I use dimmers in all kitchens I design and the lighting is rarely at full power.

I'm a painted cabinet person.

My expanse of color isn't white, but Duron's 'Rugged Trail' which absolutely mesmerizes me.
I've talked about how my bases get direct sunlight where the uppers do not, and the same paint takes on a turquoise (ick) color on the bottom. The bases are going to become BM's 'Gettysburg Gray'.

That's one effect.

I just picked up 8 cabinets at the Community Forklift that are painted "ice white" according to the tags on the back. But 21 years later, I think they've yellowed. However, although I've never cared about a white sink, this softer white is really pretty and I'm considering the credenza I'm building in that color. The softer color will blend with the other colors, whereas a true white will not.

I, too, have dimmers all over the place.
I love the lack of visual clutter the expanse of color -- or white -- offers.

Christine

As Pal said, dimmer solve a lot of "blindingly white" issues.

The bigger problem with white cabinetry is in open concept designs where people want white cabinets but fail to take into account that white IS a color and you can not overload one area of the very large room with a single color and have the room look balanced. If you choose white cabinets, you have to use white as a color elsewhere in the open plan.

That goes for even homes where the kitchen is in a room by itself. If the kitchen is to look like it is actually a part of the rest of the house, white must also feature prominently in the rest of the house. That can get to be overwhelming or frustrating if not done with a good eye.

I get direct sun in the morning and lots of indirect, reflected daylight until nightfall. None of that ever gets dimmed. At night, despite all the wonderful new lighting I've added to my kitchen, I like very low lights.

So, in bright or dimmed conditions, what I'm really after is how (if at all) is the white affected by the quantity of itself? Brighter? Tamer? Something else?

LWO, I see what you're saying. My kitchen is part of a larger open living space, but it's around the corner, so only parts of it are visible. All my walls are an antique white, so there's that. It is, however, making me consider the slightly darker of the two cabinet whites to be more blend-y.

We used SW Dover White. The kitchen gets relatively little direct natural light, despite windows on one wall, as it faces east and toward a wooded hill that rises behind our house. The white warms and lights the room. I wouldn't say the white changes because there is more of itself. The green from the woods outside changes it somewhat in some seasons. Hope that helps.

I have pretty much all the rooms in my house painte Sherwin Williams Dover white. I can second the fact that it is not a blinding white, but rather a soft white, very slightly warm.

In terms of paint color, I would say I go more muted to lessen contrast. (White looks whitest against black, for example) In terms of light control in the daytime I use solar roller shades that still allow the view.

Thanks everyone. I think going more muted is the answer I was looking for. BTW, Dover White is a beautiful shade, a bit too yellow in my space unfortunately.

As a percentage of available wall space, we packed a lot of cabinets into our recent kitchen reno.
Our cabinets are BM Gardenia, a very warm white.
Our kitchen gets direct light for only 2 or 3 hours late in the afternoon and indirect light the rest of the day.
We have dark grey slate floors and black appliances, so that may mitigate the effects you're referring to.
Additionally, we painted what little wall space that was left with a medium grey/blue.
The rest of the house is BM China white.
I must say that I don't think that the cabinet color became more intensified or more muted as a result of the volume of cabinets.
But again, it may be the result of the dark floor, appliances and wall color.
I'm attaching a link to our finished kitchen.
HTH

Here is a link that might be useful: Finished Black & White Kitchen

I have "white cabinets" in my new kitchen...LOVE them...I used Pratt&Lambert Silver Lining...it is a great creamy white that isn't yellow. I have been using it for years. I also have wood floors (stained a Medium Brown) and an island that has a butcher block (walnut) top. I thinks these two elements help to balance the white. It seems to work...
HTH
Capegirl

Well, my second thought when I saw my cabs at delivery was "whoa....that's a lotta white!" My first thought was about how gorgeous they looked. Now that they're in, it does seem still as a lot of white. Sorry, I don't have anything more profound than that. They are white, and I love them. It's I've wanted for many, many years.

breezygirl, if you love 'em, then a lotta white is a lotta love.

I've decided to go with Cloud White. It was a toss-up really, but CW has my number.

We went with Cloud White on our cabinets (we went with MDF doors vs maple even at the same price as you don't get the shrinking/cracking on the doors that you will get on maple).

White cabinets, white marble counters, white marble backsplash, Cloud White on the wood trim, Cloud White on the walls.

Yep - everything is white. 10 x 50w halogen recessed lights and 19 warm-white LED pucks, all dimmable.

We have a small 1920's 15 foot wide, 40 foot long house. 9 foot ceilings, and the kitchen is 10 x 15 feet. We have some exposed brick on the main floor off the kitchen, but aside from that we painted out the entire main floor in Cloud White, walls and trim.

Makes the whole space feel bigger and brighter. I treat the walls as background for our artwork, decorative items etc. Think of the walls in an art gallery - white.

