Anonymous
Post 09/11/2025 09:20     Subject: WWYD - custom cabinets wrong color
Paint industry rep here.

The softer contrast that you pictured above is easier on the eye. Overtime I think you will be happy with what you have.

Most people walking in your kitchen would not be able to tell the difference. 25% lighter is very subtle.
Anonymous
Post 09/11/2025 09:14     Subject: WWYD - custom cabinets wrong color
If they were installed properly, they should be taken down properly and sprayed or primed & sprayed again.
Anonymous
Post 09/10/2025 08:27     Subject: WWYD - custom cabinets wrong color
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP. We picked an off-white color for the (new) uppers, and a sage-type color for the (new) lowers. BUT we worried that the contrast between the off-the-shelf colors might not be quite strong enough. So after testing a ton of different samples (on our old cabinets -- which had white), we requested that the upper (off white) color be mixed at 75% formula -- so it would be 25% lighter than the off-the-shelf off-white. Just to be sure, we painted all our old cabinets our "new" colors and lived with them for a while.

The contractor made beautiful cabinets, and he painted them off-white (uppers) and sage (lowers). The disconnect is simply that he somehow didn't see or remember that we'd requested a 75% (25% lighter than standard) formula. So the contrast is softer, more subtle than I'd hoped.

The cabinets I linked to (which should show off-white uppers and gray-blue lowers) are not my colors! I only put them in to show what a "soft-contrast" two-tone looks like.


Now I understand. From what your description it sounds like there is a contrast but not as much as you want. I'm sorry and I'm sure it's frustrating because you worked on getting the colors just so. When I painted my house I also toyed with 25% lighter for my gray walls. I painted a few shades to see which one I liked. NOBODY except for me and my husband could actually tell the difference between the full color and 25% less. So at the end of the day, it didn't matter. I'm sure your kitchen will look lovely.


Yes, less contrast than I expected.
But this observation helps. Thank you!
I was definitely getting a little...ah...shall we say, hyperfastidious...about details during the sample-painting process. I had been trying so hard not to make an extremely expensive mistake. But you're right that others probably wouldn't even notice. Really appreciate this.


You’re welcome and good luck on the rest of your renovation!
Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 21:58     Subject: Re:WWYD - custom cabinets wrong color
No tips, but having gone through a reno I understand the frustration when the details aren’t executed correctly. We’re about 6 months past when the project finished, and I have noticed that most of the minor mistakes don’t bother me anymore. I think the anxiety about the process manifests in these details- like I couldn’t stop thinking about the sconce being two inches too high or whatever and now I have let it go.
Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 21:39     Subject: WWYD - custom cabinets wrong color
Anonymous wrote:Will you notice 25% lighter in a few months? If not, can you wait longer for the cabinets to be redone?

Personally I would not notice or care in a couple of months even though it would feel like a big deal today.


THIS. I can’t tell you how many things I thought I couldn’t live with and never noticed again. I hung wallpaper in my laundry room and the pattern was a smidge off and thought I would notice it every time I went into the room, and it was drive me crazy. After a week it never even occured to me; in fact, I probably couldn’t even find the misalignment now!
Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 21:20     Subject: WWYD - custom cabinets wrong color
Ugh. No advice for you but I sympathize. Details like that make all the difference and a lot of people just don’t have the eye to know.
Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 21:14     Subject: WWYD - custom cabinets wrong color
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Well, they’re not the wrong color, exactly. They’re the right color, but they were supposed to be 25% lighter. Instead they’re just the off-the-shelf shade.

We were clear in writing in multiple places, and there was never a communication with that color that didn’t also include the phrase “25% lighter. (Color was not in the contract). The contractor just didn’t read some things closely, and definitely didn’t read other things at all.

We worked really hard to get the exact right color, undertone, etc for our precise light and space and other elements. Contractor (independent, solo) also worked really hard and in all other ways did a great job.

It’s such a stupid a first world problem, and they are otherwise beautiful, and I feel like a whiny little B saying, “well, they’re alllllmost right, but they’re just a smidge too dark.” (But to my eyes they *are* just a smidge too dark.)

WWYD? Even if I asked for something, what would it be? They were sprayed in the workshop, and now they’re in place.


They can not be the "right color" and be 25% lighter that is not a thing. Either they are the right color or they are not.

If your contract does not explicitly show what color then you are stuck otherwise this is a no brainer the cabinets go back.


Yeah, if no color was specified, then what was the 25% lighter even referring to? Lighter than what? If what they sent was the off the shelf color, did you actually pay for a custom color or not?

FWIW, I sent three doors back because of the way the grain took/didn't take the color -- made them not match the rest of the cabinets. For what we were paying, they needed to do better QC.