Phoggie-I just went to 4 parade homes this past week and none of them had stained cabinets! It's funny what you get used to. I have stained cabinets now and always figured we'd get stained again but after seeing so many white kitchens on here and out and about - they are growing on me, lol! No one I know in real life has white though. The homes I toured all had offset colored islands - wood stained or red or that green tea color.

No worries if you are the trend setter over there, someone has to be! ;) What you have chosen sounds very nice and yay for you that you know what feel you are striving for!

I am in the midwest by the way and I think with all of the variations I have seen you can do just about anything and it will be fine. Some will love it, some will not but it's your house. I'm not sure what we will end up with but if it's stained I know it won't be dark. We aren't that far and I don't even have a vision in my mind of what I want yet as far as color scheme. I hope eventually I get a spark of something!

I live in Seattle. Many of the homes that I go into are in expensive neighborhoods. Majority are white if remodeled in the past 5 years.

My rentals have white kitchens. I am buying another rental with a white kitchen.

My house DOES NOT have a white kitchen but very light.

We live in a dark gloomy part of the country. Majority of the houses try to make the house as light as possible. There are some newer kitchens with espresso stained modern kitchens/design. They only do this if there is a huge amount of natural light coming in.

Most of the modern design also uses very light color scheme. Seattle new homes often are modern designs. We probably embrace modern more than other parts of the country. When I visit other cities, I am often struck how traditional the home design is in that city.

In my previous house, I couldn't handle the dark cabinets; they just made the kitchen feel closed in and it wasn't a small kitchen. I finally got up the nerve to paint them a creamy color and loved it. When we sold the house, the realtor told me that was the big money maker. In my current house, the cabinets date from the 1920s or earlier and they have always been painted even though the trim in the house was stained. So I have kept them cream colored. I like both stained and painted cabs but I can only handle a few of the dark stained cabinets. I am sure regions are different and each has progressed according to the tastes of the residents. I like to see diversity in a kitchen and something that makes the kitchen unique to its owners. That is what I would strive for.
Diane

We are a blend - cherry lowers and painted uppers. DH and I absolutely love them. Plus, we bravely did two different cabinets styles. We have east/south exposure. And, I live in a rural area in the Midwest. People thought I was crazy for mixing finishes - until they saw the almost finished product.