Can you tell apart your warm whites from your cool whites or your off-whites from your optical whites? As experts in kitchen and bathroom design you can rely on our designers to help you select the right shades for your dream white kitchen.
Choosing the right white for your white kitchen is essential as it sets the tone for the space, complements your overall design and can create a great contrast to other design materials.
Keep reading for six important things to consider when choosing the perfect white for your white kitchen, along with some lovely Kitchens by Design project inspiration.
1. Understand Undertones: White paints often have undertones that can make them appear warm, cool, or neutral.
- Warm Whites: Yellow, red, or beige undertones create a cozy and inviting atmosphere, perfect for traditional or farmhouse-style kitchens.
- Cool Whites: Blue, green, or gray undertones offer a crisp and modern feel, ideal for contemporary or minimalist kitchens.
- Neutral Whites: Pure whites or those without noticeable undertones provide a clean and versatile backdrop.
2. Consider the Kitchen’s Lighting
- Natural Light: North-facing kitchens benefit from cool whites to balance the warmth, while south-facing kitchens might feel cozier with warm whites.
- Artificial Light: LED lighting often has cool tones, while incandescent lighting can emphasize warmer shades. It’s important to test how a white may look under your kitchen’s existing lighting conditions and whether lighting changes are needed such as accent lighting or feature lighting. Your designer can guide you on lighting needs.
3. Match with Cabinets and Countertops: Ensure your chosen white complements the materials and finishes in your kitchen, such as:
- Timber finishes or other coloured cabinetry.
- Stone or quartz countertops, which may have veining or flecks that affect the overall palette.
4. Coordinate with Flooring and Backsplash: A harmonious look between your white choice, flooring, and backsplash is crucial. Whites can clash if not matched thoughtfully, so we often create moodboards and use samples to demonstrate how materials and colours can work together.
5. Test Colours: Just like seeing your countertop choice in a large sample, we would encourage clients to test colour and finish choices at scale. We would also suggest clients observe them at different times of the day.
6. Popular White Paint Choices: Here are a few widely loved white colour choices used on our Kitchens.
Resene Half Rice Cake is a clean starchy white with the tiniest touch of yellow in it. Here it has been used to blend a mix of stained timber veneer with the white cabinetry creating soft colour and a balanced palette in the space. The mix of textures – the timber veneer, the subtle veining of the benchtop and splashback, lighting and the metallic paint highlights – add a sophisticated finish and aesthetic to the kitchen that complements the surrounding rooms.
Resene Half Wan White is an umber white, warmer than grey. In this recent project our designer paired custom-stained Prime Art American White Oak Planked & Brushed veneer panels for vertical cabinetry with a chic, neutral Resene Half Wan White finish for the base cabinets and bulkhead storage. Always front of mind was our clients’ desire for an aesthetic that balanced warmth with crispness, in a way which was sympathetic to the original features of the home and blend with the upper cabinets with the high ceilings.
Resene Half Black White is a cool white with a mysterious shadowy edge to it. Here it has been used to create a Hamptons style kitchen with a light, fresh and airy coastal vibe. The client had a collection of navy and white nick-knacks, so everything else was to be one colour palette using a very formal design with strong lines and cabinetry detail to bring it to life. Resene Half Black White is everywhere, including the freestanding oven and matched to the diamond stone benchtop.
Resene Half Sea Fog is a barely there black edged white. These three examples show how it can be used in a combination of kitchens, all considered transitional in style.
Resene Alabaster is a near white with a light blackened edge. Our designer used this for a kitchen that needed to blend into a large open plan space, pairing it with American Oak Stained 1/2 Chocolate Veneer and corian benchtops. The scullery also in Resene Alabaster was tucked away ensuring food preparation and the homes laundry simply blended into the space leveraging the simplicity of the colour.
Resene Half Merino is a diluted off-white, milky and benign in quality. The owners of this traditional home on Remuera wanted an English-style kitchen, with posts, corbels, classical mouldings, and framed, beaded doors. The original kitchen was finished in dark timber, so in order to create a lighter, less formal and more open-plan space the designer choose to remove an internal wall and everything, including the new scullery, was finished in Resene Half Merino with the window above the benchtop widened to cast more light into this space.
Our designers can guide you on all colour and material choices, so chat with them today.
Credits: Colour descriptions from Resene Website.