Painting cabinets ii different colors can elevate a kitchen to a whole new level, design-wise.  While information technology used to be considered a bit daring or fifty-fifty eccentric, we now meet 2-tone kitchens quite often.  But is there a reason to have this risky-sounding motility?  Or should you lot stick to just one tried-and-true color for your kitchen cabinets?

Painting cabinets two dissimilar colors has several interior design benefits.

1.  It's the perfect compromise between the other iii pattern options:  all white (or neutral), all stained wood, or all a strong color.

For decades, all nosotros saw in about suburban kitchens (outside the loftier-terminate "shelter" magazines such as Architectural Digest or Elle Decor) was stained forest cabinets.  Ironically, these are now the very aforementioned cabinets that residential painters like us are constantly being asked to paint, considering in about cases, the stained wood has a very stiff warm tone (near orange) that frankly isn't very appealing.  (Just look at the "earlier" pictures on our "Kitchen Painting Projects – Before and After" folio to see plenty of examples.)  Sometimes stained kitchen cabinets are washed well, especially in custom homes.  Most of the time, however, home builders are constrained by budgets, and cheaper stained cabinets are less bonny.

Hence the resurgence of the all-white kitchen!  While you might think it's but a trend of the moment, painting kitchen cabinets white is actually a timeless expect that will never go out of mode.  Whether traditional or contemporary, in a hundred-yr-old farmhouse or a modern loftier-rise condo, a white kitchen almost ever works.

All white kitchen, cabinets painted in Benjamin Moore Decorator's White, Alamo Heights, Paper Moon Painting

· We painted this lovely kitchen for Bradshaw Designs, photo by Jennifer Siu-Rivera. Paper Moon Painting

However, not everyone wants an all-white kitchen.  And the pendulum constantly swings dorsum and forth in interior design.  White is hither to stay, but we're also seeing a return to color, pattern, and the fun of maximalism.  If you love strong color, you may be getting your kitchen cabinets painted in a rich bluish or muted green, or even black.

Butlers pantry kitchen cabinets in dark navy blue, Paper Moon Painting, Alamo Heights cabinet refinishing

· Terrell Hills cabinets in a night custom blue lacquer, Paper Moon Painting.  Photo by Matthew Niemann

Kitchen cabinet painting project, Sherwin Williams SW 7047 Porpoise, Paper Moon Painting Austin home painter

· Austin TX cabinets in Sherwin Williams "Porpoise", Paper Moon Painting

Black kitchen cabinets in Benjamin Moore BM 2124-10 Wrought Iron, Paper Moon Painting

· Alamo Heights kitchen in Benjamin Moore's BM 2124-10 "Wrought Fe", Newspaper Moon Painting

But what if you don't desire an all-white kitchen, only don't want to go "full colour" either?

That's where painting cabinets two dissimilar colors is the perfect compromise.

Y'all tin can keep the classic sophistication of white on your upper cabinets and probably your backsplash, but inject some colour and personality in your lower cabinets and your kitchen island.  If you're worried that an all-white kitchen will look sterile, but a kitchen all in a strong color is just not your dream, then you tin literally carve up the difference past choosing a white or pale neutral for your upper cabinets, and painting your lower cabinets in a rich, or fun, or unexpected color.

Black and white traditional kitchen, lower cabinets painted in Benjamin Moore Onyx, uppers in custom white, Paper Moon Painting, Austin

· Austin TX kitchen in a custom white and in Benjamin Moore's "Onyx", Paper Moon Painting.  Photo past Matthew Niemann

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2.  Painting your cabinets two different colors can make an otherwise bland kitchen more interesting.

There are several ways to liven up a boring kitchen.  You can switch out your builder-course light fixtures for some statement pendant lights.  You lot can install upgraded chiffonier door hardware and drawer pulls.  If you don't mind the mess of demolition, you tin can rip out the old, dated backsplash and install a fabulous patterned tile or luxurious rock.  (Just don't become with anything also trendy . . . choice something that will stand up the test of fourth dimension.  It'south a pain to supersede backsplash tile.)  And don't forget new countertops!  Simply for sheer bear on, at that place's nothing like painting your cabinets, which are the largest visible surface in your kitchen.

The overnice thing is that you may be able to paint just half of your cabinets.  If the uppers are already a white or light neutral, then pigment your lowers in a contrasting colour.  Or if your lower cabinets are in a stained wood that y'all actually like, pigment your upper cabinets white.

