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Design Dilemma Kitchens Paint

A Riddle! Kitchen Cabinet Paint/Stain combo

3 months ago

Good morning HOUZZ family!

A kitchen riddle for you.

Imagine.

Warm white painted perimeter cabinets.

Calacatta Gold countertops.

A Zellige backsplash feature wall on east perimeter wall and mostly calacatta gold backsplash on west/range wall.

Island is white oak - *wood stain is the riddle!

Floors are red oak (refinished in Bona Natural)

We’re really struggling to give direction to our custom cabinet maker on the wood stain. The decision feels big because we’ll use the same wood strain and species on the flush shiplap ceiling feature, the living room beams, some cabinet backsplash features.

Does anyone have any specific combinations of paint and cabinet stain that they could suggest?

The cabinet maker uses Conestoga Stain wipes. The paint will be Sherwin Williams.

We want to lean into warm, organic, creamy tones that don’t look yellow or green. We don’t want to draw attention to the pink and yellow tones of the stained red oak floors.

Pictures for those of you who need them like me!

Happy riddling! And I appreciate your beatiful collective brainpower soooo much!

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Comments (7)

arcy_gw
3 months ago
Dark is in and you want contrast with the floor but not necessarily on the ceiling so not sure I would choose same same for ceiling features you mentioned.
cpartist
3 months ago
I would make all the lowers drawers versus doors. You'll get so much more storage with the drawers.
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We recently redid our kitchen and did the upper cabinets in a medium-dark stain and the lower cabinets in a cream/white milk paint. We also converted seven of the upper cabinets to window cabinets, which helps blend the two since some of the dishes showing through are also a creamy white; and we used the same new stainless steel cabinet pulls across all the cabinets, which helps pull things together too. We ended up liking the result even more than we thought we would! The upper cabinets have a nice patina/character to them, and the lower cabinets seem modern and clean. Both pair well with the quartz countertops, which look like white marble. Even with the darker upper cabinets, the kitchen looks SO much lighter and brighter than it was before, when the countertops were black and all the cabinets were an oak-y orange stain over maple wood. (Going two-tone this way - in reverse - is less typical, but I did find plenty of photos where this approach was taken in other kitchen remodels.)
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It looks like the room has plenty of light. If that is true, those colors would be lovely. But if the lighting is just in the picture, and the room doesn't get that much light in person, I would be careful of doing dark every where. It can really bring down the feel of the kitchen, as well as making it look smaller. But like I said, based on the picture it looks like the natural light would provide an excellent environment for a darker color scheme! I am a big fan of a grey kitchen, and always have been!
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If there isn't anything decorative about the back of the cabinets, e.g. beadboard or some other decorative woodwork, I'd paint the interior of the glass cabinets the same as the exterior. If you want to showcase some pretty glassware or servingware you're storing inside, think about adding some LED lighting on the inside. It's a really nice decorative effect.
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rebasheba
3 months ago
Where is the white oak sample? Will it be flat sawn, quarter sawn, rift sawn? ditto the floorboards.

Keep the look as natural as possible.

Somewhere down in this thread https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5944805/help-white-oak-cabinet-stain are kitchens with different approaches to the stain or tint.
herbflavor
3 months ago
chest nut stain on these beams. I think it said Duraseal. Given the scale of the room I think a warmer brown at least medium intense will bring the scale in and feel a little more comfortable.

Perhaps if you post 3 or 4 top picks from Conestoga stains people can chime in. Ive worked w minwax / General Finishes and a few others but never heard of Conestoga for stain.

Living Room w Wood Beam Ceiling · More Info
acurtis thanked herbflavor
cat_ky
3 months ago
last modified: 3 months ago
I definitely agree with darker. I really like the picture herbflavor posted above. It would look great with your lighter floors.
mojavemaria
3 months ago
This is our Conestoga Portabella stained white oak cabinets. It would contrast with your floors and reads neutral to me and here you can see it with white.
acurtis thanked mojavemaria
acurtis
Original Author
3 months ago
Oh my gosh! First time posting and I had no idea the HOUZZ community would show up as you did. I’m marinating in all this fantastic feedback and will pose some narrowed down options next. Wow. Thank you.

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