Below TaylorCraft shows examples pairing wood and paint cabinets, and a darker base cabinet color and lighter upper cabinet color in the kitchen.
Pairing a darker base cabinet color and lighter upper cabinet color is a good design choice for multiple reasons.
Dark base cabinets ground the space and create contrast that breaks up the space allows the eye to rest.
Interior design and color expert Mark McCauley’s 3-3 Vertical Rule says the most pleasing visual combination of colors echoes what we see in nature, with dark colors on the ground (soil, dark grasses), mid-range colors in the mid-visual range (flowers, trees) and lightest colors at the top (clouds, sky, sun).
Using dark paint colors like deep greens, blues, browns or black, or darker wood species like walnut, mahogany or cherry, or stained white oak, red oak or beech on base cabinets is a perfect way to create a darker, grounded lower third space.
Using lighter upper cabinet colors like white or cream paint colors, lighter wood species like maple or neutral white oak or rift white oak without stain, creates a visually pleasing middle third. A light ceiling color creates the top third for the perfect trifecta in your kitchen design.
In the kitchen, using a darker base cabinet and island cabinet can also provide a more forgiving visual surface for dings that can happen with kids, dogs and daily use in a high traffic area.
The kitchen above features the same cabinet door style on the upper and base cabinets, TaylorCraft cabinet door company’s OE5, IE2, flat panel, Shaker style doors.
Some cabinet designers opt for a different cabinet door style on the upper and base cabinets to create a custom curated, furniture style look.
Good upper and base cabinet door style combinations keep “heavier” designs on the base cabinets and “lighter” designs on the uppers.
Heavier cabinet door designs for base cabinets typically include more detail to the inside edge and sometimes ornamentation, applied mouldings. or raised panels.
Lighter designs include flat panels, glass doors or mullion doors with glass inserts, and more simple inside edge profiles.
To tie different upper and base cabinet door styles together, we recommend keeping the outside edge consistent throughout.
