We have a light, warm grey cabinet with marble counters. I absolutely love my kitchen! It has the brightness of white, but with a little more dimension. The color will also hide the natural cracking of the cabinets more than white. We have all oak flooring throughout, so natural wood were not an option for me. The cabinets pair nicely with a warm, rich brown. There are some very beautiful inspiration kitchens on Houzz, I'd start there.

Anonymous wrote:Whatever you do, please don't use glossy white tile for the backsplash (subway or otherwise). It makes the kitchen look like a bathroom.

+1

Don't know why ppl throw subway tiles up with everything. I think it looks particularly stupid with granite.

If you have paint grade cabinets, you can always change the color later. Paint the gray now & you can do something later. I love the look of a gray kitchen and would absolutely consider it if we were doing a reno.

And I agree, most kitchens look dated after 10 years no matter what you do. Do what you love now.

Anonymous wrote:Most people update kitchens and baths every ten years so who cares what's dated later

Most people do not renovate their kitchens and bathrooms every ten years.

Most people live with their kitchens for 20-30 years and their bathrooms as well.

Whatever you do, please don't use glossy white tile for the backsplash (subway or otherwise). It makes the kitchen look like a bathroom.

I have lightly stained maple cabinets but used a modern glass and metal tile mosaic for the backsplash and I get so many complements on it. I love the natural look of the wood and the tile really pops.

Do what you love: if that's gray, then so be it. There are some gorgeous gray kitchens on Gardenweb/Houzz if you want some inspiration. I think gray cabinets are less trendy than gray walls; I don't mind gray either way but looking at houses I'm really over the all-gray-paint on the walls looks.

We actually used greige on our cabinets when we did our kitchen two years ago. I wanted something neutral but my husband vetoed white and by the time we actually did the project I was sick of looking at white cabinets. I'm still really happy with the greige but I'm sure that's because it reflects my taste rather than what people told me I should do.

Anonymous wrote:Most people update kitchens and baths every ten years so who cares what's dated later

Read that again.

Most people update kitchens and baths every ten years so who cares what's dated later

White kitchens are great if they are closed off, but stark white looks horrible if it's open to the rest of the house.

[quote=Anonymous]White kitchens have been around forever.
It is not a trend.
If anything, maple/oak cabinets are the trend and white is just returning them to what was original style.
[/quote]

Wood cabinets have been around just as long as white, and both can be on or off trend.

Anonymous wrote:Natural wood tones never go out of style.

We have natural wood tones with granite counters. I think it looks horribly dated & hate it. Our old house had white cabinets & I greatly preferred the look. Obviously, I didn't move for the kitchen.

Anonymous wrote:Operating rooms are clean and bright for health reasons. Kitchens should be white so that hidden dirt and scum is immediately visible and therefore removed. Why would you want a kitchen cabinet that doesn't show dirt? So you can have dirty cabinets and get away with it? I feel sorry for anyone who eats your food.

So people with non-white kitchen cabinets are dirty people?
Nice

White kitchens have been around forever.
It is not a trend.
If anything, maple/oak cabinets are the trend and white is just returning them to what was original style.

Operating rooms are clean and bright for health reasons. Kitchens should be white so that hidden dirt and scum is immediately visible and therefore removed. Why would you want a kitchen cabinet that doesn't show dirt? So you can have dirty cabinets and get away with it? I feel sorry for anyone who eats your food.