I think warm and inviting doesn't have to have "warm" colors, it just needs to feel attractive in a sit down and set a while kinda way...not too stark, not too formal, not too clean (in the modern, uncluttered sense).

The colors of your house and your white cabinets remind me of my bedroom, which is , at least IMO, warm and inviting. Walls are painted BM white rain (at 75% tint), which is a very soft green with a hint of blue. Many folks here have used BM quiet moments,which is more grayed, but has a similar feel. There's a lot of white woodwork in the room...window seat, bow window frame, etc....sort of the equivalent of your cabinets. Floors are wood, bed and light fixtures are bronzey brown, fireplace is painted medium brown (not my choice, but fortuitous).

I could see this translating into a kitchen with white cabs, warm wood flooring, antique brass, bronze or oil rubbed bronze light fixtures and cabinet hardware. For counters...depending on your taste and budgets...rainforest brown marble would look spectacular, but a soft brown granite, formica, quartz or other countertop could work too. What are your appliances or can you start fresh with them too? If you've got some places to put "soft" furnishings, that can help warm things up too...chairs or stools that have fabric seats, for example.

I like the idea of brown counters, I hadn't considered that color. I was assuming something bluish or black because that's what I usually see paired with white cabinets, but I'm liking the brown suggestion!

The appliances are white now but will be stainless.

I would love to put in wood floors but the living room already has very old wood flooring and while it still looks great, I don't think there's any way I could match it. Considering the kitchen opens directly into the living room I think two different wood floors would look odd right next to each other. Or am I just being weird about that?

That leaves me with tile...I think coordinating the tile and counters will be the end of me. It shouldn't be such a hard choice...

What about doing a glaze over the cabinets?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hRFB1t6iUqo/S5_dk3rUYSI/AAAAAAAACqw/t7p78D4ICwk/s400/031610+185.jpg

Uba Tuba can be several different colors, but our best friends have the green-tinged stone in their kitchen. With the suggestions of Melissastar, for wall colors and hardware, you could end up with a really inviting kitchen. Many wood colors would complement this and warm up the space, or you could use cork (like we did) and really have a nice feel underfoot. How fun to have this kind of forum to help you with ideas! Good luck to you.
BTW, I love my white cabinets. But then again, we did the terracotta walls in our kitchen, so I guess I'm more the "sunset colors" kind of girl!!

I think cork floors is a great suggestion. Is there room in your kitchen to put an island, table hutch or another piece of "furniture" that could be wood? Or perhaps you could replace just one short run of cabinets...uppers or lowers. To me, at least, kitchens that have mixed finishes are naturally homier, warmer and more inviting than those with all-the-same cabinets. They make the room look as if it has history...well loved and well lived in.

If you can't add wood in the way of cabinets, furniture or floors, you can certainly add it in accessories...how about an old mirror or two on the walls? Wooden bowls for fruit, etc.? Someday...when my bathroom/dressing room renovation is complete and I can haul the boxes and junk out of my bedroom again, I'll take some pictures and post them.

You could paint the cabinets a nice aubergine! It's a very warm looking color, and still in the blue family. Not sure I'd do an aubergine counter, though. A lot of yellows are cool. You might find a yellow that goes with your cool colors but reminds you of warm and cozy.

If you don't want to paint or glaze the cabinets, you can tone down the starkness with pinstripes or other detailing. You can cut them out of that vinyl colorform like stuff that sticks without glue, or use contact paper or actual stickers. Put some Crayola blue stripes (boxes, whatever) on your white cabinets and it should destarkify them.

But a cork floor and brown counter would do the trick. ;)

Yellow and blue is a classic combo and is very friendly and warm.
I think the most important thing is good food and especially baked goods. People feel right at home when the cooking is good ;)

Cork flooring is a fabulous idea! I'm going to seriously consider that. Does anyone here have it? Is it easy to maintain? I have four large dogs, can't have anything that won't stand up to that!

I am open to painting cabinets. I was actually going to paint them a more warm white instead of the stark, hosptial white they currently are. A glaze sounds interesting.

I don't think I'll have room for an island though or I would have loved to do a different color there.

These suggestions are great!

Jbrodie's kitchen is white and brown and green and *very* warm and inviting : ).
Julie has soapstone counters, but I think you could get the same effect with rich stained butcher block counters (Ikea has inexpensive ones to finish yourself), and you could get a similarly colored tile...

Becky

Here is a link that might be useful: jbrodie's warm white kitchen

Wow, I love Jbrodie's kitchen! I may have to copy as much of it as I can afford and have room for. The colors work really well together and it does look homey and inviting, even with the white cabinets!

I will have to show that photo to my kitchen guy and tell him "make it work!", haha

Have you considered Marmoleum flooring? Several here, including Rhome, have it and they all seem to rave about it. Much better underfoot IMHO than tile. I'm replacing old carpet in the main part of the house with wood and was going to do that in the kitchen too since the kitchen is open to the rest of the house. Then I started to research Marmoleum. I may go that way. Some of their dark brown patterns look good.

I've seen talk of cork. I can't remember reading anything negative here about it. The woman at the flooring store just about fainted when I told her I was considering it for the kitchen. Water!!! OMG!! It'll warp! ;)

Aaahhhhh, Julie's kitchen....that's one of my favorites! I never get tired of seeing those pics! Browns are very warm to me.

What kind of lighting do you have? That could help the overall warming effect.

I'm also not a white kitchen gal. We've had "museum white" in some rooms and halls of our house as a background for art for years and years, but I'm tired of it. Glad I don't have it in kitchen.