Benjamin Moore Dover White upper painted cabinets, Shavano Park TX

· Upper cabinets in Benjamin Moore "Dover White", Shavano Park TX, Newspaper Moon Painting

You won't be able to go away with this if the whole kitchen is unattractive, but if you don't similar an all-neutral kitchen and you're not going to change the counters or backsplash anytime soon, consider introducing a second colour on your cabinets.

3.  Painting a dark color on the bottom and a light color on the height one-half of your kitchen can minimize the visual heaviness of upper cabinets.

If your kitchen tends to exist smaller or has a big expanse of upper cabinets, those uppers can experience very prominent and "in your confront".  If y'all demand to proceed the uppers for storage and don't want to endeavour open shelving, paint your uppers a light color, and employ a dark colour on your lower cabinets.  You could pigment the whole kitchen white, of course, but painting the upper cabinets a low-cal colour and the lower cabinets night gives the lower one-half of the kitchen more visual "weight".  Your uppers will be less dominant.

Rollingwood kitchen cabinets painted in Benjamin Moore HC170 Stonington Gray, HC154 Hale Navy, Paper Moon Painting

· Rollingwood TX kitchen cabinets in Benjamin Moore'southward "Stonington Gray" and "Hale Navy".  Photo by Matthew Niemann

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4.  If you're an interior design aficionado or have artistic inclinations, using two cabinet colors in your kitchen is more unique and artistic.

This won't apply to everyone, but most homeowners who pigment their cabinets 2 unlike colors are making a creative choice, rather than defaulting to a more standard neutral or classic white.  You lot can't enter a two-tone kitchen without instantly knowing that someone had a creative vision for the infinite, looked at diverse design options, and fabricated some carefully considered decisions.  2-tone kitchens are, for lack of a better word, "intentional".  Whether an interior designer had a hand in making the design selections, or it was the savvy homeowner, you can see that a creative heed guided the process.  Not everyone wants their kitchen to "brand a statement", but if you beloved the creativity of interior design, a ii-tone kitchen might be a bully manner to limited your personality in your home.

Kitchen two-tone cabinet painter project, Sherwin Williams SW7005 Pure White and SW9179 Anchors Aweigh

· Alamo Heights two-tone cabinets in Sherwin Williams "Pure White" and "Anchors Aweigh", Newspaper Moon Painting

Green and white kitchen cabinets painted in BM Greenwich Village and SW Alabaster, Paper Moon Painting contractor, Austin

· Austin TX two-tone kitchen in Benjamin Moore "Greenwich Village" and Sherwin Williams "Alabaster", Paper Moon Painting

Blue and white kitchen cabinets painted by Paper Moon Painting, Austin, Sherwin Williams Ice Cube and Indigo Batik

· Austin TX kitchen cabinets in Sherwin Williams "Ice Cube" and "Indigo Batik", Newspaper Moon Painting

At first, we only saw two-tone kitchens using two neutral colors (a white and a gray, for example), only as they abound in popularity, we're seeing more varied color options for the lower cabinets.  And nosotros recollect it'south a better alternative that a trendy backsplash tile for injecting personality into your space.  Dorsum when cabinets were almost always stained forest, or perhaps a pale neutral like white or biscuit, the but style to make your kitchen stand out was to pick a backsplash with some pizzazz.  At present that designers and influencers such every bit Maria Killam are pointing out the dangers of picking a trendy backsplash tile that'll date your kitchen ten years from now, homeowners are sticking with more versatile classics for their backsplash, and putting personality into their cabinet colour instead.  This is a much safer motility if you ever change your mind after.  Paint is much easier to modify than tile!

You'll discover that in about of our examples, white, off-white, or a very pale grey is the color chosen for the upper cabinets.  If y'all don't want your kitchen to look like a circus tent, that'due south non a bad idea!  Nosotros've even so to paint a kitchen in two intense colors.  1 is enough.  We'll give you our best advice on how to pick two expert colors in an upcoming post.

In short, using two colors on your cabinets is no longer the daring or risky motion it used to be.  If y'all don't want an all-stained forest kitchen, or an all-white painted kitchen, or a kitchen wrapped in a statement color, so painting cabinets 2 different colors can be a very savvy pattern choice!