Color schemes for kitchens with dark brown cabinets

While white cabinets are the most popular color, dark kitchen cabinets offer their own style. Known for their drama and elegance, they work with a range of designs, from modern to traditional. If you’re interested in getting dark kitchen cabinet ideas, look no further.

11 Gorgeous Pics of Dark Kitchen Cabinets

For as far as kitchens are concerned, the cabinets within them are an absolute must. You can even say that it’s an element that’s quite indispensable to the space. This is where the challenge of mixing and matching colors and design comes into play.

One of the most basic and common colors for kitchen cabinets is brown. It makes sense because brown is a solid base and neutral color and it allows you to play up the rest of your kitchen area from the walls, ceilings, floors, and even to the appliances.

Here are some color combinations for kitchens with brown cabinets.

Table of Contents

• Grey Walls With Brown Cabinets
• White Walls With Dark Brown Cabinets
• White Tiles With Brown Wooden Cabinets
• Brown Acrylic Cabinets Mixed With White Ones
• Brown Kitchen Cabinets With Orange Cupboards
• Kitchen Colors With Light Brown Cabinets
• Kitchen Colors With Dark Brown Cabinets
• Best Paint Color For Kitchen With Brown Cabinets

Grey Walls With Brown Cabinets

Grey walls are moody if on the dark side but if used on the lighter side, they can make the perfect neutrals. They aren’t as stark and blinding as white walls so the overall effect can be softer and cozier. 

They pair well with brown cabinets, whether they’re light or dark as they serve as a backdrop that’s cohesive with the cabinet colors. Grey goes well with literally anything, given the right shade. 

But it’s perfect for brown cabinets. You’ll end up with a kitchen that looks clean, fit to form, and a bit more on the masculine and contemporary side. Read more about kitchen colors with gray cabinets.

White Walls With Dark Brown Cabinets

Benjamin Moore warm whites:

Sherwin Williams warm whites:

These white paints have subtle yellow undertones that feel warm and can make your kitchen space cozy. They pair well with dark brown cabinets as they harmonize with its warm undertones as well. 

They are yellowish or at the very least, have the faintest smidge of yellow in them once fully applied. If you have a kitchen that needs a little bit of help with its play on light, these warm whites are definitely the way to go.

White walls are a blank canvas in your kitchen and when paired with dark brown cabinets that provide a stark contrast against them, it can give your space a minimalist and clean look. 

It also has the added perk of making your dark brown cabinets the focal point of the space, plus the fact that they look like they’re floating in midair. See more colors that go good with brown here.

White Tiles With Brown Wooden Cabinets

These paint colors have purplish or bluish undertones that can make the overall effect feel crisp or cool once fully painted on. They pair very well with the warm and neutral shades of the brown kitchen cabinets they’re being matched with.

There will be some instances wherein brown kitchen cabinets can be drowned out when paired with brighter colors that cover a lot of surface area, such as the floors. 

Pairing white tiles for your floors or even for your backsplash with brown wooden cabinets can give your kitchen space a very clean yet at the same time homey and warm look coming from the wooden undertones. 

White and brown blend in very well so this is a color combination that you can’t really go wrong with.

Brown Acrylic Cabinets Mixed With White Ones

However, the monochromatic brown might end up looking too heavy which is why some designers would recommend that you mix them up with white acrylic kitchen cabinets as well. 

This color combination is classy and elegant and they create a contrast without being too loud. This is perfect for when you want to play up the colors of the rest of your kitchen space. 

Browns and whites are neutrals and can work with virtually anything. You can apply this same rule in the kitchen.

Brown Kitchen Cabinets With Orange Cupboards

Here is the best orange paint brand to be on the lookout for this 2021:

Another way to work brown cabinets in your kitchen space is to go for the two-toned approach. Browns and oranges sit close to each other in the color wheel so you’ll be able to mix them together without deviating too much from the main tone of your cabinets. 

Try playing up the colors of your cupboards with a muted orange color. This blend is an attractive combination and can be a great way to incorporate warmth in the kitchen. 

It has been said that warm tones in the kitchen make for a visually conducive area for appetite, which can be a pretty good idea considering this is where all the food in the house comes from.

Kitchen Colors With Light Brown Cabinets

The best recommendation would be for you to consider tones of green or blue. You can explore other shades related to those two main shades such as teal, turquoise, gray-green, soft grey, aquamarine, or sky blue.

Teal: 

Turquoise: 

Grey-green: 

Soft gray: 

Aquamarine: 

Sky Blue:

When looking at lighter shades like light brown, you need to heavily consider the undertones and let them weigh in on your paint choices when painting the rest of the kitchen. 

For example, you would want to consider a similar undertone to brown. There’s an easy trick to doing this. When considering a color, take a look at its darkest swatch in the color wheel. 

That shade is considered to be its true color or the one that doesn’t have any undertones. That will more or less give you an idea on what certain paint colors can have by the time you actually have them painted on the walls or on the other parts of the kitchen. 

It’s the best way to manage your expectations and more or less accurately gauge the overall look you’ll end up with when pairing colors with your light brown cabinets.

Kitchen Colors With Dark Brown Cabinets

The best choices would be shades of taupe, beige, creamy white, blush pink, and greys that have some warm tones in them.

Taupe: 

Beige: 

Creamy White: 

Blush Pink: 

Grey: 

Best Paint Color For Kitchen With Brown Cabinets

The key here is being able to create some sort of balance in the colors so you can either go for colors that highlight the undertones if you have light brown cabinets or go for paint colors that provide high contrast against dark brown kitchen cabinets.

Some creative combinations would be bold pops of color that would really stand out and be the focal point of the kitchen space such as yellows, blues, and greens. Other color recommendations would be the following:

White: This can create a contrasting look and brighten up the space by creating an illusion of negative space against the brown cabinets.

Recommended white paint brands:

Warm Neutrals: Try to go for those that have warm undertones as they can bring out the warm undertones in your brown cabinets. Go for light greys, beiges, taupes, or even soft pinks.

Recommended warm neutral paint brands:

Cool Neutrals: This would help make it a bit easier on the eyes especially when you have brown cabinets that are a bit on the darker side. 

Tones of blue, lavender, greige (grey-beige), or even sage green can work like magic against your dark brown cabinets. 

It will open up your space and make everything seem so much brighter, which is a must for heavy-colored brown cabinets.

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