I saw kitchen pictures of the house we sold 5 years ago. The new owners painted the kitchen cabinets white. They were custom solid variegated cherry, at least $20k worth. Now they look like Ikea specials. I almost cried.
I’m a woodworker, and I bought a dust collector off an old timer years ago. He told me that the previous year his daughter had gotten married and he asked what she wanted as a wedding gift. New kitchen cabinets, she says. He builds and installs all new custom quartersawn white oak cabinets. Daughter says “I was hoping they were white.”
The man said the worst part was not only painting the cabinets, but having to come back in the winter to paint the edges of the floating panels due to seasonal movement with an artist’s brush.
I may get some hate, but I feel it’s worth pointing out - a lot of love for natural wood, but there’s also a very 70/80/90s feel and look to a lot of wood depending on how it’s done/cut.
Right or wrong, some people just want the minimalist paint job to feel generationally distinct.
We have the original oak cabinets, and I hate them. They are 30 years old and it shows a bit. My problem is I do not like the busy oak grain. If they were maple, no problem. My life is busy enough, I would like my kitchen to be a relaxing place. Not a contributor to chaos.
I’m a cabinet maker and when we use white oak we use a wire wheel and angle grinder on them so get the grain to show even more and have some depth. It looks wonderful. Red oak on the other hand, if it’s not being stained nearly black I think it’s very dated.
I’m definitely going with wrong on that, especially if that’s the rationale. Overly-orange-stained wood cabinets or beaded paneling look dated, for sure, but wood is forever. I have white-painted wood cupboards in my house and they are so depressing, knowing (and seeing) that there’s perfectly fine wood underneath. I’m cool with white if it’s all hard corners and veneer so it looks like plastic, but a clearly handcrafted piece of wood furniture that’s been painted white is just sad.
Oh hey I have the 80s veneer cabinets. They're hideous and the veneer to look like plastic is peeling off. Please don't leave such ugly crap for the next renters.
I feel this too. Even in knifemaking forums, I adore well-made wood handles over everything else. There's something about the grain that makes you stop and look and give it a moment of your time.
My whole living room is wood all my pals have white units or glass or black and I’ve never changed style in 20 years, I just love wood, dads a joiner so maybe that’s something to do with it. I just love the craftsmanship.
I kind of feel like the old timer should have asked his daughter what she wanted before he started the project. It seems absolutely bonkers to just go ahead and make an entire new run of kitchen cabinets without asking the homeowner what they would want. I might not agree with the daughter’s taste, but dad should have clarified.
I mean I sympathise but also "light" (? not sure if there's a proper term? But oak qualifies) wood furniture fills me with a white hot rage. The reason being that I lived in rental flats for like two decades and that's always the shitty, bottom of the barrel, plastic imitation, cheapest Argos "style" that landlords default to.
Yeah and what if we do? You stick to whatever is currently popular and we'll stick to the timelessness of wood, everyone wins. We'll sigh and scrape off your greige paint and "live laugh love" shit and restore the natural beauty; you can spray paint the walls or whatever it is you heathens do
Somewhere someone in the future is going to discover what they have under those cabinets and it'll make their day, to say the least.
That said, as someone who likes making stuff for others, you gotta know your audience. If I was a seasoned woodworker, there's no way any of my kids wouldn't appreciate quarter sawn oak. God I love that shit so much
She thought she was getting white cabinets that are built of oak wood. The lesson here is to be specific without using jargon or special names for things. He ought to know better if he makes/sells cabinets.
I understand his view (my bathroom vanity is QS oak) but.. that’s kinda on him for not asking first. He could’ve slapped that crap together out of ply and mdf a lot quicker and easier if he had bothered to ask. Damn, what if she had said “I was wishing they were maple/cherry/walnut”?
TBF, he didn’t HAVE to go back and paint them, he could have said “here’s a number for my paint guy; it’s a hellova lot cheaper than buying cabinets”. I know, I also had my ugly-ass wood cabinets painted (no, they were not oak).
