New custom kitchen: Modern white wood cabinets?
I'm in the process of building a new home and am currently working on the kitchen design. Our house will be somewhere between transitional and modern in terms of design (white washed 5" wide hardwood floors with a hint of gray, a metal stair railing, very very simple baseboard and window trim... so not a house full of metal and glass but certainly more modern than most houses currently being built in the US).
The one area I'm having a hard time with is the kitchen cabinets. I have a gut feeling that high gloss laminate/foil cabinets are going to feel *too* modern for me but I'm also concerned that my current plan of white shaker cabinets (even with modern hardware) is going to feel too traditional. What I think best matches our style is slab style wood cabinets but my brain has a *VERY* hard time with having two "patterns" right next to each other and I'm almost certain that it will be impossible for me to put wood (non-painted) cabinets on top of the hardwood floors in our kitchen and not feel like the contrast bothers me so I think I'm going to be limited to white cabinets.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make painted white wood cabinets feel more modern? Perhaps using a higher gloss paint finish? Another thought I had was maybe using a thinner plywood for the stiles and rails so there's still dimension in the drawer front but it's flatter than a more traditional shaker cabinet? We're using a high end custom cabinet maker so we can do anything within reason.
Or maybe photos of high gloss laminate/foil cabinets that don't feel super modern in a space? Our kitchen will be quite large and my gut feeling is that such a large amount of shiny white cabinets is going to feel out of place.
Our current plan is for white quartz countertops. We have a two year old and a second baby on the way so we want our house to feel modern/contemporary without feeling like a museum or hotel. Here are some photos of pictures that match our "style" along with a few kitchens I've been looking at.
Thanks in advance!
Comments (24)
flopsycat1
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoI like your style. I'm sure you will get a lot of responses to your post.
Ppersonally. I prefer slab cabinet doors and drawers fronts, but I am a minimalist. Shaker panels still have a raised border which adds a little to their cleaning, and a place for dust and grease to settle. Paint is a little warmer than high gloss material. Adding some wood and a few colorful accessories also warms up an otherwise stark appearance.
There are so many options and decisions when starting from scratch. Do you have a kitchen designer to help you?
I've attached a pic of our simple kitchen in our small vacation home. Good luck with your project.
PRODebbi Washburn
6 years agoA shaker door can look any way you want in a kitchen... it is a back drop - the things you put around it will make it more contemporary or more traditional - handles, moldings, backsplash, lighting etc....
You could also consider doing 2 colors - white on the uppers and wood on the bases where you need a little more durable finish... it can also warm the space:
I would suggest walnut or a quartersawn oak for that - the graining is beautiful!
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Comments (20)My comment may be a little too late but I have designed many kitchens where it improvement in isolation would solve nothing so I would alwYs recommend thinking about and addressing the entire open space you are in when wanting to improve it. Your comments lead me to think perhaps you want to spend as little as possible while getting he biggest impact possible. I agree with many comments and think Ain't it the first answer. The kitchen cabinetry call all be painted easily as they are timber, the oven drew my attention, and would need to be a priority upgrade if ever to sell, it looks very old. So if nothing else, take. It out and the under cabinet and replace it with a freestanding, source online auctions, eBay or clearance warehouses you will find many to choose from, and a 900mm oven will make life easier, it will also give you an in line bench top height and expose some more backsplash, which is my next point of consideration. The brick here dominates your eyeliner, so using adhesive, apply fibre cement sheeting to the splash back and tile it in a light tile, if you use led lighting, under the top cupboards would be great as they would illuminate the bench top and splash back instantly making your kitchen feel brighter and ambient. Secondly, this new brightness your kitchen will have will contrast with the darker adjoining room, which will only make the dark seem darker, so you need to gradually address the adjoining room with something from the kitchen, and horizontal surfaces are a great place to start as the cover the entire area like a blanket, so the floor is tile, and difficult to change without major time or money, so on the ceiling, your beams are a beautiful feature and every room has a part of the architecture that will work to your advantage, here are yours, although th ceiling in between agreed is not great. You can buy timber battens from hardware stores very cheaply per mtr, the pine 45mm x 18mm will do, fix them to the inside of the beams along the longest sides, and then either nail to those lining boards, which I would paint white or the same as the kitchen cabinets. Or you can buy lining board sheets, it may be the single biggest cost, but will be the single biggest improvement thT you Nd future buyers will appreciate. Leave the beams timber to work with what you have. Lastly, the brick wall that comes from th kitchen onto the lounge area, I would paint them also, not in a white again the contrast will be too strong, perhaps in a warmer shade, like a coffee tone. This cladding I mention would also look great along the back of the kitchen breakfast bar, and you will double the size with these improvements. I know it involves cost, but with structural elements and big spaces, it always will cost you, just choose where improving will have the biggest impact and go for it. These are things you can do yourself, or use a handy person, so no real trades are needed to complete- save that for later! Good luck. ML Design...See MoreTile or wooden skirting boards painted white in a new modern home??
