When building your own home you want the very best. You want your home to look modern and in style but you don’t want to go with a trend that will date your house in only a few years. The kitchen cabinetry is something that should be chosen carefully. Ten years from now you don’t want your kitchen to look as if it was built in 2015. You wan’t your kitchen to look ageless and that means the cabinets should look timeless. Of course there are other things to consider when choosing the cabinets for your kitchen. In addition to being in style they need to be functional, they need to be easy to clean and if they get dinged or scratched you want an option to repair them.
Enameled kitchen cabinets are beautiful, they are very elegant and one of the hottest trends in kitchens these days. Painted cabinets allow you to go wile with color if you choose. They are very easy to clean and they look amazing. However, if the enamel chips or gets scraped they can be difficult to repair easily. Due to the application process and the smooth finish, it can be difficult to simply touch up using a paint brush because you’ll leave brush marks. Of course this isn’t an issue if you choose a more distressed look to your cabinets.
Stained kitchen cabinets are also stunning. Stained cabinets provide warmth and character to a room that might otherwise feel sterile. Stained cabinets are certainly more traditional and provide a warm feel to any room they’re used in. We like to do more stain work in the basements because it makes the space feel more cozy.
If choosing stained cabinets you’ll want to consider the kind of wood the cabinets are made from when choosing stain color. Some woods are harder than others and some take stain better.
Alder – is softer and dents easier and can be stained in a lot of variations of stain colors and is cost efficient.
Poplar – is a little harder than Alder, it is cost efficient, but can only be stained a darker color as its shows a lot of green wood grain if its stained to light.
Maple – is the next harder product, it’s a step up in price from the last 2, sometimes shows a blotchy look to it if its stained too light, otherwise dark is no problem.
Cherry – is next harder product, it’s a step up in price from Maple and will actually get darker as time goes on.
You don’t have to choose one finish or the other. There is no reason you can’t have enameled kitchen cabinets in the kitchen and stained cabinets in the family room in the basement. You can choose to paint the built – in drawers in the laundry room or nursery while staining the bookcases in the living room or study. It really comes down to what you like. Don’t let trends dictate the selections you choose, choose the selections that make you feel at home.