Upscale Kitchen Cabinet Styles

Cabinet style can make or break kitchen decor.

Upscale cabinet styles are as varied as kitchens. Most are custom designs that make the most of unusual spaces or elaborate some color or period style choice of the chef. Think outside the big box store kitchen cabinet selection to personalize one of the most important rooms in the house.

Quirky but Beautiful

Cabinets that surprise lend personality and resale value to a plain kitchen. Built-in walls of cabinets on both sides of the kitchen provide lots of storage but are designed around a work station on one side and a sink, counter and stovetop on the other. Cabinets may have a lot of detail in paneling and pale, rich finish like a creamy mint color that isn’t quite white but doesn’t say “green” either. Or they can be a period style like warm wood Arts and Crafts that might be enhanced with simple geometric-design stained glass panels in upper cabinet doors. Appliances are either on display or, for large appliances like the refrigerator, hidden by punched tin cabinet facings framed in the same wood and color as the rest of the cabinets.

Ink-stained Elegance

Cabinets stained an inky black are customized to add rich luster to a kitchen full of textures and subdued color. Lower cabinets are simply paneled and decorated with brushed pewter pulls. The color is the focal point so the cabinets have minimal detail. Upper cabinets match the design but are painted the exact chalky eggshell white of the ceiling and walls. Cabinet windows are designed to mimic the white-framed foursquare windows in the kitchen, and countertops on the lower cabinets are white marble. A black and white scheme may be offset by a butcher block island and bamboo blinds. The black cabinets look even richer when the floor is matching stained ebony wood or black ceramic tile.

Calypso Colors

The fearless kitchen employs vivid cabinetry to spice up the paella-making and the langoustines. Upper cabinets with plenty of glass windows and lower cabinets topped in shiny black granite gleam with a coat of flamingo pink, banana leaf green or sunflower yellow enamel. Details make the kitchen with grooved edges on cabinets, patent-leather black hardware that matches the countertops, and a crystal chandelier to underscore the message that over-the-top is just enough to guarantee a cheerful, original kitchen.

Jewel Box Cabinetry

A tiny kitchen can be a super star with custom cabinets that are so precisely measured that no square inch is wasted. Corian or a laminate white finish bounces light around the room and increases the sense of space -- as does a mirror backsplash. But jewel-like cabinets with gleaming brass hardware are what make the concept work. Cabinet doors fold open rather than open straight out — a difficult maneuver in a confined space. A pot rack suspended in the center of the room where a chandelier might be leaves precious shelf real estate for bowls, glassware and dishes. Built-in shelves for cookbooks keep the cook’s tools close at hand. Custom costs more but adds utility and order to an odd-size or under-size kitchen.

References

• “Coastal Living Magazine”; River Dunes Idea House 2007: Kitchen
• “Coastal Living Magazine”; 2009 Seawatch Idea House — The Kitchen
• The Kitchen; Have You Seen This Tiny NYC Kitchen?; Elizabeth Passarella; July 1, 2008
• Apartment Therapy; Kitchen Cabinets in Every Color of the Rainbow; Annie Werbler; April 12, 2011; photo 10