I don't think it matters. Mix em match em. They should be complementary styles certainly. I'd do something bright and cheerful in the laundry room.

I'll be a total PITA and ask why not fuse some of these rooms? Do you need two kitchens right next to each other? Wouldn't it be more pleasant to work in one large kitchen instead of spreading tasks between two? (Disregard if you have full-time servants.)

You aren't really building with a "ventless" hood fan are you?

Fori,

Thanks for the response. You can’t be a PITA when people ask for input.

The butler’s pantry is a space we wanted to use for a large pantry as we live in an rural area and have to plan trips to the grocery store for weeks of food instead of days. So, double fridge, freezer, etc. appliances aren’t shown on this version. We also entertain a bit and want an “dirty area” for this.

The ventless hood was put in there for show purposes, as this isn’t the final plan. Our home now is ventless and doesn’t really do a good job of removing cooking odors.

As far as the cabinets go, we’re not designers but want things to flow.

I would like all the millwork and cabinetry to match.

There are so many other opportunities to add interest and color.

None of it is really open to each other. It’s all quite closed off. Our mud room is all white. Kitchen is white and grey. We don’t have a pantry but we have storage in mud room for pantry things. What does the rest of the plan look like?

For consideration; the use of NSF wire shelving in the pantry (as opposed to large expanses of cabinets), an actual "utility tub" in the mudroom and a floor drain, and don't have the kitchen sink directly opposite the range.

Hi Jay, what did you decide on? I have the same question (butler’s pantry cabinet color to match island cabinet color or perimeter cabinet color). Would love to know what you ended up doing and maybe see a pic!

We haven’t made our decision yet, but we are not matching the kitchen cabinets. Depending on the island, we may match it or do something different. I know this doesn’t really answer your question, but we haven’t crossed that bridge yet.

I am having the same dilemma. We have off white kitchen cabinetry, white oak island, white quartz with subtle gray veining and I'm thinking for the butler pantry doing black cabinetry. I think keeping the same counter tops and hardware would make the space cohesive but cannot decide! I'll be interested to hear what you guys end up going with. Our cabinets are being fabricated this month so I need to make up my mind!

Hi Megan,

We haven't built the cabinets yet, but we decided to keep the hard surfaces and hardware the same, but make the cabinets in the butler's pantry match the island to offer some variation, but not randomness. We're unsure if this is right or wrong, but it's what we've decided to do! We'll keep our fingers crossed it turns out "instagram perfect" (just kidding)

Good luck with your process.

Hi Megan, we are going to do a similar thing as Jay just described. White/off-white perimeter cabinetry, dark island cabinetry same as in butler's pantry, and the same countertop and hardware throughout. Fingers crossed here as well!

I’d love to know what you did, also Megan. We are building a new house with a butler kitchen directly behind the main kitchen. There are openings on each side of the main kitchen that goes into the butler kitchen. My white oak island in the main kitchen will be stained a medium brown with the other cabinets in the kitchen being a warm off white. We using white marble with gray/brown veining countertops and backsplash. Since you can see the Butler Pantry cabinets from the kitchen, we’re thinking of painting the cabinets in there a much deeper shade of the kitchen cabinets. I’m not fully committed yet. The other choice would be to keep it all the same. I’d also love see a picture of yours.

I’m not sure if you want to hear from me or someone who knows what they’re doing, but I’ll throw my 2 cents in the mix :).

We decided to do upper/lower warm off white cabinets in the kitchen. White oak island. The butler’s pantry is going to have colorful cabinets with matching white oak accents. Matching hardware throughout. We are going to add pops of the butlers pantry color throughout the house to tie it together.

Jay - What color are you using in the butler’s pantry? I do plan to use matching hardware throughout.

We did colorful Ikea in the pantry and love them. Five years in and durability is incredible.

Farrow and Ball Cromarty is the plan.

Can your butler pantry be seen from your kitchen? Green is a color that I have considered. My cabinets will all be alike.

This may be a good opportunity to reinitiate the 'saloon doors' trend at both doorways to the pantry.

@vswilliams - yes. You can see it from the kitchen and dining room through a door less opening

If the cabinets are in the same room, or visible together, I'd always make them matching. If not, it's personal choice.

Jay Owen - We went with off-white cabinets in the kitchen and with the island. In our BP/mud room/bar area, we went with a wood stain. Yes, you can see them from the kitchen. We also have a walk-in pantry off of the mud room area. It has white painted shelves to match the trim work in the house. You can get a peek into the mud room bar from this phot

From this angle, you get a glimpse of the walk-in pantry

Door on other side of mud room goes to garage.

Butler's Pantry/bar

Pantry

Very nice! I like your stained cabinets. They definitely stand on their own. Another question - I have a pocket doors going into the butler pantry and a pocket door going into the regular pantry. Does your pocket door to the pantry stay open most of the time? That is what I think will happen with us. One reason I’m asking is because I’ve considered a more expensive door with glass in it. If it is going to stay open, why spend the money is my thought.

vswilliams - I am not sure if you are asking me questions about the pocket doors in the pantry, or asking mojomom. My pocket doors do stay open most of the time, because I keep the dog food and water in there. If we have guest, I close the doors, but DH ends up opening them back up because he keeps beer in the 2nd fridge.

Hi all! It’s been awhile and we’ve moved in. The mixed woods in my kitchen and butlers pantry came out great in my opinion. We need a natural wood island and hood, white cabinetry and a black cabinet in the butter pantry. We also did black cabinets in various bathrooms and the mudroom. They’re probably my favorite! So gorgeous and moody.

Love the black!

Thanks! Me too

Love the view!

Thank you! I still have a lot of decorating to do to cover these white walls, but we just had twins 🫠

What are the colors of the mudroom cabinets if you don’t mind me asking? They are beautiful!

Thank you!! It’s my favorite color for sure and I regret not doing more of it. It’s called Tricorn Black by Sherwin Williams.

We also used it in the media room.

We should had this backsplash installed. I really love the way it came out! Before & After pics

I think we are using a very similar tile in the bar/beverage area of the kitchen. I love the shine of the tiles. Your cabinet color looks great with the stainless appliances and hardware.

I'd probably coordinate the cabinets for the kitchen and pantry, and do something different for the laundry room, but that still works with the other selections. Feel free to use wallpaper in the laundry/mudroom for a bit of pizazz. Some inspiration photos:

Arch House · More Info

Kitchen and butler's pantry · More Info

La Finca · More Info

Twin Hollows · More Info

Sabrina she posted the finished kitchen and pantry. :)

Beautiful kitchen Megan.

Ha! That’s what I get for (a) not reading all the comments and (b) not checking the date of the post

Sabrina - thanks for the inspiration.

Thanks guys! And thanks for the inspiration Sabrina! It’s a work in progress :)

Ha! That’s what I get for (a) not reading all the comments and (b) not checking the date of the post

I refuse to tell you how many times I've done the same thing! ;)

This is where personal preference becomes a significant decision-maker. If you want a very neutral backdrop for your home, opt for matching mudroom and butler pantry cabinetry. However, we are seeing more and more color and contrast in recent design trends, so if you have any inclination towards a bolder pallet, mudrooms and butler pantries are great places to try that out. Because they are relatively out of site, you can play around with color or boldness in a way you may not want to in your kitchen. We’ve designed mudrooms and butler pantries that stand out as their own spaces because they have a complimentary (but not the exact same) color palette as the rest of the home. Here are some examples:

I agree completely. I love the moody colors and natural wood tones, but aren’t design savvy enough to make that work in a kitchen, but could probably get away with it in a butler’s pantry/mudroom.

Nice work!