Paint Color for Kitchen Cabinets

Paint color for kitchen cabinets will take into consideration other colors being used in kitchen and adjoining room(s). Choosing a color for kitchen cabinets includes five how-to tips.

1. Research color for kitchen cabinets by looking in magazines and searching the Internet.

2. In deciding color for cabinets, use a color wheel, http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20161202,00.html, to help you decide what color would coordinate with other colors in your kitchen. Suppose you have a lot of red in your kitchen, a complementary color would be green. Various shades of green can be from a lime green to a camouflage green or even a green that is almost black. If you select white for paint color for kitchen cabinets, be aware that there are many, many shades of white. All whites are not equal. Also, white over time yellows.

3. Go to home supply store and pick up paint chips (sample paint colors). Bring home and put around colors in kitchen. Think and imagine how the color will look. Ask your friends for their opinion.

4. Get a quart of desired paint for kitchen cabinets. Paint a large swatch on hardboard. Test at different times of day in room. It will help to do this whether you paint cabinets or have someone paint kitchen cabinets for you. It is good to have an idea of what look you want. This will help in choosing paint color.

5. Talk to paint personnel at home supply store. Store personnel talk to a lot of people and have good helpful ideas. They definitely know what does not work from returns from customers. (Returns have to be unopened cans of paint).

After painting kitchen cabinets, what will you do with your knobs and hinges? Ebay is a good source for buying new knobs. Changing to new knobs may necessitate changing your hinges. But wait, that's too expensive.

I remodeled my kitchen with new stainless steel appliances. So I changed the knobs on my cabinets to stainless steel. My hinges were a brass color which did not look good with the stainless steel knobs.

Here's a tip: I made a spray-painting box out of a cardboard box for the hinges. I spray painted each of the hinges with a silver Krylon, http://www.krylon.com/ spray paint available at your local home supply store. And remember to turn and spray paint on both sides. It looked really sharp and had a professional look.

References

This Old House Color Wheel, http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20161202,00.html