me and I would think that our paneled DW with the white cabinets would make it stand out more than normal. A guest at my house still asked, "wait, where's the dishwasher" which leads me to believe that non-TKO don't notice these sorts of things.

My cabs are white although uninstalled. We're reusing our SS Kenmore DW, only about 2.5 yrs old, to save money until it quits. It came with a black toe kick. There wasn't a choice. I've wondered a few times what it will look like, but decided it'll be fine for now. DWs don't last like they used to so I'm sure in a few years we'll be looking for something new, and I could do something different then.

OT to Muskokascp--WOW! I haven't seen your kitchen for a while. It looks so great! Hope the countertop hunt is progressing for you. Are those Ikea pulls? Amerock?

Thanks for the responses! Muskokascp - Thanks so much for the photo. Your kitchen is coming along nicely. I don't think your dishwasher would look bad with a black toe kick. Like MIssyV pointed out, if my contractor does install the white toe kick underneath, he will attach it with velcro so that it can be easily removed if it needs to be serviced or replaced. I also read that someone had the toe kick attached using magnets and thought that was a good idea too.

Brianadarnell - Yeah, those non-TKOers just don't understand us. :) By the way, I've seen photos of your pretty kitchen and we have the same granite! I fell in love with it when I saw it in KitchenAddict's kitchen and couldn't believe it when I found it.

Breezygirl - We did the same thing. Our Kitchenaid dishwasher wasn't very old, so we reused it. The only thing in the whole kitchen that we reused (and I mean only) - we gutted down to the studs. Ours came with a black toe kick too, but my contractor was going to run the white wood toe kick underneath it. (By the way, how did it go with the Tea for Two tub? What did you do as a tub deck?)

Thanks everyone. Anyone else have this situation?

Funny you ask, I had never thought of it until I saw a DW the other day, with a white toekick. I can't remember where, but it was probably on GW. It looked fine, but a little like the dw was just floating there. I guess you could paint the black toekick white, or put in a piece of white wood to cover the black one. Again, I had never given it a second thought.

Here's mine from normal viewing level (standing). I confess, I never thought much about this. I think in my case a white add-on toe kick on the d/w would look strange, as it doesn't totally line up with the toekick beside it (it's regressed a bit).

Breezy, the pulls are from Top Knobs - Princetonian bar pulls. I like them and they came in a variety of sizes which was good because I wanted fairly long pulls for the large drawers. The counters are still a good month away.I hate waiting but the kitchen is pretty functional so I try to think about other things. Did you notice the break in the white toekick under the dish drawer ? It is one of the toe kick drawers. I only have 2 of them but they are fun.

Lake Girl - I was afraid it would look like you described. Co-Co, thanks for posting the photo. I think your dishwasher looks fine without a white toe kick. I think I may have my contractor just leave the black toe kick that came with the dishwasher.

Muskokascp - I have a toe kick drawer too. We were trying to figure out the toe kick for that too. I'm glad to see how it looks in your kitchen.

Thanks everyone! It always helps to get your opinions.

Krazed, While we don't have a SS/DW we do have white cabs and black appiances.
Since our kitchen is black & white we went with black toe kicks which is probably not an option for you but here's a shot anyway.

Lakegirl--I remember seeing that white toe kick. It did strike me as odd, too, now that I think about it. I think black is the way to go now.

Musk--when I said Amerock earlier, I meant Top Knobs. I fell in love with those pulls when Theanimala put them in her kitchen. I was planning to use them until a few months ago when I began leaning more traditional for pulls. Seeing the Princetonians again in your room reminds me why I wanted to use them.

Willtv - That's interesting. I've seen your kitchen a few times and never noticed you had black toe kicks. They blend in so naturally with the space.

Yes, black toe kick it is. That was my initial reaction when my contractor suggested running the white toe kick underneath - that it might look odd. The photos helped me to see that it looks just fine with a black toe kick.

Thanks again!

kitchen - funny story re the toe kick drawer. I was home when the cabinets were being installed ( by an installer independent of the cabinet maker)but I was in and out through the day. I came home to find him doing the island and he made a comment about the toe kick drawer. He didn't know it was there and when he realized what it was he thought it was pretty neat and mentioned he almost ran the toe kick piece over top of it. I thought uh oh because he had already installed the microwave base cabinet and there is another toe kick drawer under it. I told him this and his face sorta fell. He did put a toe kick under the microwave base but it was real easy to remove it. I am sure if your installer is the same person who made the cabinets this will not be an issue - just glad I was home to catch the slip.

That's funny - good thing he was able to fix it easily. My installer is also independent of the cabinet maker, but thankfully he knows ahead of time that the drawer is there.

We have all black toe kicks with white cabs, so the dw toekick was an easy decision.

I view toekicks as an area that can get scuffed. If you think about a staircase with white paint, you can picture the kind of scuffs I mean. I'd hate to be constantly touching up spots or having it look like it needs it in a working kitchen. I had the white fronts on my stairs in our last house and liked the look, but it took maintenance. It is also harder to clean/cover a black mark on a white surface. Since there is a shadow there naturally, the black seemed like the right choice to us.

I think that black toekicks make the cabs look like they float a little as well. They seem less noticeable and keep the focus elsewhere.

Thanks, Dianalo. I know the scuffs you mean. Sounds like the black toe kicks were a good choice for you. I remember you were doing a retro kitchen. I've been out of the loop a little bit. How is it coming along? Did you post photos anywhere yet?