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Espresso-colored cabinets - need opinions!

13 years ago

DH and I are in the process of building a house and want to nail down our kitchen ideas soon. We'll have an open floor plan, so many design decisions will flow from the kitchen.

My true love is a WHITE kitchen, but DH is not a fan at all. I was thinking of going in the complete opposite direction and doing espresso-colored cabinets with a light countertop and a medium-toned wood floor. I like contrast a lot, and many of the medium-toned cabinets just don't speak to me at all. DH is on board with the idea. A few questions:

1) Will an espresso finish look completely dated in five years? This is our 'forever house,' so I want to get it right.

2) Will it look dusty and dirty all the time?

3) Should the island be a different color to break up the darkness? The dining room, which is adjoining to the kitchen, will have lots of natural light. I think we could get away with an espresso island, but I'm afraid all one color will look too boring.

Featured Answer

alistonz

9 years ago

so it will be dated for a few years then back again LOL

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Comments (18)

kitchenaddict
13 years ago
hi blue...

You and your DH sound like me and my DH...Been there done that.

We went with the darker cabs and I love them! We also did the lighter granite and the med. toned flooring. We also have tons of natural light, and I don't like blinds on the windows, so it's always streaming in...sunny So. Calif. you know...I don't think the cabs look dusty..but I do dust them about once every 3 weeks. The light granite
helps keep it from being dark and dreary. I also have uppers with glass to lighten the look.

As far as the island...I'm sure you could go with a different color if you like that look. I don't have an island..just a peninsula.

As far as a dated kitchen... there's always new looks coming out...check out the Dec. 2010 Kitchen of the year in the House & Home magazine... a beautiful dark kitchen...I actually think the cabs are a very dark gray...but they look almost black in the photos.

If you would like to see my kitchen...I will post pics for you.

KA:)

Here is a link that might be useful: House & Home 2010 Kitchen of the Year
BlueKitten
Original Author
13 years ago
Hey kitchenaddict -
Love the idea of adding glass on some of the upper cabinets to keep it from getting too heavy. And I'd love to see pictures of your kitchen!
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I am glad to hear the feedback that the procedure worked. It has been over a year and everything is holding up great. I went down to Home depot and bought thin aluminum angle iron and sanded it to make it look like brushed nickel 1 inch X inch ï¿½ mitered the edges and trimmed the bottom of the cabinets. Ill post pictures ï¿½ it looks awesome. I even had my house appraised and the appraiser added the value of the cabinets as brand new as all of the other models in the neighborhood have oak cabinets. Anyways to answer your question, and I am not a wood expert I just posted my procedure because it worked for my application and saved a lot of money and steps that the "pros" would suggest What I found is that the pores in the wood will absorb paint in my naked/unfinished cabinets thus requiring primer. Originally I premiered one of my bathroom cabinets and the primer seemed to create a rough surface and fill in the wood grain. It turned out just okay. I finally took oak door in my kitchen and tested it without the primer but sand down the glaze on the door. I didnï¿½t get crazy with it I just hit it with the rotary sander, sanded the detail with the sanding sponge, cleaned and painted. I then compared the door primed and not primed and found that the not primed looked significant better and more wood like, meaning it was hard to tell it was painted. And a year in a half later the paint has held up to usually kitchen ware and tear. So to answer your question what I would do is take a door and prime the back and not the front then paint both and compare ï¿½ whichever one turns out better go with it. But in my opinion if you knock off the glaze and paint following my procedure you will find that this will be more wood like with fewer steps involved with great results. Tom
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I love it and think it will look great! I had the same concerns... we have dark espresso cabs, just like yours, and we have soapstone countertops. I thought it would be too dark, but my husband really wanted black tops. Once they were installed we were both surprised at how much we loved the look of the un-oiled, gray counter, which looks very much like your color. Not positive about the backsplash, but I think I'm going to go light. I'll be watching to see what others suggest :) L
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Love the espresso cabinets! I think many granite colors would go with them, including the one you have pictured or new venetian gold or giallo ornamental, which are similar to what you have pictured and also are generally level 1/2. A river white or colonial cream would also look great with the espresso cabinets, IMHO. The harder part will be coordinating with the tile as well. The tile looks different between the first and third pictures. In the first picture it looks too cool to me, like it would clash with the Fiesta Gold but in the third picture it looks much warmer. The key will be to make sure that the granite relates to the tile and that the undertones coordinate. A design blog I like has several posts on coordinating granite to tile, which you might find helpful (or disappointing, since she generally recommends that if your tile is multi-colored or patterned that you chose a basic quartz counter top / or to stick with a more plain tile if you want a granite counter top). Here are a few links. http://www.mariakillam.com/datedkitchenfloors/ http://www.mariakillam.com/when-can-you-combine-patterned-stone-or-tile/ http://www.mariakillam.com/are-granite-countertops-timeless-yay-or-nay/
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kitchenaddict
13 years ago
Hi blue...

