A Kitchen Lightens Up With Two-Tone Cabinets
Newly stained wood floors, cabinetry painted gray and a custom wine closet transform this California kitchen
Bryan Anthony
August 25, 2019
When searching Houzz for a designer who could turn their cherry-clad kitchen into a lighter space with a classic look, these young homeowners landed upon Miyuki Yamaguchi. “We shared images from our ideabooks, and our styles matched up so well,” Yamaguchi says. A plan quickly developed to paint the old cabinets, restain the floors and turn a former pantry into a wine closet to display the California couple’s growing collection of local Napa Valley wines.
Photos by David Duncan Livingston
Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with two young children
Location: Napa, California
Size: About 200 square feet (19 square meters)
Designer: Miyuki Yamaguchi Design Studio
Before: The former kitchen featured cherry floors and cabinets. The countertops and backsplash were a dark granite, and above the range was a stainless steel hood.
Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with two young children
Location: Napa, California
Size: About 200 square feet (19 square meters)
Designer: Miyuki Yamaguchi Design Studio
Before: The former kitchen featured cherry floors and cabinets. The countertops and backsplash were a dark granite, and above the range was a stainless steel hood.
After: The homeowners didn’t want an all-white kitchen, but painting all the cabinets gray would have felt too heavy for the space, Yamaguchi says, so she went with a two-tone color scheme. The lower cabinets are a light gray from Benjamin Moore called Galveston and the upper cabinets are painted in Swiss Coffee from Kelly-Moore. The wood floors were restained in a charcoal gray finish.
To create a more classic look for the space, the designer had a custom range hood built to cover the existing one. The countertops are now covered in marble-look quartz and the backsplash is a light gray subway tile laid in a herringbone pattern above the range. A new white porcelain farmhouse sink completes the scene.
Find an interior designer on Houzz
To create a more classic look for the space, the designer had a custom range hood built to cover the existing one. The countertops are now covered in marble-look quartz and the backsplash is a light gray subway tile laid in a herringbone pattern above the range. A new white porcelain farmhouse sink completes the scene.
Find an interior designer on Houzz
Before: The former kitchen included a pantry with white doors. The upper cabinets to the left of the dual built-in ovens featured seeded glass doors.
After: Yamaguchi transformed the pantry into a stylish wine closet that features wire mesh doors and interior lights to showcase the couple’s growing collection of local wine.
She replaced the former seeded glass doors on the upper cabinets with clear glass ones. “It’s a cleaner look that allows the homeowners to display their dish collection,” Yamaguchi says. A new built-in wine refrigerator provides additional bottle storage.
Shop for a wine refrigerator
She replaced the former seeded glass doors on the upper cabinets with clear glass ones. “It’s a cleaner look that allows the homeowners to display their dish collection,” Yamaguchi says. A new built-in wine refrigerator provides additional bottle storage.
Shop for a wine refrigerator
Before: The dining room off the kitchen also received an update. The former space included a window with blinds, a nondescript chandelier and framed art on a beige wall.
After: Yamaguchi painted the dining room walls in Benjamin Moore’s Pewter, a light gray that visually connects the adjacent kitchen. A new chandelier featuring weathered gray wood adds a rustic touch and a stainless steel sculpture on the wall adds some dimension.
The designer installed a curtain rod and sage green pleated drapes to make the room look more finished. “The curtain rod is oversized and the drapes are pulled all the way to the right to give the illusion that the window is larger than it is,” Yamaguchi says.
More on Houzz
6 Kitchen Makeovers That Benefited From Refaced Cabinets
A Two-Tone Cabinet Scheme Gives Your Kitchen the Best of Both Worlds
Look for an interior designer near you
Browse farmhouse-style chandeliers
The designer installed a curtain rod and sage green pleated drapes to make the room look more finished. “The curtain rod is oversized and the drapes are pulled all the way to the right to give the illusion that the window is larger than it is,” Yamaguchi says.
More on Houzz
6 Kitchen Makeovers That Benefited From Refaced Cabinets
A Two-Tone Cabinet Scheme Gives Your Kitchen the Best of Both Worlds
Look for an interior designer near you
Browse farmhouse-style chandeliers
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I like this entire renovation. I love that you made this look like an entirely different space with relatively little change. I never believed kitchen cabinets could be painted.....without looking like they’ve been painted.
Great before and after photos! These gray kitchen designs look very modern.
OK I see the new improved painted cabinets, but if I had a kitchen like the before photos, I'd be ecstatic. Painting over beautiful wood goes against my grain, pardon the pun, if you want painted cabinets, sell the wooden for a good price and buy a less expensive wood then you can paint it purple if you like. Painting over a beautiful wood grain is a horrid idea.