While an all-white kitchen has undeniable appeal, we’re ready to stop playing it safe and going all-in on colorful cabinets in hues that make their cookie-cutter counterparts seem tired by comparison. From slate blue to emerald green to buttercup yellow, striking shades are a shortcut to a more inviting, personality-filled space, able to lend an enveloping intimacy to even the grandest of kitchens or turn pint-size ones into gleaming jewel boxes. But don’t take it from us: Some of our favorite designers have done just that—and many of them in their own homes, proving that a color-drenched kitchen is as high style as can be. So get inspired to expand your palette—and palate!
Go for Glossy
Using a lacquered or high-gloss finish really amps up the impact of color, as in this compact galley kitchen designed by Tom Scheerer drenched in a lush grassy green. Mirrored backsplashes, gleaming tile, and a frosted glass door magnify the light. A good match for this custom-mixed color is Benjamin Moore’s Richmond Green, says Scheerer.
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Margaret Rajic -
Margaret Rajic
Make It Multitonal
Chicago-based kitchen designer Denise Hauser is an avowed color evangelist, often employing more than one color within a space to make it feel extra personalized. For an 1890s landmarked Victorian home in Evanston, Illinois, she used saturated, welcoming colors by Farrow & Ball (“their paint has more pigment, giving colors greater depth,” she enthuses) to balance plentiful period woodwork: Inchyra Blue, one of her kitchen go-tos, colors the Shaker-style cabinets, while Red Earth, a terracotta hue, warms up the adjacent pantry, framed by a custom carved archway that follows the design of the newel post on the front stairs.
Embrace Moody Hues
In the spacious, renovated kitchen of an 1870s farmhouse in Traverse City, Michigan, designer Summer Thornton chose a distinctive deep plum for the cabinetry—Farrow & Ball’s Brinjal, with panels outlined in Slipper Satin. “The room is flooded with natural light, so we wanted to add contrast in the cabinetry color,” says Thornton. “This is for a fun, young family, and we wanted to inject that energy into the design, which we did through color and freely mixing patterns, furniture, and materials,” notes Thornton.
Let the Sun Shine
Veere Grenney flooded the tiny galley kitchen in his London flat with a cheering buttercup yellow, channeling Nancy Lancaster’s legendary living room from the 1950s. Cabinets of Grenney’s design are lacquered in Gamboge from Paint & Paper Library—a warm, deep yellow named for the resin of trees in Southeast Asia that has been used in art and dyeing for centuries. The bright-yet-sophisticated hue brings sunshine on gray English days.
Highlight Your Features
“People are often afraid of color, but this kitchen is a great example of incorporating a bright color in a traditional setting,” says Los Angeles kitchen designer Caren Rideau of this charming space, where she painted original white wood cabinets in Farrow & Ball’s Yeabridge Green. “It popped the range, walnut cabinets, marble counters and backsplash,” she explains. “I also love how the color plays off the reclaimed terra-cotta floors.”
Paint It Black
Black is a chic choice for kitchens—especially traditional ones. In textile historian Jill Lasersohn’s diminutive Manhattan pied-à-terre, designer Marshall Watson “shrank the visual scale of the kitchen cabinetry by painting it black”—specifically, Fine Paints of Europe’s high-gloss Black, which contrasts dramatically with the white marble counters and tile backsplash. “It’s like a little black dress—elegant and slimming,” says Watson. Brass pulls and cremone bolts give it extra sparkle, “reflecting an old-world Directoire feeling,” says Lasersohn.
Heighten the Drama
“I love the idea of a dark and dramatic kitchen,” says designer John Bossard. “I wanted my kitchen to feel more like a living space than a kitchen,” he says of the narrow galley in his Atlanta home. Farrow & Ball’s Hague Blue sets the stage, with gleaming hardware from Water Street, starry Donghia wallpaper on the ceiling, kilim rugs, a nailhead-studded leather stool, and original artwork layering in domesticated touches.
Warm Things Up
When Casamidy founders Anne-Marie Midy and Jorge Almada moved from San Miguel to a Norman-style groundskeeper’s house outside of Brussels, they married the exuberant colors of Mexico with more European restraint. After a renovation left them with stark white walls, they warmed up spaces with a thread of coral-tinged red running throughout the house, from the carved wood staircase to the baseboard moldings to the kitchen cabinetry. Farrow & Ball’s Blazer in a satin finish provided just the inviting spark they were looking for. “As much as I love modern spaces, I needed some soul and a sense of history,” says Midy.
Create a Jewel Box
Handcrafted zellige tiles wrap the compact kitchen in floral designer Lewis Miller’s 1920s West Palm Beach home in a luminous sea of emerald green, instantly elevating the compact space. The existing cabinets and new shelves were painted in Benjamin Moore’s Essex Green to extend the immersive effect, and the floors were painted in a jade checkerboard. Brass hardware and fixtures add a touch of old-world elegance in a kitchen inspired by a fantasy of “Hemingway’s Florida,” as suggested by Miller’s friend, designer Matthew Kowles.
