The Cabinet Finish That Just Dethroned White in the Kitchen

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If one finish has come to define the stylish kitchen over the past several years, it’s white. Buoyed by the staying power of neutral palettes and our collective affection for the Nancy Meyers aesthetic, specifying white cabinetry for a kitchen renovation has become as predictable as plumbing in a sink and a stove.

That may be shifting. Per the 2026 Houzz Kitchen Trends Study, white cabinets are no longer the leading pick—and, for that matter, no paint color is. The most in-demand cabinet finish in a kitchen renovation right now? Wood.

Houzz polled homeowners who were planning, midway through, or wrapping up a renovation last July, and 29 percent named wood as their preferred cabinet style—a six-point jump over the prior year that nudged it past white-painted cabinetry, which took 28 percent. It’s not a wholesale sea change, but it does signal a turn toward warmth and coziness over airy neutrals. Below, a look at the wood tones showing up in real kitchen remodels today.

Among those drawn to this organic look, the report found a preference for medium tones, with light and dark varieties trailing behind. Enter honey oak. When Ruby and Mike Rubin of Rubin Studio renovated the kitchen in this L.A. home, they sealed their white oak cabinets with Rubio Monocoat’s Pure finish, preserving the grain while bathing the room in a warm glow.

Artists Lindy McDonough and Conor MacKean got hands-on while reimagining their home, set inside a 19th-century former voting hall in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Architect Anastasia Laurenzi and Michael Larsen of Oblique Studio built the minimal kitchen with timber framing and traditional Japanese joinery, after which MacKean built the cabinetry himself from marine-grade plywood.

Surrounded by the natural beauty of Northern California, designer Emily Ward of Pierce & Ward wanted her Marin County home to echo the landscape. So one thing she and her husband deliberately avoided was dropping a sleek modern kitchen into their light-filled retreat. Instead, the red-toned wood cabinetry nods to an earlier era—one that happens to be squarely back in fashion.

Elise Birnbaum, the ceramist behind Oatmeal Shop, selected a particular door front for the IKEA cabinet frames in her Pittsburgh kitchen: cherry. “I think cherry is underused because people picture a 1990s kitchen with fussy panel trim, scalloped edges, and heavy lacquer,” says her designer, Lexi Ribar of Studio Lithe. They brought the “dated” wood into the present with wide slab fronts and a clear coat.

A wood kitchen is achievable on a budget—you simply have to get inventive. Take a page from designer Drew Michael Scott of Lone Fox, who refreshed a friend’s L.A. kitchen using contact paper. By meticulously applying 15 rolls of faux-wood film from Amazon, he made the builder-grade space feel far more inviting.

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