How To Choose The Right Cabinet Style, Paint & Color
Cabinets play the main role for every kitchen, but it can hard to know where to start when you’re ready to renovate. What doors do you want? What color? What’s stylish? What will last? What type of paint should I use?
So I thought I’d do a quick breakdown on the most popular cabinetry styles, choosing the right cabinetry colors, and a bit about our process for painting cabinets to help YOU whenever you’re ready to renovate your kitchen.
Cabinet Styles
Classic Shaker
This is the most popular cabinetry style because of it’s clean, simple and classic design. Shaker cabinets have a simple frame around the doors and drawers. These are often the most affordable option for kitchen remodels as well. We often install the Full Frame style shaker cabinet where the doors fill up almost the entire space of the cabinet. (This is what we’ll be doing in our kitchen as well!)
Inset Shaker
This shaker style cabinet installs the doors and drawers within the frame of the cabinet, creating an old world look. The absolute champions of this style is Devol Kitchens (which…if you love looking at pretty kitchens you MUST go follow them on Instagram!!).
Flat Panel
This cabinet style is the most modern style. There are no grooves or edging on the door faces to create a more streamline look. You’ll often see this style in more modern style homes or in Europe for their ultra clean and functional design.
Raised Panel
This cabinetry style is like a fancy shaker cabinet and are super traditional in style. There’s often extra millwork within the door to create a more custom looking cabinet. You’ll see these most often in wood stained or antique white cabinets.
Open Shelving
Open shelves are a great way to display beautiful dinnerware, glasses, art and plants. They’re not for everyone, but it’s an easy way to make a kitchen feel larger and more open.
Cabinet Paint
Believe me when I say we’ve tried all the things. All. The. Things. In our first house, we painted our kitchen cabinets MULTIPLE times. And we’ve tried lots of others over the years as we’ve refinished furniture and things. Here’s what we do and how we do it and trust me when I say…THIS WORKS!
Sand down your cabinets
I know this is a brutal task to ask but it is the BEST thing to make sure your cabinet paint lasts. Using an electric sander will help this process go faster. And make sure you get those high touch areas really well!
Use a sprayer
Streaks from paint brushes or bumps from rollers might make you crazy down the road, so I highly recommend buying or renting a sprayer. Not only will you get the best finish on your cabinets, it will help you get them painted WAYYYYYYY faster.
Buy industrial strength paint
We only use Kem Aqua Plus Industrial Paint by Sherwin Williams. It is a water based paint but finishes like a laquer. You can only use this paint with a sprayer and it levels out like a dream. And the best part is you can get it tinted to whatever color you like.
Cabinet Paint Colors
Now that I’ve just told you that you can choose whatever color you like, you might be feeling overwhelmed! But don’t worry…I have a few questions to ask yourself before you choose a paint color to help you decide.
How much natural light do you get in your kitchen?
This plays a HUGE factor in decided what paint color to do on your cabinets. If your kitchen gets little to no natural light, I would not recommend doing a dark color cabinet. The last thing you will want to do is make that room feel like a cave…unless dark and moody spaces are your thing, in which case, go for it!
What season of life are you in?
Having young kiddos grabbing for snacks means you will end up with dirty cabinets regardless of color. But choosing a darker color (even if it’s just for the base cabinets) can help disguise dirty finger prints.
What’s a place that brings you joy?
It could be from a faraway vacation, a family member’s home, or spaces in your own house that you truly enjoy. Thinking of places you love currently can help you love a space that’s coming. Maybe you honeymooned in Greece and you want to add some blues, maybe you grew up on a farm and love shades of gold like the fields that grew outside, or maybe your garden inspires you and love bringing the outdoors in. THIS joy can help motivate you towards your future kitchen AND the design of your home!
So onto colors…here’s my recipe for choosing the right color.
Decide on a general color (green, blue, yellow, white, etc.)
Go to the paint store - or - borrow a paint deck to browse through your options.
Pick a color with cool/natural undertones.
Any color can still feel neutral if it has some cooler undertones. To do this, fan out your color wheel (or choose some paint strips from the shop) and look at the bottom color of the page. THIS shows you how the color pulls - it will show you if it has more green hues, blue, yellow, red, etc.
Buy some samples (or Samplize).
I’m a big proponent for getting some samples painted IN your space to know how it will look in your space. Paint a big swatch in multiple places - OR - order a sample from Samplize and move the color sheet(s) around your room. Sit with them for a couple days to see how it feels at different times of day and with different types of lighting. This is the best way to make sure you’re choosing the right color.
