What color should my cabinets be if my walls are brown?

kimjomcsoto · 06-22-2010, 08:18 PM

I recently moved into a house and painted the whole house in browns. The kitchen is a chocolate brown color. I love it, but it doesn't quite go with the cabinets. I was planning on restaining my cabinets a darker brown, but 1. polyshades doesn't have a dark color that isn't a red and 2. several people have said it would be too much brown if I did them darker. I was thinking about maybe painting them, but I'm not sure. I would rather not paint the cabinets, but I think something needs to be done with them.

Here are a couple of pictures.

joe from clev · 06-23-2010, 12:44 AM

I had very old stained kitchen cabnets in my home(25+yrs old). The process of sanding, primering, painting and sealing is a long process( 1 full week) but it pay'd off really, really well. My kitchen looks sweet! and the cost was way less then refacing, restaining or replacing.

I painted the inside of the cabnets a lighter color(lite biege) than the outsides(mocha brown). I used behr pain with the primer already in it.

Wash the down with a TSP solution from home depot first to cut threw any grime that has built up on them. let them dry overnight, sand, primer, paint, seal...done

2coats primer, 2coats paint, 5coats polyurethane...

evelien37 · 07-04-2010, 07:20 AM

Difficult!

Maybe you could mix your own stain color? If you add green (of a compatible paint) to the red dark brown stain, the brown will become more neutral, and it will make the brown look warm.

But maybe there are other options to bring in some contrast (or is it the cabinet's brown you don't like)?
think of black and/or white trim. or whitening the grout between the backsplash tile.
Adding white porcelain doorknobs could also make a difference.

Good luck, Evelien

evelien37 · 07-08-2010, 04:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chucksmith

Your kitchen looks fantastic, first of all. That is one neat kitchen interior!

... The kitchen cabinets' color is already cool. But may I suggest, if you may want to consider off-white. I believe it will perfectly complement the walls. Cream may be a good fit as well. I've seen a kitchen with brown walls and white cabinets months ago, and I think they are pretty rad.

Hi there, I didn't want to mention this as an option (offwhite walls), because the owner likes brown walls so much. But it would be a good solution...

lenozhka · 07-24-2010, 01:48 PM

I would paint the cabinets a creamy white - right now the kitchen looks too dark, and the current cabinet stain color looks dated. A creamy white paint will fix both problems