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Kitchen Cupboard Reno: Painted vs Standard White

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Deal Addict
Nov 16, 2008
3285 posts
1276 upvotes

Kitchen Cupboard Reno: Painted vs Standard White

Part of our 3 stage home reno is going to be Kitchen Cupboards. We would like to avoid going the usual white but also trying to stay on a budget, so I'm wondering for those of you who have done this recently are you staying "white" or going coloured? Benjamin Moore as always has a great selection of colours and we are tempted to go some form of Black or Grey, but we can also save some cash and go boring and usual.
9 replies
Deal Guru
Jan 25, 2007
12695 posts
7861 upvotes
Paris
redsfan wrote: Part of our 3 stage home reno is going to be Kitchen Cupboards. We would like to avoid going the usual white but also trying to stay on a budget, so I'm wondering for those of you who have done this recently are you staying "white" or going coloured? Benjamin Moore as always has a great selection of colours and we are tempted to go some form of Black or Grey, but we can also save some cash and go boring and usual.
My friends did lowers in a dark blue and uppers in white it looks amazing.
Deal Addict
Nov 16, 2008
3285 posts
1276 upvotes
Jerico wrote: My friends did lowers in a dark blue and uppers in white it looks amazing.
Been reading that some people are doing two colours as your friends did...interesting thought. Not a huge kitchen here, so not sure how it would like half and half..hmm
Deal Fanatic
Nov 17, 2012
5381 posts
4998 upvotes
Toronto
How do you save money going white? If you’re looking at Benjamin Moore colors it suggests you’re having custom or semi-custom cabinets made.

Glazes etc will add cost but doing BM Cloud White should be about the same as any other color.

We did Cloud White 10 years ago and don’t regret it. But for the small cabin we did 3 years back we went with a dark blue with dark glaze. Only lower cabinets, open shelves and peg board for upper storage.

Depends on the rest of the house and if you’re staying for a long time. We’ve been in our house for 20 years and have no plans to sell (will rent it out if we decide to move) so we have always done what we want, but I always think about resale.
Deal Addict
Nov 16, 2008
3285 posts
1276 upvotes
torontotim wrote: How do you save money going white? If you’re looking at Benjamin Moore colors it suggests you’re having custom or semi-custom cabinets made.

Glazes etc will add cost but doing BM Cloud White should be about the same as any other color.

We did Cloud White 10 years ago and don’t regret it. But for the small cabin we did 3 years back we went with a dark blue with dark glaze. Only lower cabinets, open shelves and peg board for upper storage.

Depends on the rest of the house and if you’re staying for a long time. We’ve been in our house for 20 years and have no plans to sell (will rent it out if we decide to move) so we have always done what we want, but I always think about resale.
Our contractor will build custom cabinetry for us yes, which of course comes in all White... our original price quoted was for painted so if we stick White the price will come down. Tossing around the idea of White uppers and painting one side of lower or all the lowers. Not a huge kitchen is the issue, so not sure how two colours would look. Not thinking of selling real soon either
Deal Guru
Jan 25, 2007
12695 posts
7861 upvotes
Paris
redsfan wrote: Been reading that some people are doing two colours as your friends did...interesting thought. Not a huge kitchen here, so not sure how it would like half and half..hmm
Theirs is not large either. Sort of like a galley kitchen but it turns right instead of being straight.
Deal Addict
May 23, 2009
3681 posts
2388 upvotes
Mississauga
We just completed our small kitchen (160 sqft) last week and were dead set of getting Benjamin moore cloud white. Our designer told us to take into consideration the pot lights in the space as it could help us go a shade darker on the cabinet.
We ended up going two shades darker. Cloud white > Classic grey > Collingwood grey.
Deal Addict
Oct 23, 2017
2965 posts
2632 upvotes
GTA West
There are just so many whites and when you have trim, cabinets, and vinyl windows etc. in different white tones it can start to look funny. We have all our house interior trim painted in a BM white, I think Cloud so we bought our cabinets the same colour. For contrast we have a dark wood on the peninsula base and we think that looks good.

PS lighting is one area that kitchen people tend not to know much about. E.g. pay attention to your new LED fixtures since the colour of a cabinet or counter can really change under different types of illumination. We opted for 3000k LED lights for both the ceiling and under-counter lighting, which is whiter than normal incandescent lighting. But our range hood gave us the option of 5000k or 2700k lighting and we don't like either. I love our counter under the 3000k lights but I hate it in the afternoon when the sun directly illuminates the main counter.

The stores where you pick the counter will have an unknown colour temperature in their lighting, so it is always best to bring samples home.
Deal Addict
Dec 25, 2007
1353 posts
861 upvotes
GTA
You could try some sort of other light colour, like cream or ivory

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