Kitchen cabinets are one of the most visually impactful features in your kitchen. They have a major influence on the overall look and feel of the space. If you have an open floor plan and your cabinets are visible from other rooms, they’ll affect those rooms, too. This is why choosing a kitchen cabinet style can feel overwhelming when designing a kitchen.
Choosing the right cabinets is about more than just picking a shade of wood. Cabinets offer practical storage, but you also need to consider the style, material, finish, and hardware when making your choice. The best cabinet style for your kitchen depends on your home’s existing style, the atmosphere you want for the room, and your future plans for selling your home.
What should you consider when choosing a kitchen cabinet style that will positively influence the look of your home?
Door Style
Your kitchen cabinet doors are the first thing you and visitors to your kitchen will notice when entering the space. It’s one of the most important decisions you’ll make regarding your cabinets.
There are several popular door styles to choose from:
- Shaker: A simple, recessed center panel surrounded by a frame that offers clean lines and a versatile design for a variety of kitchen styles, including traditional, transitional, farmhouse, and contemporary.
- Flat-panel/slab: A completely flat door with minimal detailing that offers a streamlined, modern appearance.
- Raised-panel: A more traditional door with a raised center panel and additional detailing that offers a formal or classic appearance.
- Beadboard or other decorative styles: Typically a busier, more elaborate option that’s better suited to cottage, farmhouse, or traditional styles.
Choosing your cabinet style before making other choices about your cabinets and the rest of your kitchen can provide a great jumping-off point to keep things consistent.
Colour
Your cabinets take up a significant amount of space in your kitchen, so the colour you choose will have a major impact. While specific colour choices will vary from person to person, keep the following in mind:
- White and lighter colours make your kitchen feel bright, clean, and spacious.
- Dark colours create a dramatic, sophisticated, or cozy appearance, but feel visually heavier and make the space appear smaller.
- Natural wood tones bring warmth and texture to a space.
- Painted colours, like blue, gray, green, or any other choice, create a focal point and bring personality into the space.
Hardware
Knobs, pulls, and handles are a small detail, but they have a powerful impact on the overall style of your kitchen. For example:
- Bar pulls offer a contemporary or transitional style.
- Traditional pulls and knobs are great for classic styles.
- Matte black can offer contrast and create an industrial feel.
- Brass or bronze finishes bring warmth and offer a high-end decorative element.
Once you’ve chosen your cabinet doors, view them with varying types of hardware. You’ll notice how significant an impact hardware has on the style of the doors, and you’ll be able to choose the option that’s just right for the doors and your kitchen style as a whole.
Your Home’s Overall Style
Your kitchen doesn’t need to look exactly like the other rooms in your home. This is especially true if you intend to update all of the rooms in your home gradually, and you’re starting with the kitchen. However, you’ll want to choose a design style that’s cohesive with the rest of your home. An extremely modern kitchen will feel out of place in a traditional home. And a dark, cozy kitchen will feel out of place if the rest of your home is sleek, bright, and modern.
The cabinet style you choose will play a major role in the flow of your kitchen and your entire home.
Choosing a Style to Stand the Test of Time
Finally, when choosing a kitchen cabinet style, consider how long you’ll be living with it. It’s great to add personality to your spaces, but making things too personal if you intend to sell your home in the coming years can reduce your pool of potential buyers. Not to mention, you’ll be happier with a style that stands the test of time than you will with something trendy that might seem outdated and out of place in a few years.
To learn more about choosing the best kitchen cabinets for your home or to speak to someone about your kitchen design plans, visit us at Rêve Interior Design Studio.
