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Light grey kitchen units....now what...?!

6 years ago

So we are replacing our kitchen/diner and have gone with light grey Shaker style units (Stanbury design here http://www.diy-kitchens.com/kitchens/shaker/grey/l-shaped/). It's potentially a dark room, west facing) so keen to keep it light without it feeling cold. We are going for a white quartz worktop with some sparkle in it.

I need advice on flooring and wall colours to go with. I'm wondering whether to warm it up with oak effect flooring (but probably a tile rather than real wood) and can't decide what colour to paint the walls. The diner could take a feature wall colour.

Any ideas as i'm totally at a loss!

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Comments (5)

Juliet Docherty
6 years ago
If a grey is made up of black + white it can be very cold. However, if a grey is a de-saturated grey of a colour such as Dakar or Lamp Room Grey then it can make things easier. I would opt for a floor that has some warmth, without a doubt. Don't forget, whatever you choose now may be with you for years, so I would avoid the 'obvious'. As the flooring is potentially one of the most expensive parts of the scheme, make that your focus. Grey units and white worktops will look cool, so you can afford to go for something warm with the floor. This could be tiles in a buff colour, tiles that are terracotta (I would bet money on these making a comeback), patterned tiles or wood. Mandarin Stone has some lovely buff concrete style tiles, Porcelanosa has amazing patterned tiles and Topps do one called Sculpt is a buff colour worth checking out.
LTS
6 years ago
Your kitchen sounds very similar to mine, we have a light grey shaker from DIY, light quartz worktop and the room is west facing too. We went with farrow and ball strong white on the walls (colour matched by Johnsons paint) and Karndean Opus Primo flooring. Really happy with it.
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Sorry to not get back before now, decorating myself! OK, so there is definitely a lady there and definitely doesn't want grey walls. With the added information that the curtains are claret with gold streaks, I would say - go for the gold then. Also if you have some pine furniture, this makes total sense. If you look at the photo I included (and sure you can google for others) the floor is golden and wall grey, so just reverse things, wall gold tone and carpet grey. You can get some test pots and try out against the curtains to see if picks up at slight gold, but still goes with the claret and grey. Only trying these out will tell you how light or dark or bright or muted gold to go. I would advise putting two coats on a large piece of paper at least A3 and then taping that to wall, this is better as done on white so shows the true colour tone, plus and you can move it around and even better, not have to paint it out afterwards! Try looking at these samples in different lights at different times of day, with lamps on only, overhead lights only etc. I think you have the basis for a really good scheme. I would agree with adding texture in cushions etc (at later stage) make you can take them back to store and keep tags on until you're absolutely sure, you really need to try stuff in situ to make sure it works in your setting. About white - looks fine in brightly lit spaces in full lighting, like well lit bathrooms and kitchens, not so good in pokey corners or rooms with any shadows at all. Can be very hard and cold, even clinical in many Northern European rooms, especially in winter!
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PRO
3D Art Factory Ltd
6 years ago
Concrete splashback

or

concrete tiles on the island

3D Art Factory
Lyse Edwards
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks for you input. We are definitely going oak effect porcelain tile floors as the back of the glass cabinets and wine wracks at also oak effect, and it will tie in with the rest of our house. I’m trying to decide on wall colours and wondering if the dining area (dark in photo as no lights or back door yet) or wall behind long run of cabinets could take a strong colour?
PRO
Period Property Store
6 years ago
Hi Lyse

Those units look great! Hopefully the below images will give you some inspo on floors and walls!

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