Can you head toward a reddish brown or a terracotta? It's a good match with teal, odd greens, celeryish green, mustardy yellows, clear bright light blue and a deep warm brown. This palette was in the paint store 3 years ago and I just loved it. Every paint sample in the Sherman Wiliams? somebody else? display of trendy colors was just wonderful. Now it's all gone greyer and my delight in the trend colors is gone. I'm sure the paints are still there--I've bought into the red and the green--but the displays are less helpful. The colors are still out there in some fabric lines, though, which can give some direction and inspiration. Try hauling a sample of your white and your adjacent room colors to the fabric store.

The cork suggestion is a nice one. Good for the feet and back and very warm visually. The marmoleum is good as a very practical choice and is supposed to wear for two or three lifetimes. You can also do some great things with lighting--a knockout art glass would bring some color bling into the room.
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That jbrodie brown and white and black kitchen is very attractive. Do you like that?

Talk to a wood floor company if you are worried about matching. I was able to match our new part with our old part. The house is from 1916 too. Oak floors.

Coffeeaddict - I second marcydc's suggestion to talk to someone who installs would that comes highly recommended. We had the wall removed between our kitchen and dining room and had natural maple wood floors installed in the kitchen to match the rest of the 100 year old floor and several people have given unsolicited comments that they can't see where the old floors end and the new floors begin. Keep in mind that if you look closely (i.e. as the owner) there are differences. Some of the old boards have a slight gaps between them where the new boards are snug and seamless. The old boards are long, each board extending the length of the room, the old are normal random pieces from 2 - 6 feet. We did have the entire 1st floor refinished at once - but I don't even thing that is necessary (but makes it easier.)

We had to patch and even weaved in new boards and it looks great.

I would also second the idea of some wood counter - maybe the island (if you have one) peninsula, or the edge of a counter as butcher block. I also love walnut counters or cherry counters. You can even search in the forum for the discussions of those who like having wood around the sink.

Wall paint can help as well. Even if you have cooler colors you can be surprised with a shade of yellow that is a little green or a little whatever that works with your pallet. Or a warm beige/gray. We have a color called pismo dunes (it is a BM AC color) that is sometimes brown, slightly gray but warm and elegant and looks great with the white trim in our room.

I'm not sure if mine is considered warm or not, but we definitely tried to cozy it up, since we had high ceilings, lots of white, lots of space. We tried to use natural materials (wooden table,floor and hutch; rush seats on dining chairs and barstools), a softer gray wall color, antique brass and ORB hardware rather than silver, rugs scattered around ...

Also, here is an old thread where we talked about some of this

Here is a link that might be useful: White kitchens: what makes it right?

Cork flooring is a fabulous idea! I'm going to seriously consider that. Does anyone here have it? Is it easy to maintain?

O absolutely LOVE my cork floor. It is so easy to maintain.
basic sweeping and clean with warm soapy water and rinse with warm water.

Mine is duro design and was sealed after the whole thing was installed. (that's their recommendation)
it made sense as this seals the gaps.

Remember cork repels moisture ( think wine bottles) but of course a great spill needs to be cleaned up ad not allowed to sit.

Regarding the dogs, from what i have read and researched the effect of dogs on the cork is the same as the effect on wood.

My cabinets are creamy and i was going to go with a brown counter but fell in love with lady's dream (which complements the green in the backsplash)
Floor is a reddish brown

Segbrown! Your kitchen is another of my all-time favorites. To me, this is also a warm kitchen. The brown tones in the darker wood floor, rush seats, and ORB hardware makes it inviting and cozy.

I'm planning on brown granite sinks which will also add a bit of warmth to my white cabineted space!

I have BOTH of the kitchens in this thread saved in my inspirations folder for our upcoming house build! I'm a lover of white kitchens. We'll either end up with a gray'ed taupe or a blue/green paint (we're one of the ones with BM Quiet Moments cut to 75% in our master BR and love it).

Have you thought about a creamy pale taupish gray cabinet instead of white? I have a few of those saved I can post for you if you'd like...

Here's another of my all-time favorite white kitchens. (Obviously I have a few!) Beekeeperswife has warmed it up with one of my favorite granites (Bianco Antico) and a very dark brown paint.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bee's kitchen

Here's our cork floor. We are so happy with it. It's comfy, very durable and shows almost nothing. We got the Montado cork flooring (plank/click) in "safron." I can't imagine having an easier floor to maintain. We lightly damp mop it and use a little Murphy's oil soap.

Hope this helps. Donna

segbrown, *definitely* warm and inviting! It's just lovely...

Becky

Thanks for posting pics of the cork floor. My wood flooring is only slightly darker than yours so that gives me a good idea of how it would look and I like it!

Is the cork soft or is it hard like wood flooring? If I like how it feels when I go check it out this week I will probably end up getting that for the kitchen.

I think I've decided on a dark granite counter with some brown tones. I would go for a dark butcher block counter because I like that look, but I can just imagine my 3 cats using the corners as a scratching board. Yikes! I'd rather not tempt them.

I love all the pictures that are being posted of white kitchens, they are beautiful! I especially like that dark farm sink in the last picture!

I'm trying to decide on a backsplash now. I'm not a fan of white subway tiles even though I like how they look in jbrodies kitchen. Just not for me. I think this will be a tough choice.

Our floor doesn't feel soft, like a wine cork. It feels like a wood floor underfoot, and yet has give. It's cork with a core of some other material, and then a really "wine corky" looking backing on the bottom. It's sandwiched with this green material:

Our son was in the restoration construction business for several years, and wanted us to rethink the cork: what about water damage?
Well, we've had several minor spills of water and one of wine, and it has been impervious to moisture. It wipes up really well, so we know it's been treated with a great sealer. Again, we couldn't have wished for a better, easier floor. I needed to have something with some "give" and this was a great alternative for us.