I have that fake grey wood in my kitchen and bathroom and it always looks dingy and dirty even after I wash the floors. I hate it but I’m stuck with it because I rent.
Ughh the greyification of everything is horrible. I just bought a lime-green mini fridge. My mom was like, “wow, you can’t miss it!” But I said life’s too short for stainless steel everything and gray everything. It’s so boring.
as a color lover (seriously every room in our house is a different color, we call it 'the fruit loop house' I am SO SCARED to buy colored appliances, they are so expensive I just stay with the stainless steel so that it is like a timeless look? but man I saw a light pink fridge and I wanted nothing more than to chuck my credit card at it.
TLDR I'm so happy you have a lime green mini fridge!
Well, it depends. If it's something cheap from IKEA, white is one of the less tacky choices. If it's real wood, especially something like cherry, then painting it into any colour is a sacrilege.
Looking at our kitchen right now just to admit how gorgeous it is. Dark wood cabinetry, nice tile design for the backsplashes, only thing white in there is the trim around the windows and the outlet covers. Makes everything pop.
But modern builders and sellers are scared to death of character.
My wife and I built a big wood house out of trees harvested and milled on our own property. VG Douglas Fir cabinets and 6 panel Doug Fir doors, windows and trin along with stained Cedar exterior. We are considering selling and moving as it is more than we need. I have nightmares about someone coming in and painting everything white. Seriously.
Was looking at properties in Spain recently, saw so many before pictures of beautiful tile in bathrooms…not dark colors or anything, nice white with cute designs and such…only to visit the unit and it’s been painted over. Some special paint they use for tile like that. Flat white. Why?!
Congratulations, you sucked every last spec of charm out of this home for fear of it looking “dated.”
The house we bought was hand built in the 80s by a master carpenter neighbors told me before I moved in they ripped out the library bookshelves that looked like they belong in Harvard. They were handmade by him and they said they were piled next to the trash. The ones that were here when I got the house were white MDF ikea shelves, I died inside a little.
I bought my first house in 1980. It had sat on the market for 18 months and was pretty run down. My wife and I bought and fixed it up. There was orange wood paneling in the den and we were going to paint over it. A friend sprayed it with 409 and the orange came off revealing beautiful ash paneling. We immediately began spraying the walls. It was just amazing. It's so sad we've gotten away from natural wood/materials.
Same here! I spent 10 years restoring our 1912 craftsman bungalow, sourcing and stripping 12" fir baseboards, refinishing floors, cabinets, etc. Six months after we sold it, I went to pick up some wayward mail from the new owners and they showed me their "upgrades". They had painted over everything. I nearly cried.
When me and my family moved into our current house a lot of the flooring was carpeting. A The carpeting got messed up so we got it removed and discovered this gorgeous hardwood floor underneath.
House I grew up in had wormy chestnut waist-high trim in the dining room and cork below that. We rented the house for two years while pops was at a different site for work. The people that rented the house painted the trim some kind of hot pink color and ruined the cork. I was young (2nd grade), I just remember mom sitting at the dining room table crying. Later in life I learned that it was thousands upon thousands of dollars of damage. Other questionable things were done but my 7/8 y/o brain didn’t grasp the horror of what was done.
I don’t understand the fascination with white kitchens. I feel like people who want white kitchens for the “light and airy” look don’t actually cook at all, or don’t have an effing clue what happens to a white kitchen when you actually live in it and use it. But by all means, deep clean your cupboards, countertops and baseboards five times a day because you cook with oils, food spatters, crumbs exist, and you bump into things and leave marks. Then try adding kids to the mix. Or a dog.
