To the original question - does anyone like builder grade oak cabinets - my answer is no. But that's mainly because the particle board parts of the drawers and carcass usually come apart at some point, like the drawer front that came off in someone's hand. The thread seems to have veered off into a question of whether even solid oak cabinets are liked, and or dated. I love my oak cabinets even though they need to be refinished. They are good quality, custom built though, and I think that makes a difference. I also like painted cabinets, and might even go that route next time. This thread kind of reminds me of something that happened in 1978. We bought our first house that year, and so did some good friends. Both our kitchens had painted cabinets. Mine were brown with yellow doors, which I hated, along with the fact that they were older. I stripped and refinished them and they looked so much better. They were a slab style solid wood though I can't remember what kind now. My friend's cabinets (and house) were newer, white, raised panel with arched top. I thought they were gorgeous, but she thought they were terribly dated since wood was really in then, so she started stripping hers too. That's when she found out that the doors were made of particle board, and stripping ruined two of them. All that to say that painted vs wood comes and goes as we've discussed here before. If you like your cabinets and they are in good shape, keep the wood finished. If not, paint them. Whichever you choose, it will come back if it's not in now, and it will be out if it's not now. And that's probably the same with arched tops, beadboard panels, aprons between cabinets, and so on.

Your photos intrigued me so I did some Googling on stencils. Here's some links I found, so I hope you find them helpful. I think you could turn your kitchen into a beautiful example of stenciled cabs with some time and effort: Photos: http://www.stencilsearch.com/articles/kitchen-cabinets.html http://www.walltowallstencils.com/gallery/pages/kitchens.php HGTV has lots of articles on stenciling which can be applied to cabinets: http://search.hgtv.com/hgtv/stenciled-cabinets/search.do?searchType=Aggregate How-to article, no photos: http://home.howstuffworks.com/guide-to-decorating-wooden-furniture-ga4.htm Stencil design ideas: http://www.stencilsource.com/ideas.html An outstanding old home with magnificent stencils and a full set of photos and articles: http://designinspiration.typepad.com/design_inspiration_planet/a_tour_of_the_stencilled_home/ Dover Publications has a long list of stencil pattern books for inspiration. Their website isnÂt very good  hereÂs a search for "stencils", but remember to click on the "more results" button on the bottom to continue reading the full list of what they have available: http://search.store.yahoo.net/cgi-bin/nsearch?catalog=doverpublications&query=stencils

Thanks, Joe and Vith - If I go this route, I'd need to guesstimate where the cabinet feet/sides will touch bottom -- or just overestimate and go wider w/ the plywood? So if I went with plywood, just strips underneath the cabinet sides? Or would I need to place a strip underneath the cabinet back? klem - Hmmm, thanks. Had not read this could be an issue, but now you've got me rethinking/worrying about plywood. I guess wood sitting on slab gets moist, right? We did give tile some thought for a little while, but thought even with cheap tile, it'd be overkill to cover the entire expanse of slab. We do have all the tiling paraphernalia, though.

Note that wood filler will crack over time as the wood moves if you are intending to use it to fill cracks between wood pieces. You'll need to use caulk to avoid that and caulk can not be shaped and molded like the woodfiller. I had the plywood style cabinets you have, but in much much better shape and was just going to do a replace the doors and hardware and re-configure a bit because I saw in person how the added wood to the doors looked after a few years in my friends home (looked nice when just done and they did spend a lot of detail work on it). However since my boxes were built in large pieces I couldn't reconfigure and ended up completely replacing the boxes too.. This was my old house. In my current house we have plywood built cabinets that all looks nice on the surface, but are cheaply built IMHO. We've fixed slides twice, the doors are a bit warped, drawer boxes need some help soon. I also installed some IKEA cabinets in our dining room which holds all my daughters toys. They get as much use as our kitchen cabinets and have held up so much better as well, plus they have been handled by little people who are not careful. They are low VOC and has the nice bells and whistles of full extension soft close drawer glides and soft close doors. I really want to switch my kitchen cabinets to IKEA, but for me to do that I need to come up with a better layout to satisfy the other issues with my kitchen. Unfortunately for you it doesn't look like cabinet grade plywood was used on your cabinets due to the roughness which is another huge difference between yours and irmaly's starting point. If you insist on keeping the boxes vs. getting the nice bells and whistles you could with IKEA cabinets, then at least save yourself the frustration and get some new doors/drawer fronts and also some new drawer boxes. In my old house I used Scherr's to replace the doors in my 2 bathrooms and for a master vanity I built and used all wood in poplar - a cheaper paintgrade wood if you want to avoid the MDF. However having MDF as the center panel in a door makes the door more stable and less prone to wood changes with humidity. I agree with most though that starting from scratch would be worth it vs. the amount of time you'll spend on what you have and then how long it will last after that. You'd also have a better starting point with new cabinets and re-configuring the space. Sure you can do what you want and end up with it looking a whole lot better- but you said you were short on time and working with what you have is going to take a long time to make it look pristine. That is a lot of filling and sanding needed. Never mind how you plan to fix the edges so it looks good. That line would bother me to see the line between the applied wood and then the ratty edge underneath that will need a lot of work to made look good again. Sure you wouldn't see it when closed and looking straight at them, but when open or from the top or side it will be hard not to notice. Also are your existing doors the right overlap to be able to change to concealed hinges?