Here you go..

KA:)

Here is a link that might be useful: Peppercorn and Delicatus White
kiffgirl
13 years ago
DH and I were in the same situation - I wanted white and he wanted dark. Sadly for me, white would never have worked in our house, so dark it is. We have very dark espresso cherry cabinets, light Luce de Luna counters and bamboo floors.

We don't have a very large kitchen, but we did include an island. We kept it the same dark color. Because it is a small space, I think another color would have been jarring, where this flows. Our kitchen is on the north side of our house, but we have big windows and skylights, so it is always bright with natural light. Like KA, we have some glass cabinets, which helps break up the dark.

As for dated, what's not going to look somewhat dated in 5 to 10 years? Styles have to keep changing, otherwise we would never remodel!
thrilledtobuild
13 years ago
kitchenaddict, those dark cabinets are just gorgeous!

I think kiffgirl is right, try as we might, there is very little to be choosen today that won't look dated down the road. Choose what you love (or love what you choose) and just go with it. The upside is if you keep it long enough, it's likely to come back in style!
rayle
13 years ago
Dark cabinets are so pretty but I think lighting will be key to keeping it from looking too dark, especially in the evenings when there's no natural light. I think a different colored island would look nice and add some contrast. Maybe paint the island cabinet using one of the medium/lighter tones in your countertop -- like this:

123rf.com
BlueKitten
Original Author
13 years ago
Kitchenaddict, I really love your kitchen and so does my DH. Definitely adding to my inspiration file!
kitchenaddict
13 years ago
Hi bluekitten..

Thank you...

Have you seen this thread? Boxerpups pulled up some drop-dead gorgeous dark kitchens...scroll down a bit...

KA:)

Here is a link that might be useful: Black cabinets..and dark kitchens
boxerpups
13 years ago
Hi Bluekitten,

I have a few more. KA posted a great link but here are
a few more that are more in the chocolate, Espresso and
dark but not black stains. Maybe these can help you too.
I love the look too.
~boxer

Subzero wolf

Dorado Designs

Gillingham cabinets

Custom Woodworking Cardell

Walnut Island

Harlem Brownstone renovation by Dynamic Restorations

Kitchen Sync Blog

Art Factory Lodge Kitchen

Wright work Carmel

Kitchen sink find kd

Cococozy

And here a few mixes.. maybe you and your DH can have both.

Lancaster
marcolo
13 years ago
Actually, I think espresso-colored cabinetry is already dated. It was a look inspired by boutique hotels, and those hotels don't even have that look anymore.

Note that many of boxerpups beautiful pics don't exactly show espresso cabs, but rather simply dark wood. And I think dark wood is a different animal.

Perhaps your solution is a white island. You and your husband each get your druthers, and while that mix isn't brand new or unique, I personally think it's less seen-it-a-thousand-times-on-HGTV that all espresso.

However, any finish can be made more timeless with great finishes and great design. And maybe something unexpected.
cangelmd
13 years ago
I have medium dark wood cabinets not espresso, similar to the "kitchen sink find kd" picture above. The only cauton that I would have is that my cabs are alder and they show little bright white scrapes and scratches everywhere. I would recommend a stronger wood with a dark stain.
pagesturned
12 years ago
We're remodeling our kitchen with espresso cabinets and White Delicatus (or so the warehouse calls it--our slabs have color) counters, so this thread was of course of great interest to me.

But I'm bumping it to see if anyone could tell me about the pendant lights in the first Boxerpups photo. Where could I find these lights? Would anyone else team them with Delicatus, or would it simply be too much?
alistonz
9 years ago
I love the pic of the dark cabinets! I am doing that now as well. My kitchen will have a big open space so I feel like an island or something against the wall would be nice and I was thinking of doing white. My backsplash will be beveled subway tile to brighten it up so a white island was my thought. I saw one at home depot that has a stainless top that will match my appliances but a friend said that would cheapen my kitchen, thoughts?
heidihausfrau
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I have a dark kitchen as well. I do know that when my DD turns the mixer up too high, you can see the powdered sugar on them!

I live in Michigan, so it isn't always bright and sunny out. Thank God for electricity .
Lavender Lass
9 years ago
Everything will look dated, eventually. Find something you can live with and you won't care as much. Can you live with this? :)
likestonehomes
3 years ago
What did you decide, we just installed cherry cabinets with a java stain and white quartz. Love it, despite folks saying it is dated.
kitchenaddict
3 years ago

After 11 years all dark I had my uppers lacquer sprayed Sherwin Dover White. I love my 2 toned kitchen!

KA:)

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