How to make a natural cherry kitchen more contemporary
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Anonymous
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We bought a home with a really nice large and well laid out kitchen that I love. The kitchen has beautiful natural cherry cabinetry with a simple shaker style. While they look beautiful, they don’t really go with the rest of our design aesthetic which is more modern, cooler toned palette. I love wood but more of a walnut color and the natural cherry (while thankfully not that horrible red cherry) is still quite orange-ey. The Pioneer Woman kitchen is a good comparable.
What would you do to make the kitchen look more modern and less prairie without replacing the cabinetry? I’m leaning towards having them professionally painted in a low sheen paint two toned with black lowers and white uppers, modern hardware, update the backsplash and counters some kind of white stone. Or should I leave them natural cherry and just redo the countertop, backsplash and hardware to be more contemporary? But I don’t know what color palette to do if I go this route. It does pain me to have such pretty wood painted. |
Anonymous
| Could you stain them a darker color? I don’t know if the red will still come through, but I think you could still get a modern look without painting. |
Anonymous
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Please don’t paint those cabinets!
Mixing in white would make it look more modern. 
http://europeankitchendesign.com/natural-cherry-contemporary-style-kitchen/ |
Anonymous
This. It feels like sacrilege to paint solid cherry cabinets!! I think white counters with squared edges might make a difference. Maybe also a more modern backsplash? Another thing that can make a huge difference is hardware. We have shaker style cherry cabinets (that we had installed), and I suspect my tastes are more traditional than yours, but we have more modern looking hardware...and it really does make a difference to the overall aesthetic. |
Anonymous
| I'd paint. |
Anonymous
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We did New counters, backsplash and appliances in kitchen with honey oak (knowing we were only going to be in the house a few years) and I get compliments on it all the time.
High contrast with the counters and blend the two with a backsplash. Pick hardware that’s your natural style. |
Anonymous
| I like wood tones, but they’re not exactly a natural color of the wood. Paint is no different. |
Anonymous
| It doesn’t sound like this is a warm vs cool thing, it just sounds like you want a 2015 kitchen instead of a 2005 kitchen. |
Anonymous
| Just don’t paint them. Please. |
Anonymous
Well it’s really that we don’t want to redo a kitchen that’s already very functional and has newer high end cabinets. That seems really wasteful so we just want to blend it more with the style we have in the rest of the house and our furniture/decor. Thanks for everyone else’s suggestions! I like the idea of white square countertops, modern hardware and a backsplash to blend it all. |
Anonymous
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I'd look at painting, though I'm not a fan of upper/lower two tone.
You could look into resurfacing but it's more $$. |
Anonymous
I hadn’t thought of that…. Thanks! |
Anonymous
Strongly advise against this. You'd have to have the entire finish stripped first. The labor costs will be staggering. People might suggest gel stain (doesn't require stripping) but it'll be terrible for cabinets and it looks fake. Definitely test anything you try on a small sample first. |
Anonymous
| Definitely agree changing countertops hardware and backsplash is the way to go. Painting cabinets ends up either not looking right or chipping within a short period of time. |
Anonymous
| Paint them and don’t look back. What good is “beautiful” wood in your house if it’s not beautiful to you? |