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Is proper lighting the secret sauce for mixing warm and cool colors?

Mittens Cat
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago

We are finalizing both our lighting plan and our new kitchen cabinets and I'd love some input from people who really understand the effect different kinds of lighting, especially in regard to bringing out warm tones or cool tones (or all that sort of stuff I have very little knowledge about).

I was going to go with a very light stain on our walnut veneer cabinets, just enough to bring out the warmth. But in trying to choose a countertop, I discovered I'm not thrilled with "warm" whites (anything with yellow or brown in it). The countertops I fall for are typically much cooler. So, now I'm trying to gear up to switch to no stain (just clear coat) on the walnut cabinets, which leaves them a bit colder than I wanted but at least they'll look good with a cooler toned counter and backsplash.

Then I realized: maybe LIGHTING is the secret sauce in all this. I hate glare and bright lights, so I was going to try to stick to under 3,000K, but maybe there's something else that can be done, lighting-wise, to help the warms and cools blend together better? And fwiw, we are aiming for a contemporary look and already installed plenty of frames for overhead recessed lights.

I've discussed this on another thread (someone else's thread, I think) but thought I'd start anew. Especially since I see a lot of posts from people concerned about mixing creamy whites with bright whites. Thanks for your help!

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