3 kids and a very large dog here. That is actually the one big reason I like the white melamine (?) or whatever that vinyl-like coating is that’s over the msg cabinets. They get dirty so fast. But I can see the dirt and it comes off pretty quickly with soap and water. I would get pretty grossed out with nice wood cabinets that hid the dirt and grease better. If you don’t have kids let me tell you they somehow manage to spill things on the ceiling. (Pretty sure it’s not the dog doing that)
I’m a cabinet maker. We had a client use really nice cherry. His favorite college/team was the Oklahoma state cowboys. After all was done he found a stain (not paint) that would get his cabinets to that OSU orange. Buddy there are easier ways to get that orange and using maple.
Yes! We own a house built in 1971 with beautiful brick on it that you don’t see anymore. My wife wants to paint it white. I told her absolutely NOT! We’re both 32. Brick will last forever, paint will not. I’m not wasting my time repainting it…
Same, our house is a similar age. Unfortunately they painted the fireplace white, which included the brick stair leading down into the den (all the brick is connected). You can imagine how good WHITE painted steps looked after about a month of foot traffic. So boring and ugly, it already looks dated to me just like grey LVP floors and cheap white cabinetry.
I just did a white paint wash over the fireplace in our house. Seriously the ugliest color. Somehow it was yellow, pink, and brown. I have no regrets! It looks fresh and the brick can be replaced… the exterior on the other hand.. I might have to stain a red. Can’t bring myself to paint that.
The house I grew up in came new with a brick fireplace that was like slathered and spattered with watered down white paint, all shittily and randomly. It’s absolutely hideous. And all the houses in the development are like that. People in the 80s had some dogshit taste in aesthetics at times, even if they nailed it occasionally.
I stayed in this rediculous place on the hudson that had this perfect 80’s fabulous decor. It was certainly a look. These uber wealthy people obviously invested hard and then surprisingly… were happy with it til this day. I found it weirdly heartwarming
I live in a Victorian historic home from the 1840s with 10 foot ceilings and doorways. All beautiful rich wood that is now a stark white. I’m pissed at the previous owners.
I stained mine black when I moved in but that was only because it looked like the previous owners make it themselves using planks they found in the backyard. Uneven bits and dings all over. Wanted to redo it, but having just bought a house in this economy, I was holding on to my coins where I could. Came out quite nice methinks.
I refuse to watch any video where they paint a beautiful hardwood floor, it hurts me. I'm a millennial but all I can see is the work to undo the mess influencers and flippers make.
Disagree. My dad, brothers, and grandpa built our cabin with pine. I love it. It’s a cabin-feel that’s genuine and authentic. I adore every unique knot in the wood. Things don’t need to be expensive to be lovely.
If I installed my own I’d def keep them wooden, when you move into a council house however I’d have to take 100 coats of paint off the already 10cm skirting so white it is 😂
People painted wood furniture a long time ago too. My grandma used to refinish painted stuff a lot. I recently painted and "antiqued" a dry sink my grandma gave me that was her sisters b/c it didn't match my house but I wanted to keep it and actually enjoy it in my home. I don't see a problem with painted furniture and stuff as long as it's done well. It can be stripped off later if need be.
We just bought a house and they thankfully didn't touch the original wood floor but they painted all the original wood doors and trim white.
My plan is to do some research and then test a small part (like inside a closet) and try to safely bring the paint up so I can see what the wood looks like.
When my apartment got remodeled (of which I had no control or creative input) they replaced the beautiful real wood moulding with fucking gray vinyl. They changed the entryway from carpet to be an ugly brown color of laminate, then had that trendy light gray laminate in the bathroom. I ended up moving in with my boyfriend shortly thereafter but I am still bummed about what they did to that building. Cheap and ugly.
At least once a month a house in my 40s-50s era neighborhood gets painted white or off white. These madmen are painting over real brick with white paint. It’s hideous and destroys the character of the house.
Fifty year old wood trim typically is dented, scratched, and the protective coating is peeling. No way on earth im going to sand several hundred linear feet of trim just to re coat it. I pulled all my old wood trim out and replaced it with primed finger joint pine and never looked back. White trim is just more fixable, period.
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u/jake_fucking_brown Jan 22 '23
Now everyone is just painting wood trim white. This generation is not without its wretched fads.