The Unmatched Kitchen: Mixing Finishes With Style
Paul Anater
November 19, 2010
I am a former designer, past Houzz contributor and current Marketing Director at The Reclamation Project, a reclaimed lumber flooring and furniture company in Pennsylvania.
I am a former designer, past Houzz contributor and current Marketing Director at... More
The idea of mixing cabinetry finishes in a kitchen design has gained a lot of appeal in recent years. Leaving a kitchen intentionally unmatched can make it feel more grounded and organic. There can be cost advantages, too: If you love a specialty finish but your budget won't allow you to use it everywhere, you can use it as an accent to capture the feel without breaking the bank.
Mixing finishes requires a bit of planning, but when it's done well, even with inexpensive cabinetry, it's a terrific way to get a fully custom look. Here are some excellent uses of mixed finishes in a variety of styles:
Mixing finishes requires a bit of planning, but when it's done well, even with inexpensive cabinetry, it's a terrific way to get a fully custom look. Here are some excellent uses of mixed finishes in a variety of styles:
This kitchen uses an inset cabinet construction to set a traditional tone. It's pronounced further by using a painted finish in the perimeter and a stained wood on the island. The painted finish on the perimeter echoes the paint color on the built-in in the adjoining room.
In this Asian-style kitchen, what could be an overwhelming hood is minimized by the use of a dark stained wood. It's tied into the rest of the kitchen because the stain color on the island matches the hood.
Despite their apparent simplicity, minimalist kitchens require more planning and skill to pull off well. By using a dark finish on the lower cabinets, this kitchen's anchored into place visually. By using a lighter finish on the wall and tall cabinets, the designer kept things light and airy. The combination is dynamic and reserved at the same time, and that's very difficult to achieve.
Sometimes a painted finish that would be too much for a whole kitchen to carry can work really well on an island. This whole room pivots around this green/ blue island.
Sometimes, it's just fun to combine colors because you can. This kitchen has a joy to it that's infectious. The use of white softens the impact of the bright pink and stops it from being overwhelming. Notice what your eye does in response to where those colors break.
Mixing finishes is not really new, nor is it the sole province of the higher end of the market. The lived-in and welcoming appearance of this kitchen asks the viewer to sit down for a cup of coffee and piece of pie. And really, at the end of the day that's what a kitchen is for.
The big emphasis in this kitchen is the mosaic tile on the wall to the right. By pulling the colors of the tile onto the cabinetry, this kitchen ends up being clean and modern without the least bit of sterility.
The emphasis in this kitchen isn't the kitchen at all, it's the view from the window. The green painted finish on the cabinetry under the window and the wood tones everywhere else honor that view and keep the attention exactly where it's supposed to be in this case.
Sometimes, a different finish can bring with it a sense that a hutch like this is a separate piece of furniture. So in this case, all of the function from a cabinet vignette is masquerading as a piece of fine furniture.
This kitchen has two major focal points, the mantle hood and the glass-doored wall cabinets in the background. By using a dark wood finish on the two island, there's an orderliness imposed on this kitchen. The island recess into the background and allow the eye to move through this room without getting too caught up on any one thing. This has the effect or simplifying what could have been a busy room.
This kitchen's showing another loud color that could easily overwhelm any room but in this case it doesn't. The whole "color budget" gets spent on that red cabinetry. By ganging together all of the tall elements, the red cabinetry in this kitchen functions as an accent wall.
Finally, this dark island does something similar to the red wall above in that it spends the color allowance in one spot. Unlike the the kitchen above; the neutral, dark wood doesn't distract. Instead, it lets the plasterwork on that hood bask in the attention it deserves.
What do you think? Is mixing finishes something you'd ever do?
What do you think? Is mixing finishes something you'd ever do?
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Now, what type and tone flooring, any suggestions