TorontoTim, I love all that Cloud White. I'm relieved to have finally picked my white, for better or for worse. It's time to move forward. Love your layers of light. Beautiful kitchen.

I also LOVE BM Cloud White.

When I've done white in a kitchen, I didn't want bright white-white, and found that even though I chose the 'darker whites,' the last on a strip or the first on another, they didn't come off dingy or anything but soft white. They showed lighter than the sample looked on the card. We used BM Lancaster White on certain cabinets in our house, which is creamy, so probably not what you want, and in my in-laws' house remodel, where all the cabinets would be that color, I chose SW Natural Choice which didn't look too white on the chip, but looked pretty white on the cabinets. It matched Biscuit White ceramic tiles, which look just white.

CEFreeman... We just painted the exterior and front edges of a 6 ft wide and 9 ft tall bookshelf BM Gettysburg Gray to match our dining room walls for a tone on tone thing. I think bases that color in a kitchen will be gorgeous. DH came home every night after painting, raving at what a great 'architectural type of color' it is.

Tim, that is lovely marble! What do they call that edge?

Beautiful redo!

Light reflectance value is a curious thing. I decided against BM White Dove because it reads a hair more gray and drab in my kitchen than Cloud White. Yet, WD has an LRV of 90 and CW is 87.1. It's not much, but I'd have guessed it was the other way around. Guess it just comes down to the eye of the beholder.

I still have difficulty getting over the paint thing that happened to us.

I started off with two colors - walls and trim. One from FPE - a light tan-gray brown (leftover from when they did martha stewart paints) and Dimity from Farrow and Ball. They looked good together - light brown-gray trim and soft white walls. I bought a tester of the light tan-brown to make sure the trim would work and did up a sample piece that I carried around to pick out other things. I bought enough Dimity to give the kitchen two coats (mail order).

By the time the kitchen was ready to paint, the soft white turned flesh toned peach and the light, sophisticated gray-brown looked like mud. Strangely, you can walk a sample of the mud in from the back deck where it looks like a light creamy brown-gray and watch it turn into mud in two steps.

We used up the mud on the trim in the adjoining bathroom - it sorta goes with the grout color. And its not a bad color as long as you aren't expecting it look differently.

With a few false starts and dozens of white chips, the kitchen became Behr heavy cream (mixed in BM) and F&P Pavillion gray color - done up by Fine Paints of Europe cause we have a local dealer. Pavillion gray was our second choice after BM Satin Impervo (water based) just never set correctly. In the kitchen, Pavillion gray reads as a medium strength neutral gray. Behr's Heavy cream looks exactly like Guernsey cream.

Being thrifty, when I got to painting my office (converted small bedroom), I recycled the F&B Dimity - thinking I'd pick out trim after it was up. Same house, different room and it reads as a light, ethereal white, warm but not yellow. I put the left over Pavillion Gray on the trim and it's a light porcelain-feeling gray. It's the look I picked out for the kitchen, but the kitchen looked anything but good wearing the same colors. Every day, I try to figure out why.

The kitchen is flooded with daylight while my office gets no direct light, but a fair amount of reflected light. Both floors are fairly red. Perhaps the light is actually a different color in the rooms.

bmorepanic, paint color sure is a funny thing. In my kitchen something warm is coming through the east-facing window, even later in the day when the sun's on the other side of the house. I think it's the light reflecting off the (too-close) neighbor's house on that side. It's totally out of my control, but thankfully their house isn't painted lime green, yet.

I find this topic interesting as we recently did some custom white painted cabinets. While we picked a BM Simply White our cabinet maker would not use the BM product as he felt it did not have the quality hardening of industrial enamel. Thus, he color matched. For one, we don't belive the color matched to the original sample. We are being told that White on a painted sample from a can with a satin finish will not match the hardened enamel finish from a light spray cabinet coat. For that matter, the same color from a flat to gloss will always cast different. "Ok" fine. Let's assume this to be the case, have you ever found that as your room refelcts and casts light differently that cabinets along turns can take on different hues as if they came from different lots of white? Our home reno is still not complete. Drywall has just a prime, flrs are not yet sanded and finished. I am sure the colors will continue to adjust as layers are completed. However, that aside it seems that the walls themselves cast differently even between the countertop and the upeer cabinet. For us, this is most noticeable on one upper as it approaches a corner cabinet. After the corner there is a run of cabs with a painted hood. They remain a constant in any lighting. However, and w/o fail the one lone cabinet that sits at a 90 degree from those alway reflects like a different white. Just wondering if anyone else has experineced a similar phenomna or how pronounced. If you were to take the cabinets off the wall and stand them side by side they match perfect. Tx!!!

shalago, yep, I know exactly what you mean. My living room, dining room and kitchen have the same wall and ceiling color (SW Antique White). At various times during the day the vaulted ceiling will look darker or lighter than the walls. I actually like it, because it gives the space so much more dimension.

