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Painting a Two-Tone Kitchen
These days, instead of going the traditional route with plain wood cabinets on the top and bottom, interior designers and homeowners are choosing to use a double dose of paint color with two-tone kitchens.
Kitchen Cabinet Color Options: Ideas from Top Designers
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This look can help ground a space or make a bold statement depending on the colors you choose, but it can also put a personal stamp on your cooking space.
If you have a large kitchen, too much of one color can feel boring or overwhelming. Choosing to paint a two-tone kitchen can solve this problem by pairing a light and airy shade with a darker color to help ground the room. To achieve this look, paint your upper cabinets in a light shade such as white, gray, cream or light blue, and select a deeper blue, green or bluish-gray to help ground the bottom cabinets and create a distinct separation between the two. Or if you've decided to paint most of your kitchen a light, pastel shade, you could incorporate a darker shade in a few areas of the kitchen to keep the space from feeling too monotonous.
Two-tone kitchens can also help define certain areas in a large kitchen. You could paint your cooking and cleanup areas one color while going with a different shade for the cabinets that hold plates, cups and silverware. While most two-tone kitchens have one color on the upper cabinets and another on the bottom, vertical columns of color work as well, but it's always important to choose shades that complement each other.
If you're really courageous, consider color blocking, a popular fashion trend that's also crept into kitchens. The idea is to use splashes of contrasting colors or to combine varying shades of bright tones. If you have an all-white kitchen, you could choose to paint one or a few random cabinets really striking colors such as cobalt blue and grassy green. If you prefer symmetry, you could color block a group of four bottom cabinets by painting each one a different contrasting shade such as pink, red, yellow and orange. Navy is a good color to use when color blocking in the kitchen, and it pairs well with bright yellow, magenta and turquoise. The ombre look can also be applied to your kitchen cabinets by painting each of them a different shade of one color such as blue or green.
Whichever color scheme you choose, two-tone kitchens are an affordable way to put a personal stamp on your kitchen cabinetry. The unexpected paint pairings will instantly create a unique and uplifting place where you and your family will be happy to spend time.
