We went with Espresso (and a gray island) but I would think white would show dings less as the underlying color of the wood is closer to white than a dark stain.

In general I think white hides wear and tear better.

You could also go two-toned. Which I think looks really nice.

Here is a link that might be useful: [that home site[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/los-altos-hills-fun-basement-transitional-kitchen-san-francisco-phvw-vp~6802116)

Sorry, over a year but don't have any cracks, chips or dings to show you. Painted over dark stain.

Cabinets, at least high end ones, or at least the ones I have had made, are not painted with normal paint and a paint brush. The paint is a special finish and sprayed on. In fact, I had my cabinets ever so slightly distressed in this house because, in my last house, one thing i did not like was the perfect finish on my cabinets (those were by Rutt, these are by my design build firm). They were nearly 10yo and looked so perfect I felt it was almost like plastic. I wanted brush marks and paid for them this time.

So, there is nothing to see after 4yrs in my white kitchen

Mine are 2.5 yrs old and not a scratch on them, despite the fact that the dogs sometimes get over-curious about what is happening up on the counter and jump up on them.

Wish my floors had held up like my cabinets...

My white kitchen is almost 3 years old. The surface looks the same as it did when it went in. The only signs of wear are a few pinholes on the upper edge of two lower doors where my cat grabs with his claws and opens the door. Zephyr the Trick Cat.

I had worried about the paint holding up, but it's tough like iron.

I can show you the dent in my stainless steel refrigerator door where it got banged by a bottle of booze; I can show you a slice in my porcelain floor where someone must have dropped a screwdriver, but I can't show you any marks or dings on my white cabinets! The paint on these things is pretty sturdy - they are shaker style and the paint hasn't even cracked where the rails come together. Go figure. You would have to work hard to beat up these cabinets.

No problems with my painted cabinets. We have a two-tone kitchen with cherry on the base, uppers painted along with refrigerator and oven cabinets.

And for those of you with still stellar white cabinets, can you share your cabinet line?

I have both white painted cabinets and black cabinets.

The white cabinets started life as Kraftmaid with a distressed finish and some kind of stain that was designed to make them look interesting. I painted them with Sherwin Williams Dover White because I though the stain effect looked dirty and dusty. That was 10 years ago.

I'm getting ready to replace them with the same color cabinet. I need the reflective light color due to poor light from the windows. They wash right off if I spill or splatter spaghetti sauce.

I have a small bar area with black cabinetry. It shows every speck of dust. My dogs come in wet and shake off. I see every dried splatter. The black surface seems to reflect a lot of imperfections. I'm not getting rid of these cabinets because they are in an adjacent keeping room.

I've had white, black and dark stained. If you don't want to see the dirt, get the stained. It hides all the crud. At least with white I can see the crud and clean it up.

Get what you like. You are going to live with it a long time. A soapy rag is a small price to pay for happiness.

dccurlygirl, my cabinets are a combination of 23-year-old golden oak boxes (generic, builder's grade) and Decora paint grade maple doors, drawer fronts and end panels. Everything was painted and is holding up super well.

Yes, everything shows on white. But you see it, and you wipe it up. I am not world's most fastidious housekeeper, but my white cabinets are pristine. Stained wood, esp. mid tones won't show much of anything, but the grease and grime accumulate, kwim?

My experience is with stained cabs but since DH and I are likely going to have a painted island and hutch, I've been doing some research into painted cab durability. I will admit to being hesitant, too, so it's great that you started this thread and that so many have responded. I hope you won't mind that I'm adding a question of my own.

To owners of painted cabs: If your painted cabs are not factory painted - built and painted by local custom cab maker or built and painted in a paint booth or on site by your GC's painters - I'd love to know what kind of paint was used. TIA!

kali2024, my neighbor has white cabs, nearly 20 yrs old. They are the 3rd owners, second owners with small children. And her twin boys are very hard on things. (They are also very curious, nearly ruined the vacuum because they wanted to see what happened when you vacuum yogurt! They crack me up but I'm glad they aren't mine!)

Anyhoo, I noticed that despite the cab age and kid thing, only one cab in her kitchen has any visible damage. The drawer in the cab next to the sink has 2 small chips along the top edge. I don't know when these chips occurred or how they happened. For all I know, the chips happened when the POs had the 4x4 white tile counters replaced with 24 x 24 tile counters (the tile edge is quite deep).

The builder didn't use any large, name brand cab company (he built our house, too), just a local cab maker. The cabs were likely painted on site by the builder's painters (that's how they painted all the woodwork in our homes). It was oil base paint because that's what they used 20 years ago.

Paint needs time to cure before it's as durable as possible. Cure time will depend on how your cabs are painted: factory finished, sprayed in a paint booth by local painter or cab maker or painted on site. So treat them with care while they continue to cure on site (that can take up to 30 days from what I've read).