As for kitchen cabs, they are by turns white, creamy, greenish, yellowy as the light changes during the day. The walls, cabs and backsplash are different shades but can look exactly the same...not what I intended, but it's how the light plays. I decided to surrender to the quirks of light and color.

I don't want an all-white kitchen, but I do want white painted cabinets. I'm leaning to the "buttermilk" color of Caesarstone. I don't know that color I'll pick for the walls, but it won't be white. I thinking these choices will prevent an overpowering white look to the kitchen...we shall see.

You can scroll a couple of pages and fine my finished kitchen thread (which got a lot of replies) to see how mine turned out in an open space with additional white in the adjoining rooms. I love it.

I think it's about what you want and about how it's executed. I agree that the white is a color and needs to be treated as one. Ours isn't blinding yet not creamy either. I wouldn't do a single thing differently.

My kitchen isn't all white, with one wall of colored cabinets, a cherry island and cherry hutch in the adjoining breakfast area, but the perimeter cabinets are white, white marble counters and white subways (with liners). It has never felt sterile or blinding to me. The previous cabinets were site built custom painted in an oil base white and had yellowed a lot. I never wanted to see that oil yellow again.

Bmore -- I got the same paint color from BM in two different finishes -- just slightly different to accommodate other finishes in 2 adjoining rooms. They are not at all the same color, so now I have to repaint all of it, and I'm not sure which way we will go. Got put on hold while we do some other projects. So annoying.

I am having a hard time between cloud white and white dove. Nevermind the fact that BM also has a white cloud, but that reads as peachy to me.

I want a white that reads as White but is not a stark, cold white When I look at both of them they seem to have a gray cast, but then when I see kitchen's on GW that are either color I love them and I do not see gray at all. My island counters will be walnut and we are most likely using a Soapstone (preferably a black with some veining but not a green cast) on the perimeter. Our room will have a fair amount of natural light but not blinding. We have a 6 foot window over the sink and two other large windows in the adjacent eating area Any advice?

I also stopped in at Sherwin Williams, bad idea to add more choices to the mix, and found a color called snowbound. Anyone have any input or experience with this color?

Hey p.ball2. I have Cloud White uppers and lowers and I don't get a gray cast. They are definitely creamy. If you want something a little whiter, have you considered BM Simply White? It's similar to Cloud White, but a little brighter.

I originally had 4 different cabinet color finalists. I realized I was comparing them to one another rather than just considering one at a time in my own kitchen with the light available. That way they stopped being yellower-than, grayer-than, etc. and I could see if I simply liked what I saw.

I think the gray you see in Cloud White and White Dove (esp. WD) is what is softening the yellow component. I can't recommend enough painting something large *in the finish you intend to have* and living with it in your space. Leave it where it is for a full day, then move it to a different location. Sneak up on it...suddenly turn around and see how it makes you feel.

When I walked in the kitchen after getting home from work the day of the cabinet install, all I could think of was that it was a sea of white. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was a lot of white! So much so that I did a 360 and changed my countertops. I do have a maple colored island with a glaze. If I had the option to change, I think I'd change the island to a painted grey. It's ok though, it goes with the wood flooring and the dining table.

Linelle- I have been comparing them to each other! Good idea. I also have simply white on my short list but Cloud white and White dove are top contenders. I agree that simply white is purer white and brighter.

As for the too white problem that started this thread. It depends on your other finishes. I believe that wood floors warm up the space as would a wood counter. IF you were to have stark white cabinets with a light tile floor and white marble throughout it might become overwhelming- at least to me.
I think Katieob's new kitchen is a great example of a white kitchen that to me seems very warm and inviting. She does have marble counters but with the wood floors and wood counter top the effect is muted.

p.ball2, I think you'll find it helps to give each color a chance to audition on its own in your space. If you like it, it just doesn't matter how it's different from other colors. Sounds like you've already done your homework and have narrowed down your choices well.

We're doing white cabinets in the kitchen, but because it's a beach house the walls and trim are also white because we wanted that light, airy look all over the house. When the cabinets first went in, it seemed like a lot of white, especially because the floors are covered which are a very warm, honey color.

It made a big difference when the countertops went in. They are a dark, dark gray granite that kind of looks like soapstone. I never thought I'd pick something like that - didn't even know there was such a thing as a OTK. Now that they're in, I understand why so many white cabinet kitchens have dark countertops. They really ground the space, and absorb a fair amount of light. Mine are honed so they're probably even more of a light absorber.

If I had light countertops, I definitely would have wanted some kind of color on the walls other than white.

Can I throw another white in the mix? We did out cabinets in BM Timid White. Take a look:

Even in this picture you can see the difference in shades on the island and the other cabinets and they are ALL BM Timid White. Go figure...

All the trim is Simply White and our ceiling is BM Halo. I like all of them and especially all in the same space. It gives the room quite a bit of dimension and it's a play on tone on tone.