Can I pull off a white shaker-style kitchen in an 80's house??

16 years ago

I'm getting ready to move into a house built 20 years ago and plan to rennovate the kitchen. It's got a bit of an 80s vibe to it, mostly due to all of the oak baseboards, trimwork, windows, interior doors and crown molding. I've always liked the look of white shaker cabinets with black counters, but I'm not sure I could pull off this look in the house, without redoing ALL the oak trim/doors,etc. I've thought about painting all the trimwork white, but it seems like too large of a task. It's 3100 square feet of space!

When I first started thinking about a kitchen for THIS place specifically, I keep leaning towards a shaker style cabinet in a dark cherry cinnamon finish... but I just want to get opinions on whether a white shaker kitchen is possible.

Click the photo to open a new window w/ more photos of the interior...let me know if you think it's doable...
{{!gwi}}From New Place

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Comments (8)

california_dreamer
16 years ago
I just bought & renovated a house built in 1983 and we did white shaker style cabinets and black counters.
We did have all the trim and doors throughout the house painted white. It just seems to give it a more updated, fresh feeling.
Go for it!
mysterymachine
16 years ago
Let me tell you it is a struggle. We have a house built in 1981 that had everything oak, popcorn ceilings, and wallpaper. I think you can pull it off but then if you are like we were you will be looking at your other rooms and wanting to update them too. However I think the white shaker can coexist with the oak. The maple and the style kitchen I went with couldn't cohabitate with the 80s oak very well :) (you can see my 80's kitchen remodel here if you haven't seen it already).

We ended up redoing all the trim and doors downstairs and leaving the oak stuff upstairs alone for now. Our laundry and our bathroom downstairs still have the oak cabs and it doesn't looks so bad - I'd say figuring out what to do with trim will be difficult. On the flip side at least trim isn't very expensive :)
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natesgram, thanks, I've actually seen that link before, and it's what really pushed me towards painting. It really has a lot of helpful info too. As much as I would love to get new doors (shaker is my favorite!), I'm going with paint for now. The wallpaper...yes, I don't see what's wrong with it either. I took a really close up shot just to show the blue specks, but it really just looks like textured cream colored walls. I would like to know if the suggestions to remove it are because it's ugly/dated or more for resale purposes where painted walls are the preference for most buyers??? alabamanicole, now that I look at it some more, I agree the track lighting needs to go. It should be easy and inexpensive ($100-150?) to change it out. I love the look of bronze, but would it work with my ss appliances and ss cabinet pulls? Or should I get bronze pulls and faucet...CAN you have a bronze faucet and a stainless steel sink? Confusing! Also, thanks for your kitchen idea. The rest of my house is decorated with warm creams, reds, greens. I love organic stuff like wicker, stone, metal, and I love shaker style, country style, and arts-n-crafts style. I really like cream cabinets, but I already have enough cream with the counter, the tile, and the wall. The breakfast bar opens into the dining room, which is has cream furniture and red and green as the accent colors. The kitchen doesn't have to be matchy-matchy with the adjoining rooms, but it should flow colorwise. I'm going for a sleek, simple, yet casual and warm look with bluish/green cabinets. Below are kitchen looks that I love. Some won't work with my sleek cabinets, but it's just to everyone an idea of the look and feel that I hope to achieve... I love the color on this wall...if I ever take down my wallpaper! lol I love the warmth and casualness of cream cabinets. My dream kitchen...if I could start from scratch! :) Here, I love how the bottom cabinets are darker than the top cabs. Cute chandelier, and the island color is gorgeous! Ok, since I also LOVE the idea of two cabinet colors, what if I paint my top cabs cream and my bottom cabs blue/green? I really can't decide between my two colors below, and painting all the cabs either color will be too much cream in the room, or too much blue/green in the the room...no? I'm also open to sage green. If I go with using two colors, what if I paint the storage wall like the storage wall below (where the top and sides would be the blue/green color)?
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acdesignsky
16 years ago
We have the same setup in a house that was built in 1993, but feels like the 80's. We did update all the rooms on the 1st floor. Upstairs, it's still sort of a time warp. I resisted the urge to paint all the trim in the house. It was a good decision, IMO. Not at all worth the extra work or expense.
Before

After
edlakin
16 years ago
damn nice looking kitchen above.

my response is, sure! why not? it seems to me that you can do any type of style you want regardless of what style your house is. most houses are such a mish-mash of various styles and past remodeling jobs that people don't really have the expectation of a cohesive design theme throughout.

also, many of the elements of 80's design--oak, boxy shapes, more squares than curves--are also utilized in shaker/craftsman/arts and crafts.

do what you like. after all, what's the alternative? staying within the 80's theme?
don_chuwish
16 years ago
I just can't resist. My first reaction when seeing this topic was "Unfortunately no, an 80's house has to have a kitchen with big hair, shoulder pads and lots of zippers."

- D
mlraff53
16 years ago
I love white kitchens with black countertops, but if you don't want to paint all the trim (which sooner or later you'll get tired of all the oak) how about using a brown countertop to tie it all together.
raehelen
16 years ago
Stretchad,

Do the kitchen the way you want. Once it's finished, you may look at the rest of the house with fresh eyes, and you may decide to redo the trim (I would replace rather than just paint).

No matter which colour you choose for the kitchen, it's not going to make the 80's finish in the rest of the house go away. Unfortunately :>(

We are doing a complete reno of a 70's house from top to bottom (not quite 3000 sq ft), and at the moment not one single room is untouched, ie every where is in disarray (well, except for the laundry room), if the ceiling hasn't been torn down, or the walls gutted, then the room is filled with boxes of flooring, new toilets to be installed, furniture and boxes from some other room being worked on... so I feel your pain!

Really, if all you need to do is replace trim to update your whole house, you're laughing!
november
16 years ago
We just finished a white shaker kitchen (white with black and butcherblock counters) in our house which was built in 1970. As part of a first-floor remodel, we changed all the doors, knobs, and trim, and we'll do the upstairs next. It looks really great.

Can I pull off a white shaker-style kitchen in an 80's house??

Comments (8)

california_dreamer

mysterymachine

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