Comments (21)Levarne Sobotker....although the tiles are beautiful you are very brave having those very glossy tiles throughout your whole house...from experience of having glossy tiles - they show every mark and really need cleaning multiple times a week - and you can't just mop very glossy tiles because the water marks show when they dry on - so you have to do small areas at a time and dry as you go - it will take an age to clean them if you have them through a whole house. We have gloss tiles in a couple of bathrooms and I would never choose them again. They are also very slippery when wet....See More1970s dining room - wooden doors, white doors or wooden frames?
Comments (40)Daniel Lindahl - I didn't say to get rid of it - I just said to change it for something else - I have a 70's home owner built - cavity brick - Daniel sometimes it is working with what you have in order to keep costs down - paintings - if you have several - can be changed around your home for a interesting look - as our homes are our homes - the paintings - can always be shared in various rooms/walls to suit ones mood....See MoreOff-white cabinets and white benchtop gone wrong.
Comments (33)Exactly the same tones as mine except i lifted it with a stainless steel col glass splashback and s/steel handles. I can change my accessories to suit the season even . clean and lovely as dark col bench tops look cluttered to me.Infact last week we even replaced the two downlights with 2 smoked glass pendents over the sink ( like yours) and they look great. Glad you are happier with your chosen result....See More
acm
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoI think shaker will be great -- as others have said, those cabinets become modern when put with other modern finishes, so you should be able to adjust the modernity level to something that fits your house without feeling too stark.
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Modern White Kitchen · More InfoA third option would be white slab cabinets with some finish other than gloss. I'm thinking of Latitude cabinets, which have, for example, some textured white finishes that I love, but I'm sure there are higher-end versions that go this direction. A laminate with some interest but which clearly isn't wood might not trigger your clashing-woods revulsion. :)
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sm m
6 years agoI think the handles on the cabinet can make a difference in making it appear more modern.
misschocolatecake
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agomisschocolatecake
6 years agoVal B
6 years agoacm
6 years ago
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Shaker cabinets pushed more modern? honestly not an issue. Stack your backsplash, use funky stools, fixtures, hardware. You'll find a mix that works.
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PROCarolina Kitchen & Bath
6 years ago
Sue 430
6 years ago
We have modern white painted wooden cabinets, Stockholm by candlelight, here are a couple of photos. As you can see I have a natural hardwood floor.
PROUrbano Design & Build
6 years agoSomething like this would be nice. We used a shaker door with a beaded interior trim. Satin lacquer paint finish.
PROChi Renovation & Design
6 years agoThere are a variety of ways that you can make a kitchen modern. We've added some of our kitchen designs below for you to look at to get some ideas of what you could end up with. Look through them and see what you think.
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PROBeth H. :
6 years agoacm posted some fine examples of what I was going to suggest. The newer grayer, french oak wood cabinets would look really cool.
or even some black, white/wood combos
PROFlo Mangan
6 years ago- PRO
Flo Mangan
6 years agoCombination light gray and white with new gold hardware and great chandelier/fixture in black and gold over table. This combines contemporary and almost country French in an interesting way. Might not be quite as contemporary as you wish, but mainly showing the effect of lighting and hardware.
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Flo Mangan
6 years agoShaker cabinets with sleek styling and contemporary hood with gold hardware and hood accents. Notice flooring. Not exactly as you have in mind but imagine this with our lighter flooring. Divine! You could make this design even more modern, by changing legs and end caps on the islands. All about design.
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Flo Mangan
6 years ago 
Kate
6 years agocac546
6 years agofelizlady
6 years agoUser
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoIMO, a lot of what makes your inspiration photo look more modern is that, instead of the more standard/traditional partial overlay doors, they used inset doors and full overlay doors that have a minimal gap tolerance between doors.
This makes them look more like the modern European cabinets.
- PRO
Flo Mangan
6 years ago sunnyattitude
6 years agoI love the look of the stairway area too. I'd call the style sleek. It's modern, clean, and bright looking. The wood keeps it from feeling sterile. Later if your style changes you can do so by adding color. I think the kitchen picture you liked had these same features except for the fact that the table was a darker wood. Why not combine the same elements in your kitchen, white with stainless and light colored wood accents? There are many ways to do that. I agree against the shaker and would go with slab also. When I spoke to a person responsible for keeping display cabinets clean that was her choice. Here's one example of light colored wood adding warmth to the white and stainless. May not be your design but see if the combinations give you the feeling you want.
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