Now that you’ve installed gray floors in your kitchen, it’s time to think about cabinet colors. Naturally, you want to avoid any colors that will clash so that your kitchen feels clean and cozy. To help you on your journey, we’ve found the best kitchen cabinet colors to pair with your gray flooring.
If you have cool-toned gray floors, aim for cool tones in your cabinetry like blues or greens. For warm-toned gray floors, aim for warm color pairings like browns or wood tones featuring red or orange. The best, straightforward cabinet colors to pair with gray floors include:
- Darker or lighter grays
- Black
- White
Should cabinets match your floors, or can you contrast the colors sometimes? Which are best, darker or lighter floors in comparison to the cabinets? Will your gray floors go out of style? Read further for answers to these questions and a complete guide to choosing the right cabinet color to pair with your gray floors.
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Darker Or Lighter Grays
When you want to play it safe, choose a darker or lighter shade of gray to compliment your floors. For a sleek, modern look, try to match the grays as best as possible. On the other hand, to create more depth and texture, opt for a gray that is lighter or darker in color. Keep in mind that a lighter gray will reflect more light, creating an airier feel. A darker gray absorbs light and produces a more intimate vibe.
Black
Black looks good with almost anything. It creates visual contrast with gray flooring while making a bold statement. Since it isn’t a color, you have the option to change the rest of your decor through the years when you get bored with a certain color scheme. Bring more elegance into your kitchen by choosing satin black paint. Its reflective surface looks sleek and modern while also not revealing dirt or fingerprints like a matte finish.
Go to Amazon to view this satin finish black paint.
White
When you want your kitchen to be bright and full of light, choose white cabinets. Your gray flooring grounds the furniture and makes it feel like the furniture isn’t floating off in space. Just like gray and black cabinets, white offers a safe option since it looks good with any shade of gray.
Black And White
Since gray is a combination of black and white, it makes sense to use both black and white on your cabinets. Use white on your cabinets and black on your island. Or paint your top cabinets one color and the bottom cabinets the other. This option gives depth to your kitchen and flawlessly ties in your gray flooring. It also makes a decision easier if you’re stuck between using all white or all black for your kitchen cabinets.
Cool-Toned Gray Floors: Blue or Green Cabinets
When your gray flooring contains cool undertones, choose blue cabinets for a fresh look. Blue naturally calms and feels stress-free. If you often cook for your family, have a lot of traffic in your kitchen, or just want a more zen space, blue helps achieve a more peaceful kitchen atmosphere.
Along those same lines, green reflects nature and feels like a breath of fresh air. When paired with cool-toned gray flooring, green cabinets create a more natural-feeling color scheme. Amp up this natural feeling even more by purchasing an herb garden for your windowsill.
Go to Amazon to view this windowsill herb garden.
Warm-Toned Gray Floors: Brown And Wood-Toned Cabinets
Like gray wood or gray-brown concrete, warm-toned gray floors look excellent with brown and wood tones. When you want a rustic vibe, especially if you live in the mountains or have a cabin, this is the perfect color scheme for your kitchen. It ties in stone, wood, and gravel, all things found in the outdoors, so it feels like a rustic oasis.
Lofts with industrial decor benefit from a gray concrete and wood tone cabinet combination. This works especially great if you have exposed brick in your kitchen or neighboring dining room. As a finishing touch, add a couple of industrial pendant lights over your island for a cohesive industrial kitchen style.
Go to Amazon to view this industrial pendant light.
Should Your Cabinets Match Your Floors?
What about when you want to add some contrast to your kitchen? Contrasting colors, when added strategically to a room, create beautiful lines and texture. The best way to contrast gray flooring is to use a wood-toned cabinet instead of a strict color. If your floors have a cool tone, choose honey-colored or even red-toned wood cabinets. When your floors have a warm tone, choose a gray cool-toned wood. Using wood tones instead of strict colors helps the contrast feel more organic.
Be careful if you use color because if you create too much contrast, the kitchen will feel disjointed and overwhelming. If you aren’t sure if you can pull it off, it may be best to play it safe with complementary colors instead.
Should Floors Be Lighter Or Darker Than Cabinets?
Whether you choose lighter or darker floors than your cabinets is a matter of preference. If you have a busy kitchen with frequent spills and traffic, lighter-toned flooring could be your best option. Lighter floors don’t show dirt and dust as much as dark floors. When paired with darker cabinets, light floors help make a kitchen feel bigger, so it’s a great option for small or narrow kitchens.
If you choose a white or a light gray cabinet, choosing dark flooring helps to ground everything. Darker floors also help a kitchen feel cozier and more inviting. Just be aware that you may need to clean your dark floors more often than your light floors since they tend to show dirt more easily. One way to avoid this problem is to put a textured tile or cement down that hides dirt, whether it is a dark or light shade.
Will Gray Floors Go Out Of Style?
While certain materials go out of style, like linoleum, the color gray is here to stay. The best way to avoid a flooring style that will easily go out of style is to choose a natural material, like hardwood, stone, or even concrete.
As discussed above, gray pairs well with a variety of different cabinet colors. This means it’s a great neutral tone for floors, even if you decide to repaint or replace your cabinets through the years.
In many ways, gray is a safer design color than brown, black, or white because it can blend to reflect all three of those tones in some instances. The way you decorate around your gray flooring will bring out the undertones you wish to highlight. This means gray will continue to be used in new design styles for decades to come.
In Closing
Choosing your cabinet color is easy once you figure out your gray flooring’s undertone. Warm it up or cool it down with not only your cabinet color but your countertops, area rugs, appliances, and stools. If you’re looking for more kitchen design inspiration, we’ve got you covered. Check out these other helpful posts:
11 Awesome Kitchen Color Schemes
How To Get A Smooth Finish When Painting Kitchen Cabinets
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