white kitchen cabinets views please... " a brave choice?"

[omega4ever]

Planning our new kitchen. Modern style , no cupboard handles, sleek, its quite a large kitchen, getting rid of the pain in the arse dumping ground island and having a penisular unit and table and chairs instead . We had planned matt white cabinets with mid grey quartz worktops but im having doubts now and planner just called it a " brave choice"! He feels the white flat door cabinets look too clinical ( think hospital or vets) and will show every crumb or streak and need lots of cleaning to keep looking good.

interested in views please of pure crisp white cabinets pros or cons pls.

if you chose this option some time ago are you still happy with choice/

We need a light colour ( replacing a dark wood effect and its a north west facing room with only good natural light in mornings) . I was keen to avoid grey, ivory or cashmere... but he has suggested a platinum colour that looks quite nice... and he says will look alot better.

Kitchen are hard arn't they and its so much money I just wanted to ask the wise ones on mumsnets views! . Thanks in advance. All opinions welcome.

I think white anything looks clinical and cold. Far from a brave choice in my opinion.

If you're going for white and grey for cabinets and worktops I'd pick a nice lemon yellow or sage green for the walls to lift it.

I stayed in an Airbnb with kids and a gloss white kitchen. Enough to put me off.

I have a white gloss kitchen and I really like it, I have softened it up with wooden floor and furniture as well as useful wooden items like trays etc. to counteract the clinical vibe. White marble quartz worktop too. Find it all really easy to keep clean and brightens up a dark room.

I have Matt white handle less (sounds like what you’re looking at!) and love it. Marble worktops; but our walls are a warm neutral and navy, which takes away any clinical coldness.
We have a 4” upstand at the wall but no tiles or splashback (layout doesn’t need it)
Happy to share photos by pm

I've got an all white kitchen. White units, walls, floor, doors, ceiling, skirting boards, the lot.

It's tiny and white is the only colour that doesn't make it feel like a box!

When clean it looks fantastic but every little smudge shows and you spend more time cleaning it.

We also need to repaint every 6 months.

Apart from that there really aren't any downsides ime and it's worth it because I think it looks lovely.

The words 'sterile' and 'operating room' have been used by others but fuck 'em. It's great. 😁

@omega4ever I have white gloss cabinets and a grey quartz worktop. I love it. I thought about having grey cupboards and a white quartz work top but I was panicking about the work top staining. My kitchen is nice a light and clean looking. Also faces the north . Xx

@Heyhoherewegoagain Id love to see some pictures if you can PM me.. thats so kind. Your kitchen sounds fab!

We inherited a gloss white kitchen with white walls. It did look like a laboratory, but we couldn’t really justify replacing it yet, so we’ve painted the walls bright blue and brought in oak furniture to soften and warm it up. I don’t like all white at all, I’m afraid, it’s just dull and cold.

My brand new kitchen is gloss white cupboards and a dark quartz. Walls are a very soft grey, floor is baltic oak Karndean. It doesn't look clinical at all.
I originally wanted matt cupboards, but my colleague showed me hers, and they are a pita to keep clean, wheras other colleagues gloss (we did a big comparison) do show marks but a quick swipe of a microfibre cloth and they are clean

I have a white gloss kitchen. I find it really easy to keep clean. You can make it brighter with coloured paint; tiles, pictures.

I have white and I hate it. I have a very colorful floor which breaks it up. But as soon as we can afford it, we'll be getting rid of the lot. Just feel I'm wiping down the doors constantly. They show up every tiny little mark.

This is really useful, so much to think about. Thank you, really like to hear all opinions .

I love white kitchen units! It gives you so much choice for walls, tiles, worktop. I don't see it as a 'brave choice'?!

My MiL has a white gloss kitchen and it looks clinical and unhomely, IMO. It also shows up every single mark, so she’s constantly having to wipe the cupboards down.

I had a white kitchen and it was a pain in the neck. Constantly wiping down the units. It was gloss though which might have made a difference.

I have a matt white kitchen with grey worktops - it's small and windowless so really needs white to lift it. It doesn't look in the least bit clinical but I think that's due to silver door/cupboard furniture and some bright artwork on the walls.

I can understand what your planner means as your description sounds a lot like the vet surgery where I volunteer.

We have white units and love them.

If you choose a different colour, the dirt is still there regardless if you can see it or not, you still need to wipe the fronts down. But being white, I only need to wipe the dirty bits. And we can have the walls any colour we like because white goes with everything. We don't have pets and that can make a big difference to how dirty the kitchen gets.

White units sometimes discolour and go yellowy 🙁 That would be my only reservation.

I've got a white gloss kitchen. Handleless doors. Love it. It's been in years. Was told to never use bleach on it and it still looks brand new. Damp cloth wipes off any fingerprints and any time I want a splash of colour, I get some flowers.

Prior to this, I had a white shaker style kitchen and that was a pain to clean. Matt cupboards with grooves that were forever getting dust or dirt in them. Definitely go for smooth cupboard doors.

We've got white gloss units with white/grey speckled quartz worktops on the working side and oak on the breakfast bar, blue and white tiled floor, blue range cooker, white tiles and blue walls to tone with the floor and cooker. The cabinets have got traditional knobs as it's an old house and we wanted to avoid it looking too modern. It's a dark room and the white is nice and bright - when light catches the cabinets you do see every smudge but a quick wipe over with an e cloth sorts them in no time.

White is clinical and cold, esp if you're north facing. Personally, I wouldn't choose it.
My kitchen is also NW facing, and to avoid the dark greyness of winter, I went for Wren shaker style in Sea Foam and the island in Ice Blue. It gets a lot of compliments. Worktop is not available anymore but is a warm colour.
My floor is Amtico wood on a diagonal. Floor and worktop complement.
On the other hand, my neighbour went for all white, and it feels like walking into a hospital.

I wouldn't call white a brave choice, it's a boring choice more than anything else. The house we're in the process of buying has a white kitchen and I'll be painting it as a temporary solution until we can redo the whole thing.

Out kitchen is NE facing and was dark and felt small and cluttered. We put in matt white cupboards, light grey quartz counters, warm grey/blue tiles and warm walnut floor. We put a warm off white on the walls and pops of colour with fruit bowls/pictures etc. It is far from clinical and has brighted the room significantly. Matt white is not as hard to keep as gloss. You can add warmth with paint and accessories, the white cupboards will really brighten the room and make it feel bigger.

Plain white will make your kitchen look larger, but can make it feel cold and perhaps clinical. But clinical isn't necessarily a bad thing, as that evokes thoughts of cleanliness, which is what you would want in a kitchen. If you had gloss finished doors they would show up every finger mark in my experience, whereas Matt will not. They may show up every splash but that means you will see it before it gets dried on in my experience. You can also add a touch of colour with accessories and the likes.

I've got white gloss kitchen doors.
Having kitchen "done" now (sounds like I'm having it neutered!) and thinking of coloured below-surface cabinets and white wall units.
The gloss doors are 11 years old now and wipe down easily, but I do see a bit of grunge collecting where the vinyl wrap joins up.

A grey, I would worry about it dating.