Ask the Designer
Each week we take a design question from our email subscribers or Facebook group members to answer here with Ask The Designer. Heather Mastrangeli is an NCIDQ Certified designer with 20+ years of experience and is ready to help you with your design questions.
Community Submitted Question:
Group Member Megan Asks: “Should we match cabinets to the floors or have contrast? Help!”
Heather’s Solution:
Contrast, contrast, contrast! This is an area where I see so many homeowners make mistakes. There’s a perception that all wood in a space, or at least major wood elements need to match. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Wood has natural variation in tone and texture. There are lights and darks within almost any piece of wood. The best way to select cabinet and flooring wood tones is to first identify which has more variation in it, the floor or the cabinet. Usually it’s the flooring like in your example here.
To select your cabinet color, choose a stain that’s close to either the brighter/lighter parts of the wood, or select a stain that’s closest to the darkest part of the flooring. This will create unity and balance in your kitchen.
We designed this kitchen by complementing the wood tones with the flooring.
