Painted vs. Stained Kitchen Cabinets: Help for Deciding

Learn about durability, looks, cost and more for wooden cabinet finishes to make the right choice for your kitchen

One of the biggest decisions you will make when choosing cabinets is whether they should be painted or stained wood. The choice you make will have a huge bearing on how the cabinets will look and how they will hold up.

I went to two cabinet shops —the larger Canyon Creek Cabinet in Monroe, Washington, and the smaller O.B. Williams custom shop in Seattle — to get expert perspectives on the choices, which don’t end once you’ve settled the stain-versus-paint debate.