A lot of it depends on the light your kitchen receives, but here was my process...

- My cabinet maker uses SW paints, so I knew I would pick a standard chip from them rather than confuse myself with custom colors. I did a forum search for white kitchens and noted the SW names for those that I liked.

- I like a crisp white over creamy and my kitchen doesn't get a lot of natural light so I knew it would be best to stay on the crisp side.

- The trim in my house is VERRY white. I thought it would be a little harsh for cabs so I decided on something slightly warmer, but not much.

- Looved the look of soonermagic's kitchen. She used SW Alabaster (which I later realized was somehow missing from my collection of SW paint chips).

- Held the chips up on various walls in the kitchen and against my existing trim for comparison. A few immediately stood out and really only had to choose between three.

- My final selection - SW Snowbound. It has a few drops less blue than Alabaster so it appears more on the yellow side vs. the green undertone of Alabaster. Only slightly warmer than my very white trim color, but still very crisp looking. So crisp in fact, that I was sure the cabinet guys got the paint wrong when they did the install.

Had Alabaster been in my paint chip collection, I probably would've selected it over Snowbound, but it is really no big deal. I got all stressed out over this choice, but in the end I think it's pretty hard to go wrong once you make the creamy vs. white decision. Good luck!

Colors are either cool or warm. Whites that have blue tones are cool, and look lovely with other chrisp colors. Whites with yellow tend to be warm, and are great with autumn tones of orange, yellow, green or red (picture falling leaves).

I have a mix of "whites" in my house. One I have used for years with a pink tone to it (but definately warm in tone) is Ralph Lauren Startched Apron. IF you look at it, you'd say the chip is a dull tan, but on the ceiling, it's a soft white, that flows well with any color except chrisp blues. I also have a new fav RL paint, Writers Parchment. It's again a warm shade, that softens instead of highlights chrisp white.

Personally I don't like harsh or bright whites myself...you'd see this when visiting my house since all of my trim is Tint de' Negre (brown/black). And for cabinet, I prefer a softer tone (because you have so much visable space) unless it's a modern house, popping with bright colors.

But, everyone loves their own special white LOL so for you...you just have to find your favorite, but don't let the paint chips be your guide. Ask for doors, then take them to your house. The colors in your natural and artifical lighting will change the color of the door. In my house, brimming with natural light year round, stark white is awful, but perhaps in a gloomy home, you'd want to have stark cool white to lighten up your space :o)

Confused some more? :oP

When I first met with my KD I had in mind the crisp white cab look from the "Something's Gotta Give" kitchen. I presumed I was looking for a bright white finish.

Luckily, KD steered me toward a more muted tone. My cabinets are Omega/Dynasty & the shade I went with was their Opal.

She made me see that stark white, white finishes can sometimes make real wood cabs more resemble melamine, metal and other non-wood, cabinets. Think of the perimeter cabs in many dental/doctor's offices...you can really lose the warmth and beauty you pay for with wood if you go too white.

I think as the posters above said, that the challenge is to find a complementary trim color that will not fight with the white cabs and not make them look dingy. But I don't think that with all the choices, it's hard to do.

So unless you have little to no natural light, I would suggest not going stark white for kitchen cabs. The idea of taking doors into your own space and viewing them in your own light is really helpful.

I completely agree with the posts above. You need to find which white will work for you and one of the best ways I've found is to get sample pots and paint a big old piece of wood with a large squares of a few different choices. You can really judge better when you see the paint on wood and can move it around to different parts of your kitchen. Even if you have to buy a few quarts of paint I think its worth the investment because you'll be living with this choice for quite some time!

Look at it in the morning, again in afternoon and finally at night under your kitchen's lighting to see which of the finalists you like best in all your lighting conditions.

I'm a little persnickity so I personally went one step further and got little pots of my choice color in semi gloss and high gloss. The paint store suggested the high gloss (and I have high gloss trim in my house) but I chose the semi for the cabinets and I'm glad I didn't just blindly follow their advice. . .

Best of luck to you!

hi sayde, I agree that the Antique White looks very yellow on the sample too, but it looks so great in mamadadapaige's kitchen. The Dove White looks very bright to me, but also pretty.

rmkitchen chose a crisp white for her cabinets and they look fabulous, opposite from cheap or plasticy.

I'm hoping when the Crown Point KD brings larger samples on Thursday I can get a better idea of which white is for me.

Here is a link that might be useful: rmkitchen's kitchen

Hi, thanks everyone!

Erika, do you live close to Crown Point? Did you decide to have CP do your kitchen?

Mark Wirta said he would come to Rochester AFTER I signed --I suspect I'm a lot further away from them than you are.

I will be so eager to hear how your meeting goes on Thursday.

sayde, I live in NH on the MA border, so Claremont (where CP is located) is about 2 hours away. The KD is the one who suggested coming down, saying: "I'll bring a good sized sample cabinet, several color blocks, hardware samples, etc. My visit doesnÂt obligate you in any way and I would welcome a chance to get out of the office."

I'm looking forward to her visit. I'll keep you updated!

Erika

I took home like 40 chips, some based on people's recommendations and kitchens here, some from other sites. I was looking for a cool white to go with the blue/gray I wanted for my granite and backsplash.

Then I narrowed it down to three, bought small pots from a local store, painted pieces of poster board, and held each up with my sample tiles around it.

After all that, the door my cabinet-maker sent me to approve looked much brighter than I had imagined. But it still worked and I knew so much depended on my lighting and since that wouldn't be installed until after the cabs were finished, I'd never really know. So I went for it. They're ready but I haven't yet seen them. So we'll see!

I went with White Dove but my cabinet maker doesn't use BM so he just matched it.

I think it also helps to keep in mind that when you admire the beautiful kitchens here, you are looking at photographs on a computer screen. Colors can read so differently in person. If you can describe what you like (i.e. I wanted a warm soft white that didn't read either yellow or pink; I happily ended up with BM soft chamois), people can offer you suggestions. But then I think you have to bite the bullet, buy the quarts, and live with big samples for a week to see how they read in your room at all times of day. If you can put them next to the floors and wall color that you want, all the better. And then sometime buy more samples!

I also used Crown Point's Antique White. I had a concern that it was too dark too, but was not willing to pay an additional $3500 for a custom color. The other off-white options were a bit too green/grey for me, as our house tends to have a greyer northern light that I wanted to counteract.

I was biting my nails until the cabinets were installed. They're gorgeous, and look so beautiful with the 5 cm Venetino white marble countertops. They are warm and glowing and I think a very nice departure from the standard bright white with black honed granite look. I will be posting photos soon!

On a side note, I used their soft white (which is a bright white) for my bathroom vanity. It's perfect for the bathroom, but I think it would be a bit too clinical